Pine Script Timestamp: Time Functions, Date Filters & Session Windows

Working with dates, times, and day of week in Pine Script v6

Time handling in TradingView operates in UNIX epoch milliseconds. Understanding time built-ins allows developers to build date-bounded backtests, session break indicators, and calendar-filtered strategies.

Complete Pine Script v6 script: Date window filter & day-of-week strategy

The script gates entry signals by bar-open time in a half-open UTC interval: start included, end excluded. Its weekday filter also uses UTC. This is not an exact fill-time boundary: under default strategy settings, orders normally fill on a later tick, and an end-of-window close is requested only when the script next calculates on a bar outside the interval. Disabling Friday entries does not close an existing position for the weekend.

//@version=6
strategy("Date Range & Session Filter [v6]", 
         overlay = true, 
         initial_capital = 10000, 
         default_qty_type = strategy.percent_of_equity, 
         default_qty_value = 10)

// Explicit UTC dates; end is exclusive.
int startTimestamp = input.time(timestamp("01 Jan 2024 00:00 +0000"), "Start (inclusive)")
int endTimestamp = input.time(timestamp("01 Jan 2027 00:00 +0000"), "End (exclusive)")
if startTimestamp >= endTimestamp
    runtime.error("Start must precede end")

// Day of week filters
bool tradeMonday = input.bool(true, "Trade Monday")
bool tradeFriday = input.bool(false, "Allow Friday entries (UTC)")

// Gate signals by bar-open time, not order-fill time.
bool inDateRange = time >= startTimestamp and time < endTimestamp
int utcDay = dayofweek(time, "UTC")
bool isMonday = utcDay == dayofweek.monday
bool isFriday = utcDay == dayofweek.friday
bool validDay = (not isMonday or tradeMonday) and (not isFriday or tradeFriday)

// Technical signals
float fastEma = ta.ema(close, 20)
float slowEma = ta.ema(close, 50)
bool buySignal = ta.crossover(fastEma, slowEma)
bool exitSignal = ta.crossunder(fastEma, slowEma)

// Execution inside allowed window
if inDateRange and validDay
    if buySignal
        strategy.entry("Long", strategy.long)

if exitSignal or (time >= endTimestamp and strategy.position_size > 0)
    strategy.close("Long", comment = "Exit Trigger / Window End")

// Plot moving averages
plot(fastEma, "Fast EMA", color = color.blue)
plot(slowEma, "Slow EMA", color = color.orange)

// Background highlight for active backtest date window
bgcolor(inDateRange ? color.new(color.blue, 95) : na)

Formatting timestamps for webhook alerts and logs

When connecting TradingView to external webhook services or discord bots, timestamps must often match strict ISO or formatted string standards:

• str.format_time syntax: str.format_time(time, "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss", "UTC") formats the current bar timestamp into a standardized timestamp string.
• Timezone support: You can specify explicit IANA timezones such as "America/New_York", "Europe/London", or "UTC" in both timestamp() and str.format_time().
• Time offset calculations: Because timestamps are expressed in milliseconds, adding one hour to a timestamp is achieved by adding 60 * 60 * 1000.
• Session functions: time(timeframe.period, "0930-1600:23456", "America/New_York") tests a Monday–Friday session in New York time. Session strings are custom windows, not an exchange holiday calendar; align boundaries with chart bars.

Common timestamp traps in strategy backtesting

Avoid these subtle date and timing mistakes:

• Timestamp overloads: Numeric calendar arguments use the exchange timezone unless a zone is supplied; the date-string overload defaults to UTC when no zone is included. The chart display timezone does not change script calculations.
• Timezone misalignment: Failing to specify timezones can cause date filters to open or close several hours earlier or later than expected based on exchange local time.
• Month indexing: In Pine Script timestamp(), January is month 1 and December is month 12 (unlike JavaScript where month is zero-indexed).
• Day of week numbering: Sunday is 1, Monday is 2, ..., Saturday is 7. Using dayofweek constants like dayofweek.monday prevents index confusion.