# TickSurfers — Full machine-readable overview

> TickSurfers is a **subscription-based, browser-based charting platform** with **strategy backtest**, **parameter optimization**, **walk-forward analysis**, **multi-chart layouts**, an **options chain & multi-leg builder** with **interactive P/L canvas**, **custom indicators and strategies** in **JavaScript** and **WebAssembly**, **watchlist** with alerts and self-optimization, **drawing tools**, **bar replay**, and a **trade journal**. The platform also includes the **official Jake Bernstein indicators** and a **Backwardation (Futures Premium)** indicator **recommended by Larry Williams**.

The platform is launching by **invitation only** at https://ticksurfers.com/chart/. **Active TickSurfers indicator bundle subscribers (Day Trader, Futures Trader, Swing Trader, JB Indicators) receive an invitation to the charting platform effective immediately at no additional cost**, included with their existing monthly or yearly subscription. **Standalone subscription pricing** for users who only want the chart platform (without an indicator bundle) will be announced at general availability on https://ticksurfers.com/pricing. **Premium indicator bundles** for the TickSurfers Charting Platform are sold separately from any future standalone chart subscription.

Research and simulation (backtest, optimization, walk-forward) are not identical to live trading; distinguish fills, margin, and broker behavior in production from testing workflows.

TickSurfers publishes a broad catalog of indicators and strategies for equities, futures, commodities, FX, and cryptocurrencies; documentation includes instructional videos. Many rules-based systems can be automated directly inside the TickSurfers Charting Platform.

## Agent and developer discovery

| Resource | URL |
|----------|-----|
| Charting platform | https://ticksurfers.com/chart/ |
| Platform features overview | https://ticksurfers.com/features |
| Pricing | https://ticksurfers.com/pricing |
| Short LLM summary (`llms.txt` specification) | https://ticksurfers.com/llms.txt |
| This extended summary | https://ticksurfers.com/llms-full.txt |
| OpenAPI description of public HTTP surfaces | https://ticksurfers.com/openapi.yaml |
| ChatGPT / plugin-style manifest (legacy `ai-plugin.json`) | https://ticksurfers.com/ai-plugin.json |
| Crawl policy | https://ticksurfers.com/robots.txt |
| HTML sitemap | https://ticksurfers.com/sitemap.xml |

## Charting platform — capabilities

### Strategy research

- **Backtest:** built-in, custom (JavaScript / WASM), and private (server-side) strategies. Equity, futures, and multi-leg options entries/exits. Profit factor, win rate, drawdown, expectancy, and per-trade option markers on the chart. Supports synthetic option pricing or real option chains.
- **Optimization:** grid-search across strategy inputs, symbols, and timeframes. Built-in fitness presets (return, sharpe, expectancy, drawdown-adjusted) plus custom fitness scripts in JavaScript that receive aggregated stats and the merged trade list.
- **Walk-forward:** rolling in-sample optimization + out-of-sample validation, configurable by IS bars, OOS bars, step bars, and bars-to-load. Per-fold result table with apply-to-chart actions; supports cancel mid-run.
- **Self-optimization:** chart-toolbar and watchlist self-opt run a bounded grid search on recent history per symbol, persist the best params, and re-trigger on configurable on-trade policies.

### Charting

- Canvas-based rendering (no external chart library). Index-based time scale; per-pane right-side price scale; Y-axis adapts to visible candles, indicator series, and option-marker strikes.
- Multi-chart layouts: single pane, two-pane row with resizer, or N-pane grid. Bind backtest, optimization, walk-forward, options chain, and options builder to specific panes via colored slots.
- Vertical panes (price, volume, indicator panes, strategy panes) with resizable height ratios.
- Drawing tools: trendline, horizontal line, vertical line, rectangle, circle, triangle, text.
- Bar replay with date/index targeting and 500 ms / 1 s / 3 s / 5 s autoplay.
- Personalization: theme, candle/wick colors, crosshair, last-price line, watermark, empty bars right, zoom/scroll sensitivity, backtest colors.
- Workspaces: save/restore named workspace state.

### Options

- Options chain: calls / strike / puts grid for any expiration; toggle Greeks / IV / last / volume; optional live streaming.
- Options builder: templates for long calls, vertical spreads, iron condors, butterflies, calendars, and a Custom builder for arbitrary multi-leg setups; strikes step through the live chain.
- Interactive P/L canvas; lock the net debit/credit while editing legs; switch mark-to-model time without remounting.
- Breakeven, leg-strike, and call/put markers projected onto a linked chart pane; Y-axis extended so markers stay visible.

### Custom code

- JavaScript indicators, strategies, and optimization fitness scripts. Sublime-style in-browser code editor with template scripts and syntax highlighting; full TA helper library (`sma`, `ema`, `rsi`, `macd`, `atr`, `psar`, Williams `%R` and A/D, true range), drawing primitives (`draw.label`, `draw.line`).
- WebAssembly (WASM/WAT) indicators and strategies; WAT compiled in-browser via WABT; cached instances.
- Strategy API: buy/sell/short/cover, profit targets, stop loss, trailing stop. Strategy compute can return plots and levels — they render like indicators in overlay or a dedicated pane.
- View built-in source for any built-in indicator or strategy.
- Private indicators: author your own indicator and share it with other traders while keeping the source code private. Execution stays server-side and is fetched with each viewer's TickSurfers session, so the implementation is never shipped to the client.

### Watchlist & journal

- Multiple named watchlists with per-row symbol and timeframe; custom number/string/formula columns; price alerts (above/below/cross). Strategy scan: per-row backtest metrics, optional self-optimization, stored best params per symbol. Tracks after-hours / pre-market price.
- Trade journal with multiple lists; symbols (equity / futures / multi-leg options / other); entry/exit dates and prices, stop loss, multiple profit targets, side (long/short), notes. Auto-computed: total trades, win rate, average win/loss ratio, biggest winner/loser, consecutive winners/losers.

### Data

- Multi-upstream by design: Yahoo Finance (default, no key), Tradier (REST + streaming + options), Massive (real-time stream), Databento (institutional history), and Alpha Vantage (equities/FX).
- Server-only egress: when the `data-providers` feature flag is off, the backend is the only authorized data path; client never sends provider hints.
- Live streaming (Tradier / Massive) relayed through the backend WS; pre-market / after-hours trade events are tracked for the orange dotted last-price line on daily+ contexts.
- AI chat (premium): symbol-keyed sidebar chat with optional chart-image and indicator/strategy context.

## Features (human-facing entry points)

- [Charting platform](https://ticksurfers.com/chart/): Subscription-based charting with strategy backtest, optimization, walk-forward, options chain & builder, custom indicators in JS/WASM, multi-charts, drawing, replay, journal. Currently invitation-only. Active TickSurfers indicator bundle subscribers receive an invitation immediately at no additional cost.
- [Platform features overview](https://ticksurfers.com/features): Detailed feature page covering every capability of the chart.
- [Indicators](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/): Full list of indicators provided by TickSurfers
- [Documentation](https://ticksurfers.com/docs/): Documentation with instructional videos for using TickSurfers indicators
- [Jake Bernstein specialized indicators](https://ticksurfers.com/jb): Rules-based trading systems and specialized indicators by Jake Bernstein
- [Backwardation (Futures Premium)](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/backwardation): Futures Premium / backwardation indicator recommended by Larry Williams
- [Pricing](https://ticksurfers.com/pricing): Chart platform is launching by invitation only; active indicator bundle subscribers receive an invitation immediately at no additional cost; standalone chart pricing announced at general availability; premium indicator bundles for the TickSurfers Charting Platform — Day Trader, Futures Trader, Swing Trader, JB Indicators

### Full list of indicators

- [Expansion Contraction](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/xc): This one-of-a-kind indicator was created by Brian Latta and is based on Jake Bernstein’s trading systems. Expansion Contraction is the first concurrent and dual perspective system indicator with over 30 tradable conditions.
- [Williams Acc/Dist](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/will_ad): Larry Williams’ accumulation and distribution formula with a simple moving average of WillAD, used by Jake Bernstein with a 57 period simple moving average. Use in combination with Jake’s trading systems to confirm trend direction.
- [Benner Cycle](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/benner_cycle): Visualize Samuel Benner’s market cycles in TradingView. Set the chart to a 1-year timeframe with the SPX index and plot the Benner Cycle Indicator to see past, future and current cycle predictions.
- [ADD Ratio](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/add): Get raw ADD readings, ADD Ratio and ADD Breadth all in one indicator. This indicator is designed for day traders but can be used by anyone to gauge market internals.
- [Backwardation (Premium)](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/backwardation): Calculate backwardation (or contract premium) readings for Futures and Commodities. When the backwardation reading crosses above zero it means the market is setup for a bullish move. Does not work in reverse. This reading works only for bullish readings.
- [COT Report](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/cot): Follow the “big money” or “smart money” traders with this Commitment of Traders (COT) Report indicator. This indicator includes disaggregated data in addition to the legacy data for both TradingView and TradeStation.
- [Keltner Clouds](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/keltner_clouds): This multi-talented indicator makes use of every plot line to provide you with useful information in a minimalistic approach. It provides 3 (adjustable) ATR bands of the Keltner Channel without cluttering the chart. In addition, it uses the middle band to provide you with various options for color-coded visual indicators.
- [Offense / Defense Line (OD Line)](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/od_line): A market breadth indicator that measures offensive ETF sectors versus defensive sectors. When the OD line increases it can be an indicator of market uncertainty. As it decreases it indicates a bullish market.
- [AVOL (Ext. Hours Average Volume)](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/avol): A measurement of pre-market volume used to identify stocks in play that have a higher likelihood of follow through in momentum.
- [RVOL (Relative Volume)](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/rvol): Relative Volume or RVOL is a measurement of current volume to average volume at time. It’s typically miscalculated by comparing current volume against average volume (which is more accurately described as Volume Z-Score, also available by TickSurfers).
- [Seasonality](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/seasonality): This professionally-built seasonality indicator creates a calculation that plots one year into the future so you can spot upcoming seasonality trends in time. Tooltips are added to give you insights into the win rate, history and direction of seasonality.
- [Hedge Up](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/hedge_up): This proprietary formula is akin to a fear gauge for the S&P 500 exclusively. Able to determine when volatility is expected to expand days (sometimes weeks) in advance.
- [Cumulative TICK](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/tick): Get raw TICK readings or cumulative TICK calculation all in one indicator. An important gauge of market internals that can be used alongside ADD and VOLD readings.
- [TRIN (Arms Index)](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/trin): A market breadth indicator developed by Richard W. Arms in 1967 to measure market strength. It is plotted as a ratio by dividing ADD ratio by VOLD ratio.
- [VIX Ratio](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/vix): In addition to providing a raw reading of the VIX, this indicator provides access to VIX ratio, a powerful formula that can spot bullish market reversals after a strong sell-off.
- [Volatility Cycle](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/volatility_cycle): The volatility cycle indicator measures the strength of a trend, not the direction. Useful in spotting compression or expansion in prices.
- [VOLD Ratio](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/vold): View raw VOLD readings or VOLD ratio. This market internal goes hand-in-hand with ADD and TICK indexes.
- [Volume Z-Score](https://ticksurfers.com/indicators/volume_z-score): Volume Z-Score (not to be confused with RVOL) compares current volume against average volume. This indicator provides insights into strong bullish volume or strong bearish volume to help spot significant volume in any direction.

### Documentation

- [Advance Decline Index ($ADD)](https://ticksurfers.com/docs/add)
- [Advance Decline Volume ($VOLD)](https://ticksurfers.com/docs/vold)
- [Advance Decline Ticks ($TICK)](https://ticksurfers.com/docs/tick)
- [Offense Defense Line](https://ticksurfers.com/docs/od_line)
- [Relative Volume (RVOL)](https://ticksurfers.com/docs/rvol)
- [Ext. Hours Percent AVOL](https://ticksurfers.com/docs/avol)
- [Volume Z-Score](https://ticksurfers.com/docs/volume_z-score)
- [Volatility Cycle](https://ticksurfers.com/docs/volatility_cycle)
- [Market Internals](https://ticksurfers.com/docs/internals)
- [Seasonality](https://ticksurfers.com/docs/seasonality)

## Contact

- [Contact](https://ticksurfers.com/contact): Custom indicator or strategy ideas; general market/product questions
- [Email](mailto:support@ticksurfers.com)

## Policies

- Terms and privacy: see https://ticksurfers.com/legal/terms and https://ticksurfers.com/legal/privacy