macOS Desktop App

MyTradingGuard is a native macOS app that works side-by-side with TradingView Desktop. Every time you click Buy or Sell, the app instantly checks the order against your active rules — and either lets it through or blocks it with a native macOS notification.

If you trade from a web browser, use the Chrome extension instead. The macOS app is for TradingView Desktop only.

Once installed, everything is automatic. Open MyTradingGuard, set your rules once, and the app quietly enforces them every session from then on.

Installation is identical to any other macOS application: download, double-click, drag-and-drop. There are no scripts to run, no extra software to install, and no Terminal commands.

You need macOS 14 Sonoma or later on a Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or later) and TradingView Desktop already installed in your Applications folder.

1. Click Download for macOS on our homepage. You'll receive a file called MyTradingGuard.dmg.
2. Double-click MyTradingGuard.dmg. A small window opens showing the app icon and a shortcut to your Applications folder.
3. Drag MyTradingGuard onto the Applications folder inside that window. Wait a few seconds while macOS copies it.
4. Open Launchpad or the Applications folder and click MyTradingGuard to launch it.

When you open MyTradingGuard for the first time, the app does everything automatically:

1. It prepares itself in the background so that it can talk to TradingView Desktop. macOS may ask for your password once during this first-time setup — this is normal. After this one-time authorisation, everything is seamless on every future launch.
2. It opens TradingView Desktop for you if it isn't already open.
3. It starts the Setup Wizard to guide you through configuring your rules.

From then on, all you have to do is: open MyTradingGuard, then trade normally in TradingView. The app stays in the background and only speaks up when it blocks an order.

On first launch, the Setup Wizard runs automatically. It walks you through all 13 rules, one at a time (for Blocked Days, the last step, it has the switches; the days you pick yourself are added in Settings). Each rule has an on/off toggle — enable only the ones you want. You can skip the wizard entirely and configure everything later in Settings.

If a new rule is added in a future app update, the wizard re-appears once so you can review the new step. After that, it stays out of your way.

The welcome screen introduces MyTradingGuard and lets you choose between starting the guided setup or skipping directly to the dashboard.

Start Setup → takes you through each rule one by one. Recommended for first-time users.

Skip goes directly to the dashboard with default settings applied. You can always adjust rules later in Settings.

Define the hours — and, if you wish, the days of the week — during which you are allowed to trade. Any order placed outside these windows is automatically blocked.

After each completed trade (round-trip), all new orders are blocked for the specified number of minutes. This prevents revenge trading — the instinct to immediately re-enter after a loss.

During the wait the status badge at the top of the app reads Trading is Blocked, with the countdown underneath (e.g. “unlocks in 3 min”); the Cooldown row of the dashboard shows the time of the last trade.

Limits how many trades you can take. You can choose between a daily cap (e.g. max 3 trades per session) or a rolling time window (e.g. max 2 trades within any 60-minute window). Once the limit is hit, new orders are blocked.

The dashboard shows your current count in real time: 2 / 3. When the limit is reached, the status turns Blocked.

Counts trades that closed with a net loss. You can choose to count losses for the entire day or only consecutive losses in a row. When you reach the limit, all further orders are blocked. This prevents the classic losing-streak spiral.

This rule enforces two checks. First, any single order whose quantity exceeds the limit is blocked immediately. Second, the app tracks your net position and blocks orders that would push your total exposure beyond the limit — even if each individual order is small. For example, with a limit of 5: if you are already short 5 contracts, a sell order for 1 more is blocked (it would bring net exposure to 6), but a buy order for 5 is allowed (it closes the position to flat).

The limit is a whole number of contracts (default 5).

On the dashboard, the rule shows a progress bar and a live position count (e.g. "2 / 3 contracts") while you hold a position. When your open contracts reach the limit, the rule row turns red — a clear visual signal that new orders adding to this position will be blocked. When you close the position (back to flat), the row returns to green.

Unlike Max Daily Loss (which measures the drop from the start-of-day baseline), this rule tracks the highest P&L reached during the session and blocks new orders when the drawdown from that peak exceeds the configured threshold.

For example, with a drawdown limit of $500: if you reach a peak P&L of +$1,200 and your P&L then falls to +$700 ($1,200 − $500), all new orders are blocked. This protects you from giving back hard-earned gains during a reversal.

Enter your maximum tolerated loss in dollars as a positive number. When your realized P&L for the day drops below −$200 (for a limit of 200), all orders are blocked for the rest of the session.

P&L is tracked in real time. The rule fires as soon as the threshold is crossed, mid-session.

When your realized P&L reaches or exceeds this amount, trading is blocked for the rest of the day. This prevents the common mistake of giving back profits by continuing to trade after a good session.

After the wizard completes all 13 steps, you land on the Dashboard with all your rules active.

The Consistency rule enforces discipline in your winning days. It limits how much you can earn in a single session to a percentage of your overall profit target, so no single winning day dominates your track record.

You configure three values: Profit Target (your overall goal, e.g. $9,500), Consistency % (e.g. 20%), and optionally Highest Daily Profit (the most you've earned in a single day so far).

The effective daily limit is calculated as Profit Target × Consistency%. For example, $9,500 × 20% = $1,900. If you also set a Highest Daily Profit of $2,786, the limit becomes $2,786 (whichever is higher). Once your realized P&L reaches the limit, orders are blocked for the rest of the session.

The High Impact News rule automatically blocks orders around major economic releases — CPI, Non-Farm Payrolls, FOMC decisions, and other high-impact events. Trading is paused from 5 minutes before to 6 minutes after each event, protecting you from volatility spikes that can blow through stops.

News data is updated automatically in the background. No user configuration is needed beyond enabling the rule.

The dashboard shows the next upcoming event for the current day and its countdown (e.g. "CPI (USD) in 1h:07m"). Events from other days are not shown. When all of today's events have passed, the detail line changes to "No more high-impact events today". When a news window is active, the status badge shows Blocked and the unlock countdown displays the remaining minutes.

Hover the rule row to see a tooltip listing all of today's scheduled events with their times. Events that have already passed are shown with reduced opacity and strikethrough text, so you can immediately see which ones are still ahead.

The Allowed Tickers rule restricts trading to a whitelist of symbols you define. Only orders on the tickers you list here will be allowed — every other symbol is blocked. This is useful for staying focused on a specific contract (e.g. MNQM2026) or a single equity (e.g. AAPL) and avoiding the temptation to hunt opportunities across unfamiliar instruments mid-session.

You add symbols one per row with the + Add Ticker button. Matching is case-insensitive and exact — no wildcards, no prefix matching. When you save, each symbol is normalised to uppercase and trimmed of surrounding whitespace, so aapl and AAPL are treated identically.

If you enable the rule with an empty list, every order is blocked with the reason "Allowed Tickers rule is active but the list is empty". This is intentional: an unconfigured whitelist would silently defeat the rule's purpose. The dashboard row shows "No tickers configured" in that state so you notice immediately.

The No Averaging Down rule blocks orders that would increase the size of a currently-losing open position. Adding size to a losing trade — just to lower your average entry price — is one of the fastest ways to turn a manageable loss into a blown account. This rule only lets you scale in after the market has confirmed your direction is right.

The check runs when you submit a new order that is in the same direction as an existing position whose current P&L is negative. A long position down on the day plus a new buy order → blocked. A short position down on the day plus a new sell order → blocked. Orders in the opposite direction (which would reduce or close the position) are always allowed, as they are for every other rule.

The rule is a pure ON/OFF toggle — no thresholds to configure. The dashboard row shows "Blocks same-direction adds to a losing position" when active. The block message includes the losing side, position size, and current unrealised P&L so you can immediately see why the order was stopped.

Blocked Days stops all new trades on the days you choose. Some traders sit out the day before a big release, a holiday week or a day they already know they won’t be focused: this rule makes that decision stick.

The last step of the Setup Wizard has its switches; the days you pick yourself are added in Settings:

• Your days — press Add a day and pick it in the date picker. Days that have passed disappear by themselves.
• Day before every CPI, Day before every NFP, Day before every FOMC decision — one switch each, all off by default. Switched on, they block the trading day before each release (a release on Monday blocks the Friday before). The line under the switches shows the next day each one would block.
• US holidays — on by default: every day the US stock market is closed (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Good Friday…) or closes early (13:00 ET, e.g. the day after Thanksgiving), and the US bank holidays when markets stay open (Columbus Day, Veterans Day). On those days futures trade thin, shortened sessions.

A day is the futures session in New York time: from 18:00 ET the evening before to 17:00 ET — the same day the daily counters use. The CPI, NFP and FOMC dates and the holidays come from the official BLS, Federal Reserve and NYSE calendars and are built into the app, so they work offline; this version covers them through December 2027.

The app window has three tabs: Dashboard (live rule status and balances), Events (live log of every order, trade, and broker event), and Settings (rule configuration). The Dashboard is the main view you'll use every trading day.

Try your rules, at the bottom of the Dashboard, opens a small form: side, contracts, symbol and order type. Press Check to see what MyTradingGuard would do with that order right now, given your rules and today’s trading: allowed, allowed because it closes or reduces your position, or blocked — with the reason. Nothing is sent to the broker, counted or recorded.

The badge turns red, the rule that tripped is highlighted, and every new order is blocked until the rule allows it again (or until the 18:00 ET reset). Here the daily trade cap is set to 2 and has been reached.

The Events tab shows a live log of everything the app has observed today: orders checked, trades completed, and broker updates. Each entry has a colour-coded prefix so you can scan the list quickly.

The Settings tab is available at any time — even while rules are active — by clicking Settings in the tab bar. Changes are saved automatically a moment after you stop typing, and take effect immediately.

Each rule section has a toggle in the top-right corner. When the toggle is off, the rule is completely disabled and not checked at all. When enabled, the input field(s) below it define the threshold. The full list of rules matches the Setup Wizard: Time Window, Cooldown After Trade, Overtrading, Max Losing Trades, Max Order Size, Max Trailing Drawdown ($), Max Daily Loss ($), Max Daily Profit ($), Consistency, High Impact News, Allowed Tickers and No Averaging Down, plus Blocked Days, which is set only in Settings.

All changes are saved automatically. A brief "✓ Saved" flash appears at the bottom to confirm.

Rule toggles are colour-coded: green when the rule is enabled, red when it is disabled. Trading-window times are entered with a time picker (24-hour, New York time), so only valid times can be saved.

Clicking Set as Defaults saves your current configuration as the baseline that will be restored if you ever reinstall the app. Use it after you've settled on your standard trading rules.

When a rule is currently triggered (actively blocking orders), its controls in Settings are locked: the toggle and value fields are greyed out, and a red banner reads "Rule triggered, it cannot be modified now". This prevents loosening a rule already breached during the current session. The lock lifts as soon as the rule is no longer triggered. Nothing is ever locked during the weekend market closure (Friday 17:00 → Sunday 18:00 New York time), when no order can be placed.

The Usage Data toggle controls anonymous product-usage events (for example "order blocked" or "rule toggled"). No personal, financial, or trading data is ever included. Disable this toggle at any time to opt out completely. The choice is stored locally and takes effect immediately.

The ⏹ Stop for Today button appears in the footer of the Dashboard. Pressing it immediately blocks all orders for the rest of the trading day — regardless of whether any rule would otherwise allow them.

Use it when you decide the session is over: you've hit your target, you're not feeling it, or you simply want to call it a day and remove any temptation.

The block is automatically lifted at the next CME session boundary (18:00 ET), when all daily counters reset. There is no manual override to cancel it before the reset — this is intentional, to prevent you from giving in to temptation after deciding to stop.

When the app cannot reach your broker (internet issue, broker maintenance, etc.), it switches to Offline-Safe Mode — displayed as an orange banner in the Dashboard and an orange connection dot in the header.

In Offline-Safe Mode, P&L-based rules (Max Trailing Drawdown, Max Daily Loss, Max Daily Profit) use the last known values from your broker. Rules that don't depend on broker data (time windows, cooldowns, trade counts, order size) continue working normally.

Orders are not blocked solely because the broker is offline. The app continues to evaluate all rules using the most recent data. This "permissive" design ensures you are never locked out of trading due to a temporary network issue — only genuine rule violations trigger a block. Normal operation resumes automatically when the connection is restored.

When you have blocked at least one impulse order during the day, a "Share your Discipline" button appears at the bottom of the Dashboard. Clicking it generates a branded image showing the number of orders you blocked today and your achievement tier — from "Discipline Rookie" (1 block) to "Legendary Guardian" (45+).

The image opens in the macOS Share Sheet, so you can post directly to Messages, Mail, Notes, or any social app that supports image sharing. You can also save the image to disk from the share sheet.

No personal, financial, or trading data is included in the image — only the count of blocked orders and your tier name.

In the Settings tab footer, the Export… and Import… buttons let you save your rule configuration and restore it later. This is useful for:

• Backing up your rules before making experimental changes.
• Moving your configuration to another Mac.
• Sharing a rule set with a colleague, or syncing it with your Chrome extension configuration.

Click Export…. A native macOS save dialog appears; choose where to save the file. It contains every rule's settings plus your defaults.

Click Import…. A native macOS open dialog appears; select a previously exported file. All settings are replaced immediately — no restart needed.

MyTradingGuard is designed to protect you, not to trap you. Three categories of orders are always allowed, regardless of any active rule:

Stop, stop-limit, and trailing-stop orders bypass all rules unconditionally. Blocking a stop-loss during a market move would be catastrophic.

If you have an open position, orders that reduce or close it are always allowed. The app detects your net position direction and exempts orders that act against it. For example: if you are net long 3 contracts, a sell order is a closing order and passes through — even if "Stop for Today", time window, cooldown, or loss limits are active.

When you modify an existing order (change price, move a stop level, adjust the limit), the app recognises the modification and lets it through. Modifications do not add new contracts to your position.

The macOS app supports Tradovate and Interactive Brokers, and also protects the other brokers that connect to TradingView Desktop through its standard broker API. If your broker places orders in a way the app does not recognise, the dashboard says so: the rules may not be active for those orders.

No — the macOS app works only with TradingView Desktop. If you trade through a browser, use the Chrome Extension instead.

The app stops cleanly and your rules are no longer enforced. A confirmation dialog appears when you press ⌘Q to prevent accidentally quitting during an active session.

No. All daily counters (trades, losses, P&L, peak drawdown) reset at 18:00 ET — the CME Globex session boundary — matching the natural day used by most futures traders and prop firms.

Not without noticing. MyTradingGuard launches TradingView Desktop through itself, so every order goes through the rule checks. If TradingView is opened on its own, the app detects it: the badge turns Not Protected, a banner appears, and you are offered to relaunch TradingView protected. Orders placed through a completely different interface (e.g. your broker's own web or mobile app) are not monitored.

It reads your realized P&L for the day, your completed trade history, and your current open position size. It also reads your cash balance, shown on the Dashboard. It does not see buying power or any personal information. All data stays on your Mac — nothing is sent to MyTradingGuard servers.

No. Stop, stop-limit, and trailing-stop orders are always exempt from all rules. Blocking a protective stop-loss while the market moves against you would be dangerous. These order types pass through unconditionally.

Yes. Orders that reduce or close your current position are always allowed, even when rules like Max Daily Loss, Time Window, or Stop for Today are active. The app detects the direction of your open position and automatically exempts orders that act against it. You are never trapped in a losing position.

No. When you modify an existing order (change price, move a stop, adjust the limit), the app recognises it as a modification and lets it through without checking any rules. Modifications do not add new contracts, so they cannot violate position limits.

The wizard only runs automatically on first install or after a version update with new steps. To reconfigure, use the Settings tab, which gives you full access to all rules at any time.

Yes. The export format is identical. Use Export… on Chrome and Import… on macOS (or vice-versa) to keep both platforms on the same rules. See Export & Import.

Yes. With Automatic updates on in Settings (it is on by default), the app downloads each new version in the background and installs it only while the futures market is closed — 17:00–18:00 New York, or the weekend — or when you quit the app, then reopens by itself. You can also use Check for Updates… in the MyTradingGuard menu. Your rules are kept in your home folder, outside the app, so an update never changes them. Versions from before October 2026 cannot update themselves: download the new version once from our homepage and drag it into Applications, replacing the old one.