Cybercriminals are abusing Meta’s advertising platforms with fake offers of a free TradingView Premium app that spreads the Brokewell malware for Android.

The campaign targets cryptocurrency assets and has been running since at least July 22nd through an estimated 75 localized ads.

Brokewell has been around since early 2024 and features a broad set of capabilities that include stealing sensitive data, remote monitoring and control of the compromised device.

Taking over the device

Researchers at cybersecurity company Bitdefender investigated the ads in the campaign, which use the TradingView branding and visuals and lure potential victims with the promise of a free premium app for Android.

They note that the campaign was specifically designed for mobile users, as accessing the ad from a different operating system would lead to harmless content.

Clicking from Android, however, redirected to a webpage mimicking the original TradingView site that provided a malicious tw-update.apk file hosted at tradiwiw[.]online/

“The dropped application asks for accessibility, and after receiving it, the screen is covered with a fake update prompt. In the background, the application is giving itself all the permissions it needs,” the researchers say in a report this week..

Furthermore, the malicious app also tries to obtain the PIN for unlocking the device by simulating an Android update request that needs the lockscreen password.

According to Bitdefender, the fake TradingView app is “an advanced version of the Brokewell malware” that comes “with a vast arsenal of tools designed to monitor, control, and steal sensitive information:”

• Scans for BTC, ETH, USDT, bank account numbers (IBANs)
• Steals and exports codes from Google Authenticator (2FA bypass)
• Steals account by overlaying fake login screens
• Records screens and keystrokes, steals cookies, activates the camera and microphone, and tracks the location
• Hijacks the default SMS app to intercept messages, including banking and 2FA codes
• Remote control – can receive commands over Tor or Websockets to send texts, place calls, uninstall apps, or even self-destruct

The researchers provide a technical overview of how the malware works and an extended list of supported commands that includes more than 130 rows.

Bitdefender says that this campaign is part of a larger operation that initially used Facebook ads impersonating “dozens of well-known brands” to target Windows users.

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In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use the backtesting function in TradingView and give you the benefits and downsides of this platform, based on my personal experience.

This powerful tool allows traders to test the effectiveness of any trading strategy, whether it’s one they have developed themselves, or one created by a member of the TradingView Community.

Key Takeaways

• TradingView’s backtesting function allows traders to quickly test a wide selection of trading strategies across a huge collection of worldwide trading markets.
• The platform offers a variety of strategies created by Community members, as well as the ability to create your own.
• While there can be limitations to TradingView’s backtesting platform, there are also solutions.

Benefits of TradingView Backtesting

Here are some of the benefits of using TradingView’s backtesting platform:

• Fast results: The backtesting system is fast, and you can see the results right away. This allows you to iterate quickly and adjust your strategy accordingly.
• Community scripts: You can use other traders’ strategies that are available in the Community. This saves you time and effort in developing your own strategy.
• Historical Data: TradingView has a Deep Backtesting feature that provides all the historical data you need to conduct a thorough backtest.
• Easy to use: The backtesting function is simple, no complex setups required.
• Access tons of worldwide markets: TradingView gives traders access to a wide range of markets from around the world. It could be the largest collection of publicly available data feeds in the world.
• Browser based: Available on almost any operating system.
• Create your own strategies: Make and test your own strategies quickly with Pine Script.

Now that you know a little about the platform, here’s how to start using it.

How to Access Strategy Tester on TradingView

First make sure that you’re logged into a paid account.

To access the backtesting function, first click the Strategy Tester tab at the bottom of the screen.

From there, click on the Load Your Strategy button.

This can either be a strategy that you’ve created or one that’s been developed by a Community member within TradingView.

To find a strategy, search by name or browse through the available community scripts.

Be sure to use the menu on the left of the window to see other types of strategies.

Select Personal to see the strategies you’ve created.

Yeah, there are a TON of strategies available and it can be a little overwhelming.

So start with something that you understand and test all the related strategies.

For example, when I search for a Bollinger Bands trading strategy, here’s what comes up.

The number on the right of each strategy indicates the number of people currently using it.

Usually, the most popular ones are at the top.

But not always.

So scroll through the strategies to see them all.

Once I click on a strategy, TradingView will add it to my chart, run the backtest on the current market/timeframe and give me the results.

You can see the trades it took and get a performance summary report below the chart.

Pretty slick!

How to Run the Backtest on Other Markets and Timeframes

Once you’ve selected a strategy to backtest, it’s super easy to run the test on any market and timeframe available on TradingView.

To run the test on another timeframe, simply click one of the available timeframes on the top of the current chart.

You can even set your own custom timeframe by clicking on the down arrow and selecting “Add custom interval”.

The results of the backtest on that timeframe will appear on the bottom of your screen, just like with the first backtest.

You’ll see the results almost instantly, making this a very efficient way to backtest.

To test the strategy on other markets, click on the watchlist icon in the upper right corner, then click on the market you want to backtest.

You can also click on the current market ticker in the upper left corner of the screen and search for a new market to test.

Again, as soon as you select the market, you’ll see the backtesting results in the bottom panel.

Remove a Trading Strategy

To remove a strategy from your chart, click on the Object Tree icon on right side of the screen, then click the Delete icon next to the trading strategy.

Once you’ve deleted a strategy, you can a new one, or go back to using TradingView as just a charting platform.

Evaluating Backtesting Results

Now it’s important to talk about what a “good” backtesting result is.

Many new traders think that they need to have a fantastic result on the first try, or the backtest is a failure.

That’s not how it works.

In reality, it’s best to look for strategies that have potential.

So here are some things to look for:

• The strategy is near breakeven: The strategy could be optimized
• There are huge winners, which get slowly get taken out by small losers: The number of losers could possibly be reduced
• Conversely, there are consistent small winners, but a few big losers: The size of the losing trades could be reduced
• Strategies that perform well in some markets but not others: Only trade it in markets where it performs well

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

To get a complete guide on how to judge and potentially improve backtesting results, read my article on good backtesting results.

Selecting a Trading Strategy the Smart Way

When it comes to selecting strategies to test, there are a couple of ways to approach it.

First, you can browse the available strategies that you can use for free, as I mentioned above.

Sort the strategies by popularity and backtest each one.

This is a decent method if you don’t know where to start.

But you’ll quickly learn that most of the free strategies don’t work.

Yeah, you generally get what you pay for.

And there are so many strategies out there that it would take forever to test them all.

So once you get tired of looking for random ass strategies, it’s time to get smarter.

A better way to approach this proess is to start by asking yourself what type of strategy you’re looking for:

• Do you prefer trend strategies?
• Do you want to trade a RSI strategy?
• Do you want to day trade?

Then take a look at all of the strategies that fall into your chosen category.

Search keywords related to the type of strategy you want to find. 

Backtest them and see how they perform.

Again, chances are very good that they won’t work.

But they might.

Worst case scenario, they will give you a good starting point and ideas for your own strategy.

This is a huge benefit of the TradingView Community.

How to Create Your Own Strategy

Since many of the trading strategies on TradingView are free and open source, you can use them to help build your own strategy quickly.

First find a free strategy that you want to build on.

Then create your own Pine Script project by clicking on the Pine Editor tab at the bottom of the screen.

Copy and paste an existing strategy into the Pine Script tab and start making adjustments.

Save the strategy, then run a backtest.

Yes, you need to learn Pine Script.

But most programming tutorials can be very boring.

When you know what you want and you have a starting template to get there, learning becomes much more fun and you’ll usually see results faster.

Focus on the parts of the current script that you want to change and go from there.

To sign up for TradingView, go here.

Considerations of Historical Data Availability

When using the backtesting function in TradingView, it is important to understand how much historical data is being tested in each test.

Data availability will vary by market and timeframe.

Higher timeframe charts like the daily, weekly and monthly charts will usually have enough data to do valid tests.

But on lower timeframes, such as the 4-hour chart and below, the historical data is very limited.

You may only have access to two or three years of data, which is never sufficient to do a thorough backtest.

Be sure to read more about how to how many trades you need to have confidence in a trading strategy.

If you require the entire data set for a particular market, you’ll need to subscribe to the Deep Backtesting feature, which is only available on the higher tier paid plans.

This is a big downside of the platform.

If you don’t want to pay the higher TradingView monthly fee, there are other solutions such as Naked Markets, which usually provides much more historical data than TradingView and free ongoing data updates, for just a one-time investment.

Limitations and Downsides

Here are the limitations of TradingView to be aware of:

• The backtesting function is only available on TradingView paid plans.
• TradingView lacks sufficient historical trading data on the lower tier plans. It can be enough data on the higher timeframes, such as the daily chart. As you move down to lower time frames like the 4-hour or 1-hour chart, you may only get two or three years of data, which is not enough. You have to pay more for Deep Backtesting to get more comprehensive data.
• There’s no way to upload your own historical data.
• You can only backtest one market, strategy and timeframe at a time. There is currently no way to backtest multiple variables simultaneously.
• No offline testing.
• The reporting metrics are decent, but still limited. I would like to see more detailed backtesting statistics.
• Although TradingView’s backtesting function is useful, it is not a substitute for live trading. You should still exercise caution and not rely solely on backtesting results. Be sure to implement Forward Testing before risking real money on a strategy.

While TradingView’s backtesting function has its limitations and costs, it can be a valuable tool for testing trading strategies quickly.

Conclusion

Based on my experience with the backtesting function in TradingView, it’s not for everyone.

It only really makes sense if you can do 2 things:

1. Code in Pine Script
2. Subscribe to a paid plan that has Deep Backtesting capability

One big benefit of the backtesting feature is that you can test community-created trading strategies and scripts.

Unfortunately, most of them are useless. That’s no different than any other platform.

But they can be an excellent starting point to give you ideas for your own strategy.

If you want to backtest manually, TradingView also has a Bar Replay function that will eliminate the need to learn Pine Script.

So at the end of the day, backtesting in TradingView can make sense for some traders, but it’s not for everyone.

That said, I strongly feel that TradingView is the best charting platform available and I highly recommend it for that.

When you buy something through one of the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

TradingView is a fantastic platform for charting and trading.

…and yes, you can trade on the TradingView mobile app. 

However, it can be a little confusing to figure out how to enter a trade on the mobile app.

It took me some time to figure it out, so I want to save you the headache and give you the answer right now.

The great thing about the mobile version of TradingView is that it is almost the same as the desktop version.

That means you have access to the same features that you get on your desktop computer.

Alright, here’s how to place your first trade.

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If you prefer the text version, it’s provided below.

Download the App

First download the app from you favorite app store. It’s available for both Android and iOS.

Then login to the app and purchase a paid plan.

Technically, you can trade on the free plan, at the time that this is being written.

But you don’t get priority support and you’ll always see ads on your charts.

If you’re serious about trading, then you want the fastest support possible and ads will distract you from trading. 

So I feel that a paid account is mandatory.

Login to Your Broker

If you want to try this, you can create a demo account in TradingView.

Otherwise, if you have a broker that works with TradingView, follow these steps.

Once you’re logged in, go to:

1. Menu in upper left corner (3 lines)
2. Products
3. Supercharts
4. Icon in upper left corner
5. Connect to Broker

Select your broker, then login.

You’re now ready to trade.

Place Your First Trade

When you go back to your charts, there will now be buttons on the chart that allow you to place buy and sell trades.

Tap the button for the trade that you want to make.

The order entry screen will pop up and you can enter a trade. 

Be sure to scroll down a bit to make sure that you’ve entered all of the important information for your trade. 

You should also see information about the trade like margin used, trade value and more. 

The information you see and the options you have will depend a lot on your broker and the version of TradingView you’re using. 

So use the screenshot below as more of a guideline and contact TradingView support if you have any questions. 

Once everything looks good, tap the Buy or Sell button at the bottom of the screen. 

You have now placed your first trade. 

To get more details on entering trades, be sure to watch the video at the top of this page. 

Final Tips

Remember that technology can change quickly.

I will do my best to update this tutorial periodically, but the way TradingView mobile works can change over time.

However, I have found that the basic idea is usually the same with newer versions, just the position of the buttons change.

But TradingView is the best charting and trading platform for so many reasons that I go over here.

The most useful feature is that you get the same charts on your mobile and desktop.

Have fun!

Malwarebytes, a cybersecurity company, has discovered that scammers are promoting a modified version of the platform, which secretly installs harmful software designed to steal personal information and drain crypto wallets.

According to a March 18 blog post, the fraudsters are active on crypto-related subreddits, where they post download links for what they claim is a cracked version of TradingView Premium.

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According to Jerome Segura, a senior researcher at Malwarebytes, these posts include Windows and Mac installers that contain two types of malware, Lumma Stealer and Atomic Stealer.

Lumma Stealer, identified in 2022, is known for extracting login details, cryptocurrency wallet credentials, and data from two-factor authentication (2FA) browser extensions. Atomic Stealer, which surfaced in 2023, goes after passwords stored in system keychains, including administrator credentials.

Victims of this malware have reported losing their crypto holdings, with scammers even taking control of their accounts to send phishing messages to their contacts.

Additionally, Segura explained, “Files are double zipped, with the final zip being password protected. For comparison, a legitimate executable would not need to be distributed in such fashion”. This tactic prevents antivirus programs from detecting harmful files before they are extracted and executed.

Investigations into the origins of the malware revealed that the files were hosted on a website linked to a Dubai cleaning company, while the command-and-control server was registered in Russia just a week before it was discovered.

Recently, Microsoft identified a new remote access Trojan (RAT) called StilachiRAT. What does this malware do? Read the full story.