SETUP Setup · May 2026 · ~5 min

Set the timezone right: three time traps in your charts

Two people look at the same symbol's daily chart and see different patterns — usually a timezone setting difference. Where the "day" of a daily candle is cut changes its open, high, low and close.

Three key settings

• Chart timezone: switch it in one click at the bottom-right of a TradingView chart (local / UTC / exchange time). For cross-market symbols, UTC aligns you with most institutions and data feeds;
• Daily cut: FX and crypto dailies conventionally cut at UTC (or the 17:00 ET New York close) — a different cut gives different "yesterday's high/low"; when your levels don't match someone else's, check here first;
• Session highlighting: use a built-in session indicator or rectangles to paint Asia / Europe / US and the overlap straight onto the chart — one glance tells you which leg of the relay you're in.

One habit

Use a single base timezone (UTC recommended) for every alert, journal entry and review, and always write the suffix — "14:30" and "14:30 UTC" are different facts, and a journal that mixes them is unreadable in three months.