TradingView Review – The Best Free Web-Based Charting Platform?

TradingView has become one of the most popular free charting platforms for traders and investors around the world. With its intuitive charts, custom indicators, and social community, TradingView aims to provide all the charting tools needed for analysis and idea sharing – all for free.

But how does TradingView stack up against paid alternatives like Thinkorswim or eSignal? Does the free version of TradingView have any major limitations? This comprehensive TradingView review covers everything you need to know, including features, pricing, pros, cons, and more.

Overview of TradingView’s Key Features

TradingView packs an impressive suite of features into its free web-based platform:

Intuitive Interactive Charts

TradingView’s charts are its bread and butter. The platform provides clean, fast loading interactive charts with 100+ intelligent drawing tools and over 70 technical indicators built-in. Charts can be fully customized with flexible layouts and color schemes.

Traders can visualize data intraday, daily, weekly or monthly, overlay multiple symbols, add indicators like Bollinger Bands® or ichimoku cloud, and much more.

Social Community of Traders

One unique aspect of TradingView is the integrated social community. Users can publish chart ideas, technical analyses, market commentary, and more – then get feedback from millions of traders worldwide.

There are also chat rooms by interest and experience level to exchange ideas in real time. This social component sets TradingView apart from most charting platforms.

Custom Chart Indicators and Pinescript

Traders can code their own indicators and strategies using TradingView’s Pinescript language. Over 100,000 custom indicators have been published in the TradingView Pine Editor to extend functionality.

Pinescript allows traders to program alert triggers, send email/SMS notifications, automate strategies, build oscillators, filters, and more. Expert coders can even create their own trading bots.

Paper Trading and Market Replay Mode

TradingView has a paper trading feature to simulate trades without putting real money at risk. Traders can test run strategies in a virtual portfolio and refine techniques risk-free.

There is also a Market Replay mode in TradingView to look at historical market conditions with play, pause, and rewind functionality. This helps traders optimize or understand past performance.

Powerful Server-Side Scanning for Opportunities

Server-side screening helps traders scan tens of thousands of ticker symbols simultaneously based on technical criteria. Screens can uncover trading opportunities like breakouts, price patterns, and oversold conditions across global markets.

Charting on Mobile Apps

TradingView has free iOS and Android apps so traders can access charts, data, and community forums on the go. The mobile apps include most major features from the desktop platform.

Integrations with Leading Brokers

TradingView connects directly with brokerage accounts from over 25 major brokers like Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, and eToro. Traders can manage positions and orders from directly within the TradingView interface.

Real-Time News and Economic Calendar

Stay up to date on market moving news and events right from the TradingView platform. News feeds are integrated into charts and there is an economic calendar widget highlighting high impact events.

Cryptocurrency Support

TradingView has full support for charting and trading major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin across all major exchanges. Technical analysis tools work just as they do for traditional assets.

TradingView Review – Pros and Cons

Now that we’ve covered TradingView’s key features, here is a closer look at some of the specific pros and cons of using TradingView based on experience:

Pros of Using TradingView

• Completely free limited access to charts, indicators, and platform features
• User friendly, intuitive web interface works well on desktop and mobile
• Millions of active traders in community to exchange ideas and strategies
• Code your own indicators, strategies, and automation using Pine Script
• Massive library of indicators and scripts published by community
• Real-time price data from dozens of stock exchanges globally
• In-depth chart customization with templates and color schemes
• Paper trading and market replay to refine skills without risks
• Screeners to identify opportunities across thousands of tickers
• Direct connections to leading brokers to manage trades in platform
• News and economic calendar embedded directly into charts

Cons of TradingView

• Free version has data limits unless upgrading to paid plans
• Less advanced order management functionality than full trading platform
• Can’t trade directly from charts without broker integration
• Too many low quality scripts and indicators published by community
• Limited historical data and market depth for some exotic assets
• No support for automated strategies or algo trading on free plan
• Mobile app functionality not as robust as desktop platform
• Complimentary real-time data from limited sources only

While the free version of TradingView may have some restrictions, it still provides an incredible amount of functionality at no cost. The limitations are understandable given the platform needs paying members to sustain itself.

Upgrading to a paid TradingView plan unlocks larger historical datasets, more indicators, server-side alerts, API access, and more – bringing it closer to functionality of paid charting platforms.

Overall, TradingView delivers an immense amount of value at no cost, especially for newer traders looking to learn the ropes. Even advanced traders may find the free offering sufficient depending on their specific needs.

TradingView Review – Exploring the Desktop Platform

Now let’s explore TradingView’s highly customizable desktop interface and web platform:

Landing Dashboard

The landing dashboard highlights top movers, upcoming events, global indices, commodities, and more. Traders can quickly visualize market performance and sentiment.

[Image of TradingView dashboard]

Tabs across the top allow quick navigation to charts, watchlists, scanners, forum, and profile. A search bar provides quick symbol lookup.

Interactive Chart Platform

TradingView’s interactive charts are fast, intuitive, and highly customizable. Traders can choose from line, candlestick, hollow candlestick, Heiken Ashi, bars, area, Renko, Kagi, and other visual styles.

Chart layouts can be configured in numerous ways: splitting into panels, adding price scales, applying templates, and more. Nearly every element on the chart can be edited to match personal preferences.

With the toolbar, traders can quickly zoom in and out of any timeframe, add indicators, trend lines, shapes, and text annotations. Dozens of real-time data sources are available to power the charts.

Indicators and Drawing Tools

TradingView comes loaded with over 70 popular indicators – from classics like Bollinger Bands to more sophisticated tools like Ichimoku Cloud.

The drawing toolbar has over 100 tools to annotate charts in every way imaginable – arrows, text, shapes, pitchforks, price range tools, and more.

Traders can search and add community-built indicators right from the platform to augment functionality further.

Watchlists, Screener, and News

Robust watchlist management makes it easy to follow specific assets. Server-side dynamic screening helps uncover new trading opportunities based on technical or fundamental criteria.

Real-time news and calendar of events impacting markets can be viewed directly next to the charts or watchlists for context.

Trading from Chart and Integration

Broker integration allows traders to manage their actual portfolios and trading accounts from within TradingView for certain brokers. Orders can often be placed right from the charts.

For other brokers, traders can still visualize their portfolios by manually syncing holdings. The paper trading simulator is also available for risk-free practice.

Social Community

The social community lets traders share chart ideas, analyses, strategies, indicators, and discuss markets openly with millions of traders worldwide.

There is a social stream with perspectives from top authors and influencers. Chat rooms provide specialized forums to exchange ideas by experience level or interest (stocks, futures, forex, cryptocurrency etc).

Customization

Nearly every element within TradingView can be customized to match personal preferences. TradingView allows users to tweak default colors, layouts, temperature, fonts, shortcuts, notifications, and much more.

Templates make it easy to save and load chart configurations. Custom workspaces let traders set up multi-monitor layouts with different tools in each panel.

TradingView gives traders an enormous amount of flexibility when it comes to look, feel, features, and functionality through customization.

TradingView on Mobile Apps

TradingView offers free iOS and Android mobile apps so traders can access the platform from anywhere. Here’s an overview of the key features available on mobile:

• Interactive charts in all styles with flexible layouts
• Drawing tools, indicators, templates from desktop ported over
• Watchlists and scanners with alerts and notifications
• Community feeds and discussions
• Paper trading simulator
• Brokerage integration and account sync
• Economic calendar and real-time news

The mobile experience retains most key features of the desktop platform. The apps provide a great supplementary experience for traders on the go who want to keep an eye on markets.

Some elements don’t work quite as well on mobile like creating complex custom indicators, scripting Pine code, or utilizing multiple monitors. But for most charting, watchlist, and community functions, the TradingView apps are robust.

Just like the desktop experience, TradingView’s mobile apps are entirely free to download with certain data limitations unless upgrading to paid plans.

What Data Sources Power TradingView’s Charts?

High quality market data is essential for accurate, reliable charts. Here are the major data sources powering TradingView’s charts across each asset class:

Stocks: TradingView gets real-time stock price data from major exchanges like NYSE, NASDAQ, LSE, Euronext. For certain international exchanges, there may be a 15 minute delay unless a broker account is linked.

Futures: Leading futures exchanges like CME, ICE, Eurex, ASX are integrated for real-time futures quotes.

Forex: Forex data comes from liquidity providers and ECNs like Currenex, LMAX Exchange, Sucden Financial.

Cryptocurrency: TradingView has price data from over a dozen leading crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Bitfinex.

Global Indices: All major stock indices worldwide are covered in real-time including S&P 500, FTSE 100, DAX, Nikkei 225.

Commodities: Top commodity prices are sourced in real-time including crude oil, natural gas, gold, silver, copper.

In summary, TradingView utilizes top-tier data sources for each market it covers to ensure accurate price feeds. The data comes directly from liquid exchanges or ECNs/liquidity providers rather than third-party aggregators whenever possible.

TradingView Pricing, Subscription Plans, and Free Limitations

TradingView offers several subscription plans that give access to more features, data, and integration. Here is an overview of TradingView’s pricing and limitations of the free plan:

The free plan gives traders plenty to work with as a starting point, but upgrading unlocks more features like additional indicators, larger historical datasets, more watchlists, unlimited alerts, API access, and more.

Advanced traders who require things like large data history or connecting automated strategies via API will need a paid plan. But for most, the free offers a great way to use TradingView without limits.

Paid plans range from $9.95 per month up to $39.95 per month if opting for the unlimited premium plan. There are discounts for paying annually rather than monthly.

How TradingView Makes Money

As a freemium software service, TradingView generates revenue through a mix of subscription plans as well as advertising and commercial partnerships:

• Paid subscriptions – TradingView offers premium plans with extra features and data benefits targeted at serious traders. More advanced traders pay monthly for platform enhancements.
• Broker commissions – TradingView partners with brokers and receives affiliate commissions when traders fund accounts or make trades through broker links on the platform.
• Advertising – Select brokers and financial companies pay TradingView for advertising spots on the site to gain exposure to TradingView’s large trader audience.
• Commercial partnerships – TradingView works with a select number of commercial partners who pay for visibility, data feeds, and API access to platform users.

This multi-pronged approach allows TradingView to keep its core free offering robust for the trader community, while still generating revenue streams to support and advance the platform.

The integrity of TradingView’s data, rankings, and peer reviews does not appear compromised by commercial interests. User experience seems prioritized over monetization.

Is TradingView the Best Free Web-Based Platform?

TradingView excels in many areas as a free web-based charting platform, including:

• User-friendly, customizable interface across desktop and mobile
• Feature-packed charts with a full suite of analysis tools
• Social community provides idea exchange unlike any platform
• Easy publishing and discovery of scripts extends functionality
• Real-time data from top-tier sources across asset classes
• Paper trading and market replay help refine skills without risks
• Direct brokerage account integration in many cases

For traders looking for sophisticated charting capabilities at no cost, TradingView hits the mark on delivering an exceptional free platform.

However, there are downsides to consider with TradingView:

• Functionality limited without upgrading to paid subscription
• Can’t trade directly from charts without broker integration
• Lagging indicators and limited historical data for exotic assets
• Too many low quality scripts published by community
• Not meant for automated or algorithmic trading strategies

When compared to paid platforms like Thinkorswim, eSignal, NinjaTrader, TradingView has minor limitations – but far fewer than expected for free software.

Active traders who prioritize features like automated strategy coding, brokerage integration, historical data access, and technical indicators will need to upgrade to paid plans however.

But for most traders, TradingView offers a best-in-class free charting experience. The community and wealth of published scripts add unique value not found elsewhere.

For a 100% free platform, TradingView hits the mark on delivering a robust, full-featured charting solution. While paid platforms offer more advanced capabilities, TradingView excels at serving most traders needs at no cost.

Frequently Asked Questions About TradingView

Here are answers to some of the most common questions about TradingView:

Does TradingView have a mobile app?

Yes, TradingView offers free iOS and Android mobile apps with robust charting features, community forums, and account management capability. The mobile experience brings most key features of the desktop platform over to Android and Apple devices seamlessly.

What programming language does TradingView use?

TradingView built a custom Pine Script language for creating indicators, strategies, alerts and other functionality on the platform. Pine Script is based on JavaScript and very easy to learn, encouraging community innovation.

Can you trade right from TradingView charts?

There is no inherent trade execution ability with TradingView unless your broker provides integration. With broker integration, trades can be placed directly from TradingView charts in many cases. Otherwise, TradingView purely provides robust charting and analysis.

Is there a way to backtest strategies on TradingView?

Yes, through the strategy tester feature users can backtest long-term automated strategies on historical data to validate their viability. There are some limitations to simplify complex backtesting, but performance can be measured.

Does TradingView have futures data?

Yes, TradingView covers all major futures products including indices, commodities, currencies, bonds, and more. Top futures exchanges like CME, Eurex, ICE are integrated through liquidity providers at no cost.

Is TradingView safe to use?

TradingView implements robust security including 2-factor authentication, HTTPS encryption, and data privacy controls. Users remain anonymous and data is not sold. There have been no major breaches reported to date. Practicing safe account security is always important however.

Conclusion – TradingView Delivers Impressive Value for All Traders

In the end, TradingView manages to pack an immense amount of charting functionality, community engagement, and customization into a free platform accessible to any trader.

The available indicators, drawing tools, data feeds, pattern scanners, screeners, paper trading, and platform features rival paid charting solutions despite no cost barriers. TradingView has raised the bar on what traders should expect from free trading software.

Upgrading to a paid subscription gives access to extras like more server alerts, larger historical datasets, unlimited workspaces, API connectivity, and enhanced support. But most active traders may not find the free plan overly limiting.

For new traders seeking a quality charting solution to learn the craft, TradingView is hard to beat – especially alongside the idea exchange from experienced traders. Even advanced pros may prefer TradingView’s flexibility over traditional platforms.

Overall, TradingView stands out as an exemplary web-based charting platform made by traders, for traders. The community and commitment to constant improvement provide long-term value for traders globally.