How to use Trading View

In this article i’m going to explain how to paper trade on Trading View. I’m going to talk about some specific methods you can use which are extremely helpful when you are learning to be a stock market trader. These methods will mean literally zero risk for your portfolio. I will also explain some of the differences which can catch new traders out, once they trade in the live markets and find it feels different to paper trading. Let’s jump straight into it!

First of all, what is paper trading?

In order to understand how to paper trade on Trading View, it’s a good idea to get a firm foundation on what paper trading is, how it is used, its benefits and drawbacks.

Paper trading is used to test a strategy or idea for making money in the stock markets without risk to your funds. You can place ‘paper’ trades, meaning you are not using real money on the trades and then monitor whether they would have been a win or loss. You can accumulate this knowledge by applying the set up rules of your entry and exit points, over and over, to see whether, in the long term, the plan will end up making money. There are different ways to paper trade. It’s referred to as paper trading because some people literally have a note book and note down their planned entry points, and exit points, monitor the price and see whether it goes to target or their proposed stop loss position.

Another way to paper trade, and perhaps an easier way, is to use chart software, such as Trading View.

How to Paper Trade on Trading View

One way of learning how to paper trade on Trading View, is to use the alerts feature and the trade planning tool. Allow me to demonstrate how to paper trade on trading view, using this method… Let’s take the S&P 500 chart in Trading view, on the daily timeframe, as an example:

Let’s say your plan is to get into this market when the price dips down on a pull back in an uptrend, and then take profit when it reaches previous highs. I’ve marked on the screen shot above, an example of this. Now, let me show you the trade planning tool which you could use at the point you are planning your trade:

You can go to the menu on the left and pick ‘long’ position. This will bring up a little diagram on the chart where you can change its parameters to plan the entry point, take profit and stop loss. I’ve moved the chart across so that we can only see what we would see had we been planning this trade before it reached previous highs. This is what the diagram looks like on the chart:

I’ve used the Trading View ‘replay’ tool to take the chart back to the entry position. I will explain the replay tool in a subsequent blog post, so watch out for this. As you can see, i’ve added the trade planning diagram for a long position, to this chart. The middle section where the red meets the green, is where the entry would be according to this type of plan. You would probably want to put a stop below the previous low of the trend, and this is where the red section extends to underneath the entry position. We said this would be a strategy where we take profit at the previous high, so this is where the green section extends to.

Now, what makes Trading View amazing for paper trading, is that you can set alerts at those levels marked with the diagram, as follows:

I can’t show you the alert being set in replay mode – it has to be done in the live market. So I right clicked at the top of the green section, and as you can see, it has a + sign with a clock, to set an alert on the chart at the price of 4,794. Once you go to set this alert, you can tell it to email you or notify you via push notifications:

You can see i’ve set alerts in the app, via email and it will ping me with a sound when the price crosses 4,794.5.

This is just one very helpful way of planning paper trades using Trading View. There is another way, however.

Trading View Paper Trading Tool

Another way to learn how to paper trade on Trading View, is to use the paper trading tool which is built into the platform. Trading View has got, built into it, a ‘paper trading’ module, accessible at the top right, when you click on Trade. It will bring up a brokers list, and you can either log into your broker account or use the Trading View module, highlighted below.

This feature is amazing. It basically records everything in your paper trading for you – like real trades. It will keep a record of your balance and whether it’s growing or not after each trade:

It records the history of what has happened in the log below the chart. It shows you open ‘paper positions’ and to get into these, you simply log into paper trading via Trading View, and go to ‘buy’ and the software will execute a ‘paper’ trade for you and it will be sitting in your trade log of open positions. I believe it gives you about 100,000 to spend as starting capital. You can see i’ve got an account balance of 101,232.86 above.

I hope this helped you to understand how to paper trade on Trading View.

If you would like to see my You Tube video on paper trading, please see the linked video, below:

Disclaimer!

Nothing on this blog should be taken as financial advice or encouragement for you to enter a trade.  You are expected to speak to a financial adviser or carry out your own due diligence before entering any positions.  Everything on this blog is made for educational purposes and to equip you with the knowledge you need to be able to make your own financial decisions.

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://www.sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/sophiatrades

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.

In this article I’m going to talk about how to sort your watchlists in Trading View. The platform is highly intuitive and I find it an invaluable resource when filtering markets and finding stocks and commodities to trade. Please read on if you would like to know more and receive a discount on the Trading View platform!

How to sort your watchlists in Trading View

Let’s jump right into how to sort your watchlists in Trading View. I’ve been using the platform Trading View for a number of years. The platform is highly intuitive – you can right click for most things and find the option you want! Let’s take a closer look at how to sort your watchlists in Trading View!

Firstly, where is the watchlist? There is a little icon which looks like a bookmark at the top right hand corner of the screen, here:

Once you click on this, it will give you your watchlist. If there are no items on your list, you can start adding them by clicking on the ‘+’ icon here:

You can see, I have renamed my watchlist above as ‘MACD Capital.com’. In order to rename your watchlist, simply click on the drop down list next to the list and it will give you a number of options, including ‘rename’:

When you go to add markets to your watchlist with the ‘+’ icon, you will see the following screen:

The platform defaults to applying a filter for markets listed on Trading View with your own broker (the broker you have logged into the platform with). You can see above, that for me, it has automatically filtered the markets by the ones I can trade through Capital.com. You can remove this filter to see all markets, however.

You can search for markets in the search box and the search is highly intuitive. Searching for ‘Gold’ will give you all markets with ‘Gold’ in the name description. This may sound obvious but I have experienced frustration with other broker accounts (for example, Pepperstone) where you search for a market using ‘Gold’ and nothing comes up! YOu need to know the specific symbol (XAUUSD I believe but don’t quote me on that!).

To add a market to your own watchlist, click the ‘+’ next to the listed item and it will be added to the bottom of your watchlist.

Sorting items in your watchlist in Trading View

There are some really nice features you can use to sort and organise your own watchlists in trading view (and you can have multiple ones). For example, you can drag the markets into the right position using your mouse. You can right click and add subheadings which can then be collapsed or expanded. You can also add coloured flags to particular markets. Please see below screen shot for examples:

To create more than one watchlist in Trading View

You can create multiple watchlists in Trading View and rename them as you wish. Just go to the drop down menu next to your currently viewed list and you will see a ‘create new list’ option there.

Please also see the video tour on our You Tube channel here which you may also find helpful:

How to sort your watchlists in Trading View

I hope you found this article helpful.

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/Traderpro8320

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.

In this article i’m going to talk about my experience of using Trading View as the best trading platform. I have been with this trading platform for a number of years and use the platform to execute all my entries, control my stop losses and analyse the markets. I will outline below the pros and cons of Trading View and my overall verdict on using the platform. I hope you find the article useful.

Best Trading Platform – What is Trading View?

Trading View is a platform which enables you to look at several different types of stock, commodity and other types of charts online. In terms of trading platforms, I have chosen to use and review Trading View as THE BEST trading platform. It can be logged into on the internet from anywhere, via a computer or a tablet or phone. Several different trading brokers are signed up to partner with Trading View meaning you are also able to see your open positions on the platform and move your stop loss if required on the charts.

The platform is fully customisable. It can be viewed in dark or light mode, the colours for the indicators are changable. You can arrange the components on the screen according to your preference, in a very flexible way.

Trading View customisation

The platform can be changed from light to dark mode. Here are some screen shots of how this might look for you by changing these settings:

The moving average indicators can be changed in length and colour. The technical indicators can be repositioned vertically on the chart and swapped around. The platform has just about every type of indicator you can think of available for use. It has everything available to the user that anyone could expect in terms of a best trading platform.

What I absolutely love about Trading View is the ease of use of its watch list. You can add a lot of markets to your watch lists, separate them with customisable headings, give them different coloured flags. The number of things you can do to customise your watchlist in Trading View is endless and I do personally find this feature extremely useful. I’ve copied a snippet below from my own watchlist – these markets are marked as ones in respect of which I am waiting on a MACD cross over. I’ve applied different coloured flags for added filtering/analysis:

As well as the view of the charts being fully customisable and the indicators, you can also customise the alerts – for example, by setting the platform to email you when your chosen situation occurs on the chart. You can choose the type of alert – whether it alerts you once each time the situation happens, or it continues to. Example – should it tell you only once that the MACD and Signal lines have crossed each other? Or once per minute? Or once per bar close? What form should the alert take? Should it play a sound, email you? Should the alert expire after one day, one week?

Trading View – options for connecting a broker account

There are multiple options with Trading View for connecting a broker account. I have several accounts and they are all connected to Trading View. You can easily switch between them on the chart. I find this extremely useful. Most reputable trading brokers are available in a list for connecting, and their review status is given to you so you can see the better performing ones, if you would like to sign up to a new broker.

Best Trading Platform – Using the platform in a practical sense

I have been finding the platform really easy to use and personally, would never move away from using Trading View. It is extremely intuitive. For example, if you want to move your stop loss as a position moves into profit, you can just grab it on the screen and move it with your mouse or phone. You can right click on the chart and find the option you need for most situations.

When you want to add more items to your Trading View watchlist, you can go into the Trading View drive and filter markets based on your own broker.

Trading View – Best Trading Platform – Final Verdict

I absolutely love Trading View. I will never move away from using it. You can see from my You Tube channel and blog articles that I’ve been using it for a number of years for all of my own trading positions and I have found it an invaluable resource in my trading journey.

For more great tips and advice on trading the stock market, please visit:

https://sophiatrades.co.uk

To watch me trade live please visit my patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/Traderpro8320

Finally, if you would like to receive a discount on the Trading View charting software I use, please click on the relevant link here:

https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117138

Please note any subscriptions taken via my affiliate link with Trading View may result in me earning a small commission.  However, I provide complete transparency on me using Trading View personally – I publish my success on the financial markets via my broker reports and any profits earned were done so by using my own Trading View subscription,  so I genuinely do recommend them and have been using the Trading View charts for many years.