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How to Build a Watchlist

A watchlist is the short list of symbols the platform shows first with their live prices, built by showing everything the broker offers and hiding what you never open, and kept as a named set that loads on any computer. This paper shows you the watchlist in five lines; the idea as the keys on hooks by the door; the Show All, Hide and Sets menu on Market Watch; six symbols at 10:00 on 25 August 2026 with their price and their change on the day from this library's bars; and named lists, sections and flags on your platform.

Difficulty
Advanced
Reading time
5 min
Pages
8
Reviewed by
Saman Rahbar

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A watchlist, in five lines

A watchlist is the list of symbols the platform shows first, in Market Watch on MetaTrader or in the right panel on TradingView, with their live prices beside them. It is for the symbols you actually open; the rest of the broker's hundreds stay hidden until asked for. It is built by right-clicking, Show All, then hiding the ones you never open, or by adding names one at a time, and it is kept as a named set that loads again on any computer. The example is six symbols at 10:00 on Tuesday 25 August 2026, with their price and their change on the day from this library's bars.

The keys on hooks by the door

Picture a row of hooks by the door with five keys on them, and a drawer below with everything else. The keys on the hooks are the ones the hand goes to without looking; the drawer holds the spare keys, the old keys and the keys to places rarely visited, and it opens when it is needed. A watchlist is the row of hooks: a handful of symbols in reach, the drawer for the broker's other two hundred, and nothing about the hooks says one key is better than another, only that it is used.

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