Adding an indicator on TradingView takes about three clicks: open a chart, click the Indicators button on the top toolbar, search for the one you want, and click it to apply. The indicator appears directly on your price chart or in a separate pane below it, depending on the type. Here’s how to do it on every version of the platform, plus how to manage indicators once they’re active.
Adding an Indicator on the Web Platform
On TradingView’s web-based charting (called Supercharts), the indicator menu lives in the upper toolbar. Look for the button labeled “Indicators” or use the forward-slash key (/) as a keyboard shortcut to open the search dialog instantly.
Once the dialog opens, you’ll see categories across the top: Technicals, Fundamentals, and Community Scripts. Type the name of any indicator into the search bar (for example, “RSI” or “MACD”), and matching results appear immediately. Click the indicator name, and it gets applied to your active chart. You can close the dialog or keep it open to add more.
Most oscillators like RSI and Stochastic automatically appear in their own pane beneath the price chart. Overlay indicators like moving averages and Bollinger Bands draw directly on top of the candlesticks.
Adding Indicators on the Mobile App
The process on iOS and Android mirrors the desktop experience. Open any chart, then tap the “+” icon or the Indicators button on the toolbar at the top or bottom of the screen (placement varies slightly by device). The same search dialog appears, organized into Technicals, Fundamentals, and Community indicators. Tap the one you want, and it loads onto your chart.
If you don’t see the toolbar, tap the chart once to reveal it. On smaller screens, you may need to swipe the toolbar to find the Indicators button.
Using Community Scripts
Beyond TradingView’s built-in indicators, thousands of user-created scripts are available in the Community Scripts library. You can access these from the same Indicators dialog on the upper toolbar, or browse them separately in the Community Scripts section of the site.
Community scripts come in three types:
- Open-source: The full Pine Script code is visible, so you can read exactly what the indicator does and modify it if you want.
- Protected: The script works on your chart, but the code is hidden by the author.
- Invite-only: The author must grant you access before you can use it. These often appear as premium tools from independent developers.
To find community scripts, type a keyword into the search bar inside the Indicators dialog, and results from both built-in and community sources appear together. You can also filter specifically for community scripts or for Pine Script libraries if you’re building your own indicators.
How Many Indicators You Can Add
TradingView limits the number of indicators per chart based on your subscription tier:
- Free: 2 indicators per chart
- Essential: 5 indicators per chart
- Plus: 10 indicators per chart
- Premium: 25 indicators per chart
These limits count everything on the chart, including community scripts and built-in tools. If you hit your cap, you’ll need to remove an existing indicator before adding a new one, or upgrade your plan. One workaround on the free tier: use a community script that combines multiple indicators into a single overlay, since that only counts as one.
Applying an Indicator to Another Indicator
Sometimes you want to layer indicators, like plotting a moving average on top of your RSI rather than on the price chart. TradingView supports this with a few methods.
The simplest: click the three-dot “More” button next to the indicator’s name in the chart legend, then select “Add indicator/Strategy on…” and choose the second indicator from the dialog. You can also right-click directly on an indicator’s plotted line on the chart and select the same option from the context menu.
A third approach works through the settings panel. Click the gear icon next to the second indicator’s name, go to the Inputs tab, and find the Source dropdown. Instead of the default price data (like “Close”), select a plot from the first indicator. This tells the second indicator to calculate using the first indicator’s output as its input.
Editing, Hiding, and Removing Indicators
Every indicator you add appears in the chart legend, the small text area near the top-left of your chart under the symbol name. If the legend is collapsed, click the small arrow button beneath the symbol name to expand it.
From the legend, each indicator has a row of small icons:
- Gear icon: Opens the settings panel where you can change the indicator’s parameters (like the period length on a moving average), adjust colors, and modify line styles.
- Eye icon: Toggles the indicator’s visibility without removing it. Useful when your chart gets crowded and you want a cleaner view temporarily.
- Trash icon: Removes the indicator from the chart entirely.
If you have several indicators stacked up, you can also use the Object Tree (accessible from the right-side panel) to see a full list of everything on your chart and manage visibility or ordering from one place.
Saving Your Indicator Setup
Once you’ve configured a set of indicators you like, save the chart layout so you don’t have to rebuild it every time. TradingView auto-saves your most recent layout, but you can also create named layouts by clicking the layout dropdown in the top toolbar. This lets you keep different indicator setups for different strategies, like one layout for day trading with volume and VWAP, and another for swing trading with moving averages and MACD.
You can also save a specific indicator’s settings as a template. Open the indicator’s settings panel, adjust everything the way you want, and look for the “Save as default” or template option. The next time you add that indicator, it loads with your preferred parameters instead of the factory defaults.