General indicator installation guide for ThinkorSwim / TOS

How to download, save and install a study onto the TOS platform?

Before installing your indicator, be aware of the common issues people run into when installing a TOS indicator.

• Browser set to automatically open media files. TOS files look like video/audio files on your computer.
• Do not open the file directly. Trying to open the file instead of importing directly from TOS will result in an error (see link above) .
• Downloading the indicator multiple times and deleting the original copy (see link above (see link above).
• If the link to download in email doesn’t work, download directly from the Simpler Trading website (see #1 below).

What you need:

You will need to be logged into https://my.simplertrading.com/ in order to download your indicator(s).

1. Download

Go to Simpler Trading > Dashboard > My indicators to download directly or open the email you received from Simpler Trading (see below)

In the example below, the link in the email will take you to a download page. Regardless of how you receive the indicator, the process of installing it into TOS will be the same.

To download your study, click on the link in the email or go to: https://my.simplertrading.com/dashboard/indicators/

If you are not logged into the Simpler Trading website, you will not see the links to download your indicator.
  

The name of the downloaded file will appear in the bottom left corner of the Chrome or Firefox browser page like in the image above. 

2. Where is your file?

A Windows directory will appear and your indicator file will be highlighted. 

You will need to find your downloaded indicator file directly from the TOS application.

If you are unsure where your file downloaded to, left-click once on the chevron/arrow just to the right of the indicator’s name (see image above). Then click on “Show in folder” to see where your file is located.

Take note of the file path at the top of the window. This is where your indicator is located on your computer (see the image below). 

In this case, the “ST_MultiRangeSTUDY” indicator is located in the:
Computer > Main (C:) > Users > Trader > Downloads

Simply put, this indicator file is in the Downloads folder. Why? Because that is the last folder/directory listed from left to right.   

Take note of this file path so you can refer to it when importing your indicator into TOS.

When you go back to TOS, use the same path as you see at the top of the window where you downloaded the file in the above screenshot.

Your path will be slightly different than the one shown here.
 

3. Open the Edit Studies and Strategies Window.  

After downloading the file, open ThinkorSwim. From any chart, window click on Studies > Edit Studies.

4. Click Import

With the Studies tab highlighted, click on the Import button at the bottom left-hand side of the window.

5. Find the file

After clicking “Import”, the “Load Study” window appears. 

To find the “Downloads” folder, choose users as shown below.

Click on your user folder. In this case, the user folder is “Trader”.

Your user folder will likely have a different name.

Find the “downloads” folder and open it. 

6. Open the file

From the “Downloads” folder, use the horizontal scroll bar to find the indicator file name; single-click on it and choose “Open.” 

In this case, we are loading the Voodoo lines.   

7. Find the indicator in your list of available studies. 

At the top left-hand corner of the studies window, make sure the “Studies” tab is selected. 

Left-click in the blank search box and enter your search term.

Anything with that search term will populate the list.

 8. Add the indicator to the chart.

Double-click the name of the indicator to add it to your chart.

You should now see it available on the right-hand side along with any of the other indicators currently added.

At the bottom right-hand side of the window click OK.

 
You should now see your indicator on your charts.