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Setting Up a Clean Chart Template in TradingView

A cluttered chart creates a cluttered mind. A saved template means every time you open a chart, the same clean layout appears, and you don't waste energy rebuilding it.

Here's a simple setup process.

Step 1: Remove everything. Start with a blank chart: candles only, no indicators.

Step 2: Choose colors you can read for hours. Soft contrast helps your eyes. Pick one color for bullish candles and one for bearish, and avoid neon.

Step 3: Add only what you actually use. For many SMC traders, that's session times, a few horizontal levels, and maybe one volatility tool like ATR.

Step 4: Mark sessions. Use a session indicator or shaded boxes for Asian, London, and New York, in your own time zone.

Step 5: Set your drawing tools. Create default styles for horizontal lines, rectangles for zones, and trendlines, so everything looks consistent.

Step 6: Save the template. Name it clearly, such as "Main Layout," and apply it to every pair.

Step 7: Create a multi-timeframe layout. For example, 4H, 1H, and 15M side by side, so you can see the story at once.

Step 8: Review monthly. Remove anything you haven't used.

Benefits: faster analysis, fewer distractions, and more consistent screenshots for your journal.

If you can't explain why an item is on your chart, delete it. Clarity is a form of discipline.

Something that helped me keep the template clean: save two layouts, one for analysis with the higher timeframes and key levels, and one for execution with just price and the session marks. Switching between them makes it harder to clutter the execution chart. In TradingView you can save each as a separate layout and give them obvious names, so it's one click to move from the daily and four hour view to the five minute chart you actually enter on. The execution layout should be so plain it feels almost boring. If you find yourself adding an oscillator to it mid session, that's usually a sign you're looking for permission to take a trade you're unsure about.

One common mistake: adding a new indicator just to try it and never removing it. Every couple of weeks, open the template and ask what each item has actually helped with recently. If you can't name a trade it helped, take it off. In TradingView it helps to save two templates, a clean one for trading and a test one for experiments. Then new tools never touch the trading layout until they've earned a place. Also save the drawing settings, like zone colours and line styles, so levels look the same on every chart. That consistency makes it quicker to read a chart at a glance.