This TradingView Chart Bug Has Been Annoying Crypto Traders for Years
A broken analysis tool in TradingView's dashboard has persisted for five years, impacting traders significantly. | Source: Shutterstock
By CCN.com: TradingView, a widely used platform for traders and stock analysts, has a bug so severe and persistent in its retracement display that it’s been affecting traders for years.
A bug in the way that TradingView’s Fibonacci tools work has created real problems for some traders, one of whom is vocally spreading the word. Explaining the situation in a video and crying out on Twitter, a trader called CryptoTeddyBear is raising the alarm.
Of Teddy Bears and Technical Analysis
The friendly Teddy Bear explains that the problem arises when you begin to measure the default views presented by TradingView. Demonstrating on the Ethereum/USD chart, Teddy Bear shows that the retracement on the Fibonacci line is incorrect.
Teddy Bear says he is a paying user of TradingView’s services.
A user first reported this issue to TradingView over five years ago, opening by saying :
“In log scale you would expect Fibonacci to calculate retracements in percents, but it does it for absolute values and adjusts as you move the tool.”
The service has never corrected the issue.
Fibonacci Issue Persists Five Years at TradingView
Later issues have been raised , and TradingView promised at that time (a year ago) that it would be doing something about it. Having admitted the problem, the site has still not corrected it.
TradingView is widely used in both stocks and crypto trading circles. The site functions as a social community and a suite of tools to help people calculate their moves in trading. Technical analysts gain exposure and followers by posting their “ideas” to the site, publishing them to receive feedback, help others, or advertise their skills.
The issue affects those who use Elliot analysis techniques . Such people should probably not use TradingView, which has had this error so long but still grown to its current state. Necessity breeds problem solving, but if you’re growing anyway, you probably don’t see as much of a problem.
However, Teddy Bear claims that traders are losing money. The trader seems to be gathering momentum for a petition or class action motion, polling people wherever he can: how much money has TradingView lost you?
In the long run, knowingly serving a faulty product can have disastrous consequences for anyone . TradingView admitted the issue a year ago but hasn’t fixed it yet. From a strategic point of view, the best course of action might be to remove Fibonacci scales from that view until it can be done properly.
Teddy Bear thanked TradingView for finally attending to the issue.
In a statement to CCN.com, TradingView’s CTO explained:
TradingView application of the Fibo levels on log scale is one of the correct methods rather than a bug. Fibo levels are determined based on the price points at certain retracement levels. TradingView follows the calculation regardless of the selected scale type. Same method is used in other well-known charting platforms including eSignal, NinjaTrader, ThinkOrSwim etc.
There is no ground to consider the alternative calculation method as the only correct one. However, we are looking forward to enabling the alternative method as an option, since it is requested by users.
Editor’s note: (15:11, 06/18/2019) The article’s headline has been updated from the previous mention of an unknown quantity of losses incurred by traders as a result of the bug.
Update #2: (06/18/2019) The article has been updated with quotes from TradingView’s technology chief.
