TradingView · Lesson 3 · Beginner
Drawing Tools
You use the trendline, horizontal line and rectangle to mark trends and levels.
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The Toolbar on the Left
On the left in TradingView sits the toolbar: trendline, horizontal line, rectangle, Fibonacci. With these you mark support, resistance and trends. Less is more, an overloaded chart confuses you more than it helps.
Practice with our tool first: pick the trendline below and drag it under the rising lows.
Interactive exercise: here you learn right on the chart, with feedback on every click. Sign up freeto start it.
Now in the real TradingView: try the trendline from the toolbar on the left. The orange arrow points you to the right tool.
Interactive exercise: here you learn right on the chart, with feedback on every click. Sign up freeto start it.
Test yourself
How many indicators and drawings belong on a good chart?
- As many as possible, more data is better
- Only what is needed, clean and clear
Sign up free for the answers with an explanation for each option.
The key points at a glance
- The toolbar is on the left: trendline, horizontal line, rectangle, Fibonacci.
- With these you mark support, resistance and trends.
- Less is more, an overloaded chart just confuses you.
Deep dive
Drawing support and resistance
Support is a zone below the market with buying interest, resistance the zone above it. Think in zones, not in razor-sharp lines. Draw over the spots touched multiple times, ideally as a rectangle.
- If support breaks significantly, it becomes resistance (breakout retest).
- A break counts from roughly 3 percent on major levels, 1 percent short term.
- Or simpler: a close beyond the level.
- Place levels over the close touches, not over the wick tips.
Why an overloaded chart costs you money
An overloaded chart gives you false confidence. One of your 15 lines is always near the price, so you can explain every move after the fact. That is not an edge, that is hindsight bias in color.
Draw so that a stranger understands what you see in 3 seconds: two or three clean levels, one trendline, done.
Trendline, horizontal line, or rectangle?
If the base trendline breaks against the trend, the odds of a reversal rise, but wait for a close instead of a wick. Leave Fibonacci out on purpose at the start, until the basics are solid.
- Horizontal line: static levels like an old high or a round number.
- Round numbers like 100000 attract attention and orders.
- Trendline: connects rising lows or falling highs.
- Rectangle: shows honestly that a level is a zone.
Sources: TradingView, Elder
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