Tutorial

Complete Guide to Pine Script v5 for Beginners

📅 October 1, 2025 • ⏱️ 10 min read • ✍️ By PineScriptDeveloper

1. What is Pine Script?
2. Why Pine Script v5?
3. Basic Syntax
4. Your First Indicator
5. Common Functions
6. Next Steps

What is Pine Script?

Pine Script is TradingView's proprietary programming language designed specifically for creating custom indicators, strategies, and alerts for financial markets. Unlike general-purpose programming languages, Pine Script is optimized for technical analysis and trading.

Whether you're a trader wanting to build custom indicators or a developer looking to automate trading strategies, Pine Script provides powerful tools without the complexity of traditional programming languages.

Why Pine Script v5?

Pine Script v5, released in 2021, is the latest and most powerful version. Here's why you should learn v5:

Improved syntax: More intuitive and easier to read than v4
Better performance: Faster execution and more efficient code
New features: Methods, objects, and advanced data structures
Future-proof: TradingView actively develops v5, v4 is deprecated

Basic Syntax

Version Declaration

Every Pine Script v5 script must start with a version declaration:

                        //@version=5
                    

Indicator Declaration

Define your indicator with the indicator() function:

                        
//@version=5

indicator("My First Indicator", overlay=true)

Variables

Pine Script uses dynamic typing. Declare variables with the assignment operator:

                        
myPrice = close  // Current closing price

myLength = 14    // Integer value

myColor = color.blue  // Color value

Your First Indicator: Simple Moving Average

Let's create a simple moving average (SMA) indicator. This is one of the most common indicators in trading:

                        
//@version=5

indicator("My Simple Moving Average", overlay=true)

// Input: Allow users to customize the length

length = input.int(20, "SMA Length", minval=1)

// Calculate SMA

smaValue = ta.sma(close, length)

// Plot the SMA on the chart

plot(smaValue, color=color.blue, linewidth=2, title="SMA")

What this code does:

input.int() creates a user input with default value of 20
ta.sma() calculates the simple moving average
plot() displays the SMA line on your chart

Common Built-in Functions

Price Data

close - Closing price
open - Opening price
high - Highest price
low - Lowest price
volume - Trading volume

Technical Indicators

ta.sma() - Simple Moving Average
ta.ema() - Exponential Moving Average
ta.rsi() - Relative Strength Index
ta.macd() - MACD Indicator
ta.crossover() - Detects line crossovers

Next Steps

Now that you understand the basics, here are recommended next steps:

Practice creating simple indicators on TradingView
Study built-in indicators source code (click "Source Code" on any indicator)
Learn about creating custom indicators
Explore trading strategy development
Join TradingView's Pine Script community

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About the Author

Professional Pine Script developer with 5+ years of experience. Specialized in creating custom indicators, strategies, and alerts for traders worldwide. Completed 50+ projects with clients in USA, Europe, and Middle East.

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