In the fast-paced world of trading, timing is everything. Whether you’re a Forex trader monitoring markets around the globe or a stock trader aligning your strategy with New York’s opening bell, understanding and managing time zones is crucial. TradingView, a widely-used platform by traders of all kinds, offers a powerful scripting language called Pine Script, which allows users to create custom indicators and strategies. However, when it comes to dealing with time in Pine Script, things can get tricky—especially if you’re working with markets across different time zones.
By default, TradingView operates in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), but most traders need to adjust for local time zones or account for the nuances of daylight saving time. This article is designed to help you navigate these challenges, showing you how to convert and manage time zones effectively within Pine Script.
In this example, I’ll be using the timenow variable to demonstrate this method, but you can apply the same approach to any other time variables in your code. As I mentioned there is no standalone function to translate timezone from one to another, so we have to create it from scratch.
First let’s define timezone we want to transform from and to:
tz_from = 'UTC'
tz_to = 'GMT+2'
Next using time function let’s find time of the last bar for both timeframes and find the difference between these 2:
time_diff = fixnan(time(timeframe.period, '', tz_from)) - fixnan(time(timeframe.period, '', tz_to))
Result will be 7200000 which is equal to 2 hours in milliseconds. Now to transform time from one timezone to another we can add time_diff variable to time in source time zone. So if I want to show timezone in the GMT+2 timezone I just need to do the following:
timenow_gmt2 = timenow + time_diff
This will transform time for us just fine:
We can wrap that in a nice function:
tz_transform(t, tz_from, tz_to) =>
time_diff = fixnan(time(timeframe.period, '', tz_from)) - fixnan(time(timeframe.period, '', tz_to))
t_tz = t + time_diff
t_tz
Then the call to compute time will be very simple:
timenow_gmt2 = tz_transform(timenow,'UTC', 'GMT+2')
Handling time zone conversions in Pine Script is a crucial skill for any trader working across global markets. By understanding how to work with TradingView’s time functions and adjusting for time zones, you can ensure that your scripts are precise and aligned with the specific market hours that matter to your strategy. Whether you’re tracking the opening bell in New York or monitoring Forex trades around the clock, mastering these techniques will help you build more effective and time-aware indicators and strategies. Now that you have the tools, feel free to experiment and tailor your Pine Script code to meet your trading needs across any time zone!
