This guide walks you through opening a TradingView account, connecting it to Tradovate, setting up ES and NQ futures charts, and finding ICT community indicators. Takes about 20–30 minutes.
⏱ 20–30 min 📈 Charting platform START HERE
Open tradingview.com in your browser. Click Sign In (top right) → Create an account. Use your email or Google account.
The free plan includes CME futures data with a 10-minute delay. Real-time CME futures data costs an additional $7/month as a data add-on (separate from your subscription tier). For ICT intraday trading — where killzones and displacement happen fast — a 10-minute delay is a real disadvantage. Most serious futures traders use the paid plan + real-time add-on.
Free path: Since you already have Tradovate connected — Tradovate appears on TradingView's broker data verification list. When you link Tradovate to TradingView, you get real-time CME/CBOT/COMEX/NYMEX data on your TradingView charts at no extra cost through Tradovate's own Level I CME data subscription. The data stays live as long as your Tradovate account is active. This is the cheapest real-time path — you only need a TradingView charting subscription, not a separate TradingView data add-on.
The paid setup if you want TradingView-native data without using the Tradovate broker path: Essential ($12.95/mo annual · $14.95/mo monthly) + $7/mo TradingView data add-on.
Go to tradingview.com/pricing and pick your plan. Annual billing saves ~13% on Essential, ~29% on Plus and Premium.
Source: TradingView pricing page — tradingview.com/pricing
After logging in, go to the top navigation bar → click Products → select Supercharts. This opens the charting workspace.
Note: Do not look for a "Chart" tab in the top menu — TradingView's chart lives under the Products dropdown as "Supercharts."
Click the Quick search button in the chart toolbar (the magnifying glass icon). Type your symbol and select it from the futures results. Note: Ctrl+K (Windows) or Cmd+K (Mac) opens the Indicators/tools panel — not the symbol search. The correct path is the Quick search button or clicking the symbol name directly.
Type ES and select ES1! from the futures results. ES1! is the front-month continuous contract — that's what most traders use.
Repeat for NQ: click Quick search again, type NQ and select NQ1! (E-mini Nasdaq continuous contract).
Source: TradingView platform — verified live interface, June 2026
ICT methodology uses a top-down timeframe hierarchy:
To change timeframe: click the timeframe buttons in the chart toolbar (1m, 5m, 15m, 1H, 4H, D, W).
To save your chart template (free plan works): Right-click on the chart → Settings → bottom-left corner dropdown → Save As. Name it ICT MES. This saves your chart type, indicators, and drawing tools.
With your chart open, look for the Trading Panel toolbar (bottom or side of the chart). Click it and select Tradovate as your broker.
If you don't see a Trading Panel: look in the chart toolbar for a button labeled Trading Panel or Broker. Enable it from View → Trading Panel.
Source: Tradovate official integration guide — support.tradovate.com/s/article/Connecting-Your-Tradovate-Account-to-TradingView
After selecting Tradovate, you'll be prompted to log in. Enter the email and password you used to open your Tradovate account (see the Tradovate guide for how to open that account).
Once connected, the TradingView chart will route orders directly through Tradovate — live execution, real market orders.
Source: Tradovate official — tradovate.com/platform/add-on-integration-tools
Click Indicators in the chart toolbar → Community Scripts tab → search "ICT Killzones Toolkit [LuxAlgo]". Add it to your chart. This one indicator covers killzones, session highs/lows, order blocks, FVGs, and breaker blocks.
After adding, open Settings → Style tab. Configure it like this for a clean ICT setup on micros:
| Component | Setting | Why |
|---|---|---|
| New York / London Open / London Close / Asian | ✅ CHECKED | Killzone session boxes — core ICT |
| Killzone Lines (Top/Bottom/Mean/Extend) | ✅ CHECKED | Session highs/lows = liquidity pool lines. These are the levels. |
| Show Retracements | ❌ UNCHECKED | Fibonacci levels = noise unless you trade fib-based entries. Off keeps chart clean. |
| Order Blocks | ⚠️ ON or OFF | Can be noisy on 5M — lots of OB labels. Turn off to test, on if you want visual OB zones. |
| Breaker Blocks | ⚠️ ON or OFF | Secondary. Off = cleaner chart. Toggle back on once you're reading the primary structure. |
| Fair Value Gaps (FVG) | ⚠️ ON or OFF | Core ICT concept. On = FVG labels drawn on chart. Off = cleaner. Your call. |
| Reverse | ⬜ unchecked | Default. Changes killzone direction convention — leave as-is. |
Source: LuxAlgo official indicator page — tradingview.com/script/9kY5NlHJ
ICT trading uses 9 and 21 EMA for trend direction, and VWAP as the intraday fair-value reference. These three on one chart give you everything you need for entry bias.
Option A — compound indicator (free): Search EMA 9/21/50 + VWAP + MACD + RSI Pro in Community Scripts. After adding, open Settings → Style and turn OFF: EMA 50, MACD, RSI, Bear/Bull Background, all arrows. Keep EMA 9, EMA 21, and VWAP only.
Option B — clean custom indicator (Pine Script): A minimal Pine Script running exactly EMA 9, EMA 21, and VWAP — no bloat, no toggle menus. The file is at guides/ict-core-chart.pine in the Hub repo. Copy it into TradingView's Pine Editor, save, and add to chart. Option B is cleaner than Option A (no hidden MACD/RSI bleed, no community-indicator dependency) and uses 1 slot instead of a multi-tool community script.
After configuring, open Settings → Visibility tab and set all timeframes (1M through D) to ON for EMA 9, EMA 21, and VWAP — these should be visible on every timeframe you use.
Check the top-left of your chart. If it says "Market is open" with a green dot = live data. If it says "Delayed" = your subscription isn't active yet.
To check Tradovate connection status: look for the Tradovate logo or broker name in the Trading Panel. It should show your Tradovate account balance.