TradingView Integrates More Brokers And Features, 'Twitch For Traders'

In an interview with Benzinga, Pierce Crosby, general manager at TradingView, the largest online social networking and data analysis tool for financial markets, discussed new features like Lightweight Charts and live streaming, as well as plans to integrate direct trading via TradeStation and Interactive Brokers, among others.

About Crosby

Crosby previously worked for StockTwits and for Thomson Reuters as a researcher and reporter.

He said he joined TradingView because of its progressive take on innovation within the SaaS and fintech space; the focus of his job is on expanding TradingView’s U.S. presence.

About TradingView

Founded in 2011, TradingView provides social network and market analysis tools to non-professional traders.

The platform offers a Bloomberg-esque experience — users have access to professional charting and analysis tools, as well as publishing and viewing trade ideas within a social networking community.

The firm is also responsible for powering features on more than 40,000 websites, including Investopedia, Yahoo Finance, Investing.com, Thomson Reuters and CoinDesk. 

Platform Access

The website is free to use; traders can chart and interact with the community at no cost.

“For the most part, the platform is 100% free and open to use; people don’t have any idea that is the case, and that’s been a large struggle we’ve had to go through,” Crosby said. 

Users who wish to obtain improved data feeds must pay small fees that are passed directly on to the exchanges, he said. 

The platform also offers users complete customizability, with a cap on the number of features — such as indicators — that can be added at one time.

To unlock all capabilities and remove any caps, low-cost monthly and yearly subscriptions can be purchased.

Growth

The plan is to build "out all U.S. equities over the next three to six months," Crosby said. 

TradingView has integrated the majority of forex and crypto brokers and plans to introduce leaders like TradeStation and Interactive Brokers.

Recent releases, like the open-source Lightweight Charts, allow developers to integrate charting tools directly onto their website without any licensing agreements attached.

"Lightweight Charts is a big deal; the reason it is such a big deal is because it is completely open source. Most charting libraries you would work with, as a developer, [entail] getting licenses with the technology provider, or some kind of service fee, or a combination therein; the charts that we just launched are completely open source."

TradingView is working on a livestreaming service, Crosby said: a "Twitch for traders." 

The objective is to allow community participants the ability to follow each others analysis, research, and trading in real-time, helping bolster transparency and encouragement in a field that is often misconstrued as ambiguous and difficult.

“We think of it as kind of being on the floor of the NYSE or the CBOE in Chicago, where it’s an open, transparent place where people can chat about what they are trading or actually just show people, in real-time, as they are making those investments,” Crosby said. 

Content creators will be able to stream publicly or privately and earn incentives such as badges for building on their online reputations.

Difficulties

With its effort to provide a diversified and an engaging set of tools for almost 10.5 million people, TradingView goes above and beyond to avoid burdening consumers with additional costs, the company's general manager said.

Not only does TradingView pay to acquire the data, but it pays to use the data as well.

"Basically, all these data feeds we pay not only to the providers, but the exchanges themselves. You have to license with both: the one actually providing the data and the license to actually use, whether through S&P, Dow Jones, or NYSE. They have a lot of costs, and that’s a big one for us," Crosby said. 

Next Steps

Ultimately, in its present form, TradingView is the largest network of investors and traders providing free data and news in real time.

The platform has a large library of downloadable scripts, tools and widgets. Developers have the ability to choose from a library of different charting tools and widgets for integration into their own platforms.

Beyond TradingView's present offerings, “the biggest thing we worry about is how we can diversify what we already do in a meaningful way for the consumer,” Crosby said. 

TradingView users should expect major additions in the coming months, he said: new brokers, platform features and developer tools.

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Photo courtesy of TradingView.