How to Make Your Own Strategy in TradingView

Creating your own custom strategy in TradingView is like giving your trading ideas a superpower. It lets you automate your approach, test it against years of past market data, and fine-tune it, all right on the chart. It's one of the best ways to see if a hunch actually holds up before you risk any real money.

So, what exactly is a TradingView Strategy?

Think of a TradingView strategy as a set of automated instructions for your charts. You write these instructions in a language called Pine Script®, using a special strategy() function.

Here's the cool part: instead of just drawing lines on a chart like an indicator does, a strategy actually simulates placing trades, moving stop-losses, and taking profits. It runs through history, trade by trade, and then gives you a detailed report card on how it would have performed. You'll find all these results waiting for you in the "Strategy Tester" tab.

Planning Your Strategy: Laying the Groundwork

Before you write a single line of code, it's like planning a road trip. You need to know your destination and how you're going to get there. Taking the time to map out these core components will save you a ton of frustration later.

Here's what you need to think through:

• Your Trading Goals: What kind of moves are you trying to catch? Are you looking to ride a long-term trend, bet on a price bouncing back to its average, or jump in right as it breaks through a key level? Getting clear on this shapes everything else.
• Your Chart Timeframe: This is about how often you want to check your charts and make decisions. Do you prefer the slower pace of daily charts, or are you more active on 1-hour or 4-hour charts? Pick one that fits your schedule and personality.
• Your Signals: What will actually tell you when to buy or sell? This is where tools like moving averages (to smooth out price action), the RSI (to see if a market is overbought or oversold), or the MACD come in. Decide which ones make the most sense to you.
• Protecting Your Capital: This is the non-negotiable part. You have to decide in advance how much you're willing to risk on each trade. Solid rules for your position size, where you'll set your stop-loss (to limit losses), and where you'll take profits are what keep you in the game long-term.

Getting Your Pine Script Environment Ready

Alright, let's get everything set up so you can start writing your first script. It's a straightforward process.

Head over to TradingView and look for the "Pine Editor" tab at the bottom of the screen. Click on it, and a new panel will open up. This is your coding workspace.

You'll see a default script already in there. Go ahead and replace it with this foundational code:

//@version=5
strategy("My Strategy", overlay=true)

Let's break down what this starter code actually does:

• //@version=5: This first line simply tells TradingView that you're using the latest version of Pine Script, which is version 5. This ensures you have access to all the newest features and functions.
• strategy("My Strategy", overlay=true): This line does two important things. First, it names your strategy—feel free to change "My Strategy" to whatever you like. Second, by setting overlay=true, you're instructing the platform to plot any indicators or signals from your script directly on the main price chart, right over the candlesticks. This makes it much easier to visualize what your strategy is doing.

Writing Your Strategy Code

1. Make Your Settings Adjustable

Instead of hard-coding numbers into your script, use input() so you can tweak values without digging into the code:

fastLength = input.int(10, title="Fast SMA Length")
slowLength = input.int(30, title="Slow SMA Length")
stopLossPct = input.float(1.0, title="Stop Loss (%)")
takeProfitPct = input.float(2.0, title="Take Profit (%)")

This way, you can easily test different combinations using the Inputs tab in TradingView's Strategy Tester.

2. Set Up Your Indicators

Calculate the moving averages and any other indicators you're using:

fastSMA = ta.sma(close, fastLength)
slowSMA = ta.sma(close, slowLength)
rsiValue = ta.rsi(close, 14)

These become the foundation for deciding when to enter and exit trades.

3. Create Your Entry Rules

Define what conditions trigger your buy and sell signals:

longCondition  = ta.crossover(fastSMA, slowSMA) and rsiValue < 70
shortCondition = ta.crossunder(fastSMA, slowSMA) and rsiValue > 30

if (longCondition)
    strategy.entry("Long", strategy.long)

if (shortCondition)
    strategy.entry("Short", strategy.short)

The strategy.entry() function automatically handles position reversals and follows your strategy's pyramiding rules.

4. Add Protective Exits

Set up stop-loss and take-profit levels to manage your risk:

stopLevel  = strategy.position_avg_price * (1 - stopLossPct / 100)
profitLevel = strategy.position_avg_price * (1 + takeProfitPct / 100)

strategy.exit("Exit Long",  from_entry="Long",  stop=stopLevel,  limit=profitLevel)
strategy.exit("Exit Short", from_entry="Short", stop=profitLevel, limit=stopLevel)

These exit orders will trigger automatically when price hits either your stop or profit target.

5. Make It Visual

Add some visual elements to see your strategy in action on the chart. For more advanced visualization techniques, check out our guide on Understanding Pine Script's plotshape() Function: A Comprehensive Guide:

plot(fastSMA, color=color.blue, title="Fast SMA")
plot(slowSMA, color=color.orange, title="Slow SMA")
plotshape(longCondition,  title="Buy",  style=shape.triangleup,   location=location.belowbar, color=color.green)
plotshape(shortCondition, title="Sell", style=shape.triangledown, location=location.abovebar, color=color.red)

Having these visual markers makes it much easier to understand what your strategy is doing during backtesting.

Backtesting Your Strategy: See How Your Idea Actually Performs

So, you've got a trading idea and you've written a script for it. The next step is to see how it would have played out in the past. This process is called backtesting, and it's like a time machine for your strategy. Here's how you do it on TradingView.

1. Add Your Script to the Chart: Once you've saved your script, just click the "Add to Chart" button. You'll see your strategy's indicators and markers appear right on the price chart. This lets you visually confirm that the logic is working as you expected.

2. Open the Strategy Tester: Now, head over to the "Strategy Tester" tab (usually at the bottom of the screen). This is your mission control. It automatically generates a full report, showing you a summary of the performance, a graph of the equity curve (how your hypothetical account balance grew or shrank), and the drawdowns (the tough periods where your strategy lost money).

3. Dig Into the Performance Summary: This is where you get the real story. The Performance Summary gives you the cold, hard numbers. Don't just skim it; really look at these key metrics to understand if your strategy is robust or just lucky:

   • Net Profit: The bottom line. Did you end up making or losing money over the test period?
   • Win Rate: What percentage of your trades were winners? It's okay if this isn't super high—what matters is how much you win vs. how much you lose.
   • Maximum Drawdown: This is crucial. It tells you the largest peak-to-trough drop your account would have experienced. Think of it as the worst losing streak. A smaller drawdown is generally better, as it's easier to recover from.

Metric	What It Tells You
Net Profit	The total profit or loss after all simulated trades.
Win Rate	The percentage of trades that were profitable.
Maximum Drawdown	The largest loss from a peak to a trough in your equity, showing the worst-case scenario.

Fine-Tuning Your Strategy

Think of this part like a final check-up for your trading strategy. You've built it, and now it's time to make sure it's performing at its best.

Here's a simple workflow to get it dialed in:

1. Test Different Settings: Head over to the Strategy Tester's Settings and play around with the inputs. It's like adjusting the knobs on a radio to get the clearest signal—you're looking for the parameter values that make your strategy most effective.

2. Get a Closer Look (For Premium Users): If you're on a Premium plan, you can enable the Bar Magnifier for a much more detailed view of what's happening inside each bar. This helps the tester simulate order fills with greater precision. You can turn it on by adding use_bar_magnifier=true to your code.

3. Review and Refine: This is the most important step. Take a close look at the List of Trades and the Properties tabs. These are your strategy's report cards. They'll show you exactly where your logic might be winning or losing, so you can go back and fix any weak spots.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Building Your Strategy

It's easy to get excited and jump right in when you're building a new trading approach, but a few common missteps can really throw a wrench in your plans. Here are some key things to watch out for.

Over-fitting your strategy to past data. This is like studying for a test by memorizing the answer sheet from last year. Your strategy might look like a genius on historical data, but it will likely struggle the moment it faces new, real-market conditions. The real goal is to create a system that is robust enough to perform well in the future, not just the past. Always make sure to forward test your ideas.

Forgetting about real-world costs. When you're backtesting, it can feel like you're trading in a perfect world with no fees. But in reality, every trade has a cost—this is called slippage and commission. If you ignore these in your strategy's settings, you're seeing a best-case scenario profit that doesn't exist. Your live results will almost always be lower, so it's crucial to factor these costs in from the very beginning.

Getting lost in a sea of indicators. It's tempting to load up your chart with every indicator you know, thinking more information must be better. But often, too many indicators just give you conflicting or noisy signals, making everything overly complex and confusing. It's like having ten different people shouting directions at you at once. You're often better off mastering one or two reliable indicators you truly understand.

Pitfall	Why It's a Problem	The Simple Fix
Over-fitting to past data	Your strategy looks great in theory but fails with new data.	Always forward test your strategy on unseen market data.
Ignoring slippage & commission	Your backtest results are unrealistically optimistic.	Configure realistic transaction costs in your strategy settings.
Using too many indicators	Creates confusion, complexity, and conflicting signals.	Simplify. Focus on a few core indicators you trust.

Your Pine Script Questions, Answered

Got some questions about how things work in TradingView's Pine Script? You're not alone. Here are answers to some of the most common ones, explained in a straightforward way.

Q: How do I stop my strategy from automatically flipping from a long position to a short one (or vice-versa)?

A: This automatic reversal is a common head-scratcher. To prevent it, you have a couple of solid options:

• Use order_type=strategy.order and make sure you're carefully setting your qty parameters. This gives you more direct control.
• Apply the strategy.risk.allow_entry_in() function. You can use this to explicitly tell your script, "Only allow new long entries" or "Only allow new short entries," which effectively locks the direction and prevents flips.

Q: Is it possible to test my trading idea on multiple timeframes at once in a single script?

A: Absolutely! This is a powerful feature. You can use the request.security() function to pull in data from any timeframe you want. So, your main strategy might run on a 1-hour chart, but you can easily fetch the 4-hour closing price or the daily RSI to use in your conditions.

Q: I'm confused about strategy.entry() and strategy.order(). What's the actual difference?

This is a crucial distinction that affects how your strategy manages trades.

Feature	strategy.entry()	strategy.order()
Pyramiding	Manages it automatically. It can add to a position according to your pyramiding settings.	Places isolated orders. Each one is independent and doesn't pyramid.
Reversals	Can automatically reverse your position (e.g., close a long and open a short in one go).	Does not reverse positions. It just executes the order you specify.
Best For	Strategies that use pyramiding or want easy position reversals.	Simpler, one-off orders or when you want full manual control over every trade.

Think of it this way: strategy.entry() is like a smart assistant that handles the details for you, while strategy.order() is a basic command that does exactly what you tell it, nothing more.

What to Do Next

Alright, you've got the foundation. Here's how you can start making this strategy truly your own and put it to the test safely.

• Start by playing around with the settings. Head over to the Inputs tab and adjust the indicator lengths, stop-loss, and take-profit levels. See how even small changes can affect the strategy's performance in the backtests. For more comprehensive testing approaches, explore our guide on how to backtest trading strategy using Pineify's strategy editor.
• Share your creation by publishing your strategy to the TradingView Public Library. It's a fantastic way to get constructive feedback and learn from a whole community of traders.
• Test it live without the risk. Use paper trading to monitor how your strategy performs with real-time market data. Once you're confident, you can start small with real capital and continue to tweak things based on what you see. When you're ready to take your strategies to the next level, our comprehensive backtest Pine Script guide covers advanced testing methodologies.

By following these steps, you'll go from having a basic idea to a backtested and optimized strategy, putting you in a great position to make trading decisions backed by real data. You're well on your way