Do I need to keep my computer on?
For the webhook platform, no. Your computer can be off, asleep, or on the other side of the planet, and your trades still execute. The platform runs on our servers, not on your machine. The one exception is the legacy Chrome extension, which lives in your browser and only works while that browser is open. Which answer applies to you depends on which Autoview you're running.
The webhook platform runs without you
This is the current product, and it's the reason the old "no, keep it on" answer is out of date. When an alert sender posts to your webhook, the request lands on our infrastructure. Our server receives the POST, checks the webhook, parses the commands, and routes them to the exchange. None of that touches your laptop. The chain runs whether your machine is on or off.
It's also source-agnostic. The webhook accepts a POST from anything that can send one: TradingView, TrendSpider, a Python script, your own cron job, a server you control. TradingView is one possible sender, not the only one. So the question of "is my computer on" is really a question about the sender, not about Autoview. If your alerts come from TradingView's cloud or any always-on service, the whole loop runs around the clock with nothing of yours powered up.
A few things follow from this:
- Your computer can sleep, shut down, or lose Wi-Fi, and resting orders and incoming signals are unaffected.
- You don't need a browser open. You don't need Autoview open in a tab.
- If your alert sender is a desktop app on your machine, then that sender needs the machine on. Autoview's side does not.
The Chrome extension is the exception
The extension is the older, browser-local way to run Autoview, and it's still tied to TradingView alerts. It runs inside Google Chrome on your computer. That means it needs Chrome running and an active internet connection to place orders. Close the browser or shut the machine down, and the extension stops. It cannot execute around the clock the way the platform does.
If you're on the extension and want it to keep going while you step away, you have two options:
- Keep the browser alive. You can lock the computer and still let Chrome work in the background. If your version of Chrome still offers it, look in Chrome's settings under the system section for a background-apps option and turn it on. Newer Chrome builds have removed this setting, so you may not find it. The machine still has to stay on and online.
- Run it on a VPS. A Virtual Private Server is a remote machine that stays connected around the clock. Install Chrome and the extension there, and it keeps executing even when your own computer is off. People who are committed to the extension's live TradingView link usually go this route.
Both of those are workarounds for a browser-bound tool. The platform skips the problem entirely.
Which one should you use?
If you want trades to fire while your laptop is closed and you'd rather not babysit a browser, the webhook platform is the answer. It's built for exactly that. The extension makes sense if you're tied to its direct, in-browser TradingView connection and you're fine keeping a machine on, or paying for a VPS to do it for you.
You can run the same exchange on either path. The trade-off is uptime versus the extension's browser-local TradingView link. Compare them side by side on the platforms page, then connect your exchange and send a test signal to watch it execute with nothing of yours running.