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Trading platforms
ThinkorSwim, ThinkScript, TradingView and MetaTrader. What actually works on the screen, and what the sellers leave out.
Questions, answered
- Are paid invite-only TradingView indicators worth buying? What invite-only really means, the marketing patterns that repeat, what you can verify before paying, what you can't, and the…
- Can Myfxbook results be faked, and how do I verify an EA's track record? Yes, but outright fakes are the easy case. How a technically real Myfxbook record still misleads, what each badge proves, and the…
- Do thinkorswim study alerts fire premarket and after hours? Why thinkorswim study alerts go quiet outside 9:30 to 4:00, how price alerts differ, and the bid/ask and drawing-alert workarounds…
- How can I tell if a forex EA or robot is a scam? A sequence of checks you can run before paying for a forex EA: where results live, live vs demo, hidden martingale, what the…
- How do I audit an EA's track record in ten minutes? An ordered ten minute procedure for checking a published EA track record, with a stop rule at every step so you can quit early and…
- How do I build a premarket gap scanner in thinkorswim? Step by step premarket gap scan in thinkorswim: 1 min aggregation with EXT on, a gap-percent custom filter, and where the platform…
- How do I build a relative volume (or premarket volume) watchlist column in thinkorswim? A complete working relative volume watchlist column for thinkorswim, plus the premarket variant and why the aggregation button…
- How do I color-code a custom watchlist column in thinkorswim? AssignBackgroundColor vs AssignValueColor in thinkorswim watchlist columns, why the colour needs a plot to show, and three…
- How do I get a 99% modelling quality backtest in MT4? Import real tick data into MT4 with Tickstory, set spread properly, and hit 99.9% modelling quality. Plus why 99% doesn't mean the…
- How do I get real-time (not delayed) data in thinkorswim? Delayed quotes in thinkorswim come from three separate things: the exchange agreement, the Quote speed setting, and paperMoney.…
- How do I scan for a candlestick pattern (engulfing, pin bar) in thinkorswim? Two ways to scan candlesticks in thinkorswim: the built-in pattern studies as study filters, or your own condition. With engulfing…
- How do I tell if a TradingView indicator repaints? Four tests for repainting on TradingView: reading the Pine source, the chart reload, bar replay, and the forming-bar check, plus…
- Is the TradingView strategy tester accurate? What the TradingView strategy tester actually simulates, where the numbers get inflated, and a checklist to make a backtest less…
- What causes TooComplexException in thinkorswim and how do I fix it? TooComplexException isn't a syntax error, it's a throttle. What triggers it in thinkScript and the specific edits that get a…
- What does 'secondary aggregation period is not allowed' mean in thinkorswim? The rule behind the secondary aggregation error, why scans and watchlist columns reject it outright, and three restructures that…
- Why do my thinkorswim scan results differ from what I see on the chart? The mental model behind thinkorswim scan and chart disagreeing: separate aggregation, separate extended-hours settings, forming…
- Why does ChatGPT write ThinkScript that doesn't compile? The specific ways AI-written thinkScript fails: invented functions, Pine Script bleed, aggregation errors, circular refs, plus a…
- Why does my EA backtest beautifully but lose money live? Work through the gap between an EA backtest and live results in order: costs, slippage, tick model, look-ahead, over-optimisation,…
- Why does my thinkorswim scan return no results? Work through an empty thinkorswim scan in order: the Scan in universe, aggregation period, filter logic, stale bars, data depth,…
- Why does my thinkorswim scan return signals from hours ago? (within vs offset) Your scan returns stale hits because you wrote a state condition when you meant an event. How within, bar offsets and Crosses…
Books in this subject
ThinkorSwim Playbook
Cut through the 400+ ThinkorSwim studies to the handful real traders actually keep on their screens.
ThinkScript Playbook
40 copy-paste ThinkScript codes with every line explained, so you can customize instead of just consuming.
TradingView: What Works
A trader-sourced filter for TradingView's 100,000+ community indicators: what earns its place and what's noise.
MetaTrader Reality Check
A research-based filter for the MT4/MT5 world: brokers, EAs, signal sellers — what's real, what's rigged.