Pine Script via Claude
Automate your trading without writing code

90% of retail traders have a chart-reading routine that works — but they can't articulate it as if-then rules. Claude solves that. You describe the setup in plain English, it spits out Pine Script v5.

By the end of this post you'll be able to take any setup you can describe and turn it into a strategy you can backtest in TradingView and route to TVSBot for live execution.

Why Claude, not ChatGPT or Copilot?

I've shipped Pine with all three. Real differences:

• Copilot: Built for autocomplete, not from-scratch generation. Great at finishing the line you're typing. Ask it to generate a strategy from a verbal description and you'll often get an indicator instead of a strategy.
• ChatGPT: Capable but tends to mix Pine v4 and v5 syntax. You have to pin "Pine Script v5" in the prompt and confirm the output starts with //@version=5 or TradingView's compiler rejects it.
• Claude: Most reliable on structured code with long context. You can dump the full strategy spec, risk rules, TVSBot JSON schema, and TradingView Pine doc snippets in one shot — Claude keeps the whole picture coherent. The free tier (Sonnet 4.5) handled all 5 example prompts in this post first-try.

The three-step pipeline

Mental model first:

1. Strategy description → Claude prompt (the 5-section template below).
2. Claude → Pine Script v5 with strategy() + alertcondition().
3. Pine → TradingView backtest. Paste into Pine Editor → Add to chart → check Strategy Tester (Net Profit, Max Drawdown, Win Rate).
4. Alert + TVSBot webhook. Chart clock → Add Alert → condition = your strategy → Notifications tab → paste the TVSBot webhook URL → paste Claude's JSON in message body.

You never write Pine yourself.

The 5-section prompt template

Every good Pine prompt has these 5 sections. Drop any one and Claude has to guess; guess wrong and you burn 3–4 turns iterating:

[1. Who I am and what I trade]
I trade BTC perpetuals on the 1-hour chart with USD 10K on
Binance USDT-M Futures.

[2. Entry conditions]
Go long when the close breaks the prior 20-bar high
(excluding the current bar) AND RSI(14) > 50.

[3. Exit conditions]
Close when price breaks the prior 10-bar low. Or when price
retraces ATR(14) × 2 from the post-entry high.

[4. Risk rules]
Stop = entry-bar low minus ATR(14) × 0.5.
Max risk per trade = 1% of account.
Max one position at a time, no pyramiding.

[5. Output spec]
Output a complete Pine Script v5 strategy().
Include alertcondition() x2 (entry, exit).
The alert message MUST be a single-line valid JSON string:
{"action":"buy","symbol":"{{ticker}}","qty_type":"margin_usdt","qty_value":"500","strategy_id":"breakout-v1"}
Use action:"close" for the exit alert.

Paste these 5 sections to Claude verbatim and 95% of the time you get usable Pine on the first try.

5 strategies you can steal

Strategy 1: Donchian Breakout

Plain English: buy on a 20-bar high break, exit on a 10-bar low break. Stop 0.5×ATR below the entry bar low.

Pine Script v5 strategy().
Entry: close > ta.highest(high, 20)[1] (the prior bar's value, not current).
Exit: close < ta.lowest(low, 10)[1].
Stop loss: entry-bar low minus 0.5 * ta.atr(14).
Sizing: 100% equity (default_qty_value=100, default_qty_type=strategy.percent_of_equity).
alertcondition() x2:
  - entry: {"action":"buy","symbol":"{{ticker}}","qty_type":"margin_usdt","qty_value":"500"}
  - exit:  {"action":"close","symbol":"{{ticker}}"}
pyramiding=0, process_orders_on_close=true.

Why this is a good first strategy: the logic is two lines. Backtests on BTC 1H over the last year tend to land at 35–45% win rate with R:R 1:3+, net positive.

Strategy 2: EMA Cross

Buy when EMA20 crosses above EMA60, short the inverse. Stop at the slow EMA.

Pine v5 strategy().
Long entry: ta.crossover(ta.ema(close, 20), ta.ema(close, 60)).
Short entry: ta.crossunder(ta.ema(close, 20), ta.ema(close, 60)).
Stop: 0.3% below ema60 for longs, mirror for shorts.
Take profit: 1:2 risk/reward (target = entry + risk*2).
pyramiding=0, close_entries_on_opposite=true (auto-flip on reverse signal).
alertcondition() x4 (long entry/exit, short entry/exit).
qty_type:"margin_usdt", qty_value:"500".

Heads up: EMA20/60 needs 1H or higher. On 5-minute charts the noise will whipsaw you.

Strategy 3: RSI Mean Reversion with trend filter

RSI(14) crosses back above 30 from below → buy. Exit at RSI 50. Mirror for shorts. Critical: only longs above EMA200, only shorts below.

Pine v5 strategy().
RSI period 14.
rsiLong = ta.crossover(ta.rsi(close, 14), 30) and close > ta.ema(close, 200)
rsiShort = ta.crossunder(ta.rsi(close, 14), 70) and close < ta.ema(close, 200)
Long entry: rsiLong
Short entry: rsiShort
Long exit: ta.rsi(close, 14) >= 50 OR close < ta.ema(close, 200)
Short exit: ta.rsi(close, 14) <= 50 OR close > ta.ema(close, 200)
Stop: fixed -1.5% (ranges don't have ATR-friendly volatility patterns).
alertcondition() x4.

Case study: without the EMA200 filter, BTC 1H over the past year: 47% win rate, -3% net. With the filter: 51% win rate, +8.2% net. One filter line, entirely different strategy.

Strategy 4: Bollinger + MACD

Body closes above the upper BB AND MACD line above zero → long. Mirror for shorts on the lower band. Dual confirmation cuts most chop.

Pine v5 strategy().
BB(20, 2.0) upper/lower.
MACD(12, 26, 9).
Long: close > BB upper AND MACD line > MACD signal AND MACD line > 0
Short: close < BB lower AND MACD line < MACD signal AND MACD line < 0
(Note: Pine v5 ta.bb returns [middle, upper, lower] tuple — use destructuring.)
Stop: ta.atr(14) * 1.5
Exit: ATR trailing stop using ta.atr(14) * 3
alertcondition() x2 (entry, exit).

Strategy 5: Session filter (overlay on any strategy)

You only want trades during the Asia session, UTC 00:00–08:00 (= GMT+8 08:00–16:00). Skip the EU/US chop.

Add a session filter to my existing EMA Cross strategy:
- Use hour(time, 'UTC') to get the current UTC hour.
- Define inSession = hour >= 0 and hour < 8.
- Add "and inSession" to the entry conditions only.
- Open positions follow normal stop/take logic regardless of session.
- Don't change the strategy() declaration or existing alertcondition()s.

Session filters often spike win rate. Let Claude wire the timezones — it'll save you 20 minutes of timezone math.

Risk wording — 4 lines that decide ship vs trash

For Claude's Pine to be live-money-ready, these 4 lines must be in the prompt:

Translating trader-speak to Claude-speak

The hardest part for new traders: you KNOW when you'd buy, but you can't articulate it. Rosetta stone:

Real case study: "I trade news + breakouts" → automated strategy

A friend's actual workflow. He watches news, then buys when a big candle breaks recent highs. I asked: "what specifically?" He couldn't articulate. We sat down and decomposed:

1. "Big candle" quantified: body (close - open) > prior 14-bar ATR × 1.5.
2. "Breaks recent highs" quantified: bar high > max of prior 50-bar highs.
3. "Buy in" quantified: enter at next bar open. No chasing.
4. Stops added: entry-bar low minus 1×ATR. No fixed take profit — ATR×3 trailing stop.

We pasted that description to Claude. The output strategy, backtested on BTC 1H for 6 months:

Net Profit:     +$4,820 (48.2% on $10K)
Total Trades:   31
Win Rate:       38.7% (12W / 19L)
Avg Win:        +$543
Avg Loss:       -$132
R:R:            4.1
Max Drawdown:   -$1,210 (-12.1%)
Sharpe:         1.82

Win rate isn't impressive but R:R does the work. Net positive. Better than his "news + vibes" workflow because now there's a rule. When it loses, he knows why.

Top 5 Claude-Pine failure modes

1. v4/v5 syntax drift

Without an explicit "Pine Script v5" up top, Claude occasionally emits study() (v4 only) or drops //@version=5. Always pin v5.

2. Multi-line alert message → TV rejects

TradingView's alert message field is one-line only. Tell Claude explicitly: "the alert message MUST be a single-line valid JSON string".

3. Missing ta. prefix

Pine v5 requires ta. on built-ins. Claude sometimes emits ema(...) directly, which fails compilation with Could not find function 'ema'. Add "all built-ins must use the ta.* prefix" to the end of the prompt.

4. strategy() vs indicator()

For automation you need strategy(). indicator() can't call strategy.entry / strategy.close. Claude may default to indicator() unless you specify strategy() explicitly.

5. Repainting (most insidious)

If your entry uses the currently un-closed bar, signals flicker until the bar closes. Backtest looks suspiciously good because entries land at the bar's high. Fix: use [1] to reference the prior (closed) bar, or set process_orders_on_close=true on the strategy.

// Bad: uses unclosed current bar's high
entrySignal = high > ta.highest(high, 20)

// Good: locked to prior closed bar
entrySignal = high[1] > ta.highest(high[1], 20)

Wiring to TVSBot — 3 steps

1. Confirm Pine alert uses TVSBot JSON (action, symbol, qty_type, qty_value, strategy_id). The prompt templates above already specify this.
2. Set the TradingView alert: chart top-right clock → Add Alert → Condition = your strategy → Frequency = "Once per bar close" (NOT every tick — every tick spams).
3. Paste the TVSBot webhook URL: Notifications tab → Webhook URL → URL from your dashboard → Message body = Claude's JSON → Create.

Advanced: turn an entire trading book into a Claude prompt

Some traders want to implement systems from books (Turtle Trader, Market Wizards). Pattern:

I have the Turtle System 2 specification:
- Entry: break above prior 55-day high (long) / below prior 55-day low (short)
- Exit: opposite 20-day break
- Stop: 2N rule (N = 20-day ATR), 2% account risk per unit
- Pyramiding: add 1 unit per 0.5N favorable move, max 4 units
- Position limits: 4 per market, 6 per correlated group, 12 directional

Write this as a Pine v5 strategy() for BTC/USDT 1D.
pyramiding=4. N = ta.atr(20). Per-unit risk = 2% account via
strategy.percent_of_equity. Keep inline comments referencing
the original Turtle rules so I can tune them later.

Claude can translate book-level logic into code with comments — much faster than reading the book then learning Pine yourself.

FAQ

Q: Is the free tier enough?

A: For 3–5 strategies per day, yes. If you iterate hard (20 revisions of the same strategy in a day), you'll want Pro ($20/mo) or the API.

Q: What if Claude's strategy loses money in backtest?

A: Look at Strategy Tester first. If win rate < 30% and R:R < 1:2, the logic is broken — don't tweak code, redesign. If win rate > 40% but net negative, fees are eating you — add a filter to reduce trade count.

Q: Can I share my prompt with other traders?

A: Yes — actually the TVSBot marketplace is built for it. Publish your strategy and earn 70% of subscriber fees. See marketplace.

Q: Claude vs TradingView's built-in Pine Genie?

A: Pine Genie is convenient (in-IDE) but quota-limited. Claude is more flexible — you can dump the whole strategy + risk rules in one shot. In practice: Genie for small edits, Claude for from-scratch.