SMC Live Setup

01 · Before you start

Getting permission to go live.

This is the part people skip and then get stuck on. TikTok won't let you stream just because you installed OBS. Do this first, because one step here has a waiting period.

You're 18 or older

No exceptions, and it's tied to the birthday on the account. Everything below depends on it.

Join Atomik so you can go live without 1,000 followers

Why you're doing this. TikTok normally blocks the LIVE button until you have 1,000 followers. That's a platform rule and no setting, account type or trick gets around it. For a new account that's potentially months of posting before you can stream at all, and going live is the single most valuable thing you can do here.

A creator network is TikTok's official term for an agency. TikTok partners with them, and joining one gets you three things:

1. Live access without 1,000 followers, usually within a day of approval.
2. A stream key, which lets OBS talk straight to TikTok and removes two programs from your setup. Section 04 explains why that matters.
3. Protection from false bans. If TikTok flags you by mistake, the agency can get your account back.

It's free and they don't take a cut of your money. TikTok gives the agency a slice of TikTok's own share instead, so what you earn doesn't change. They make money when you do.

Two parts, and you have to do both. Doing only the first is the usual mistake and means nothing happens:

Part 1 · Apply on their sitehttps://www.atomik.agency

Part 2 · Join their Discord — the review happens herediscord.gg/UzXaHCduKN

Apply on your own yourname.smc account. If they ask why you want a stream key, the honest answer is that you stream a chart from a computer through OBS and LIVE Studio doesn't handle the setup you need. Approval is usually inside 24 hours. Tell Ryland once you're in.

Before you apply: they expect roughly 10 to 20 hours of streaming a month, and if you leave an agency after 15 days there can be a wait of up to 60 days before you can join another. So join one and stay. If Atomik turns you down, try FTTV at fttvcreators.com and tell Ryland either way.

Two things arrive at two different speeds

Live access and LIVE Studio: about a day. This is what lets you start. As soon as it lands, work through this whole guide and stream using the LIVE Studio route in section 04.

Your stream key: about 10 days. Separate, slower process. Don't wait for it to start streaming. When it arrives you switch to the simpler route, also in section 04, and nothing you set up gets thrown away.

Your internet uploads at 5 Mbps or better

Run fast.com and click "show more info" to see the upload number. Plug into ethernet if you can. On Wi-Fi TikTok quietly downgrades your quality mid-stream.

The account is in good standing

No active community guideline strikes. A recent strike can hide LIVE for weeks, and an agency can't override that.

Set your profile up the SMC way

Handle is yourname.smc, name field is "Yourname | SMC Student", bio is two or three short lines, and the link is the personal smallmoneyconcepts.com link Ryland gives you. That link is how you get credited for anyone who joins.

One catch that stops people: on a personal account the link field doesn't exist until 1,000 followers. Switch to a Business account and it appears immediately, at any follower count. That's the only way to have a clickable link on a new account, and without one there's no way for a viewer to reach the free indicator or the Discord.

In the TikTok app, on your phoneProfile → ☰ top right → Settings and privacy → Account → Switch to Business Account → Category: Education

A minute, no paperwork. Two side effects: Business accounts are always public, and you're limited to the commercial music library rather than all trending sounds. Neither matters for talking over a chart. At 1,000 followers you switch back to Personal and keep the link. Full walkthrough is in the Creator Setup guide.

Also worth knowing: TikTok removed the Instagram and YouTube buttons from Edit Profile entirely. Don't go looking for them. The Website field is the only tappable link you get.

02 · Install OBS

OBS builds the picture. TikTok just receives it.

Two steps here. Screenshots are the real OBS screens; Windows and Mac look the same.

Download and open OBS

Go to obsproject.com, click Download, install it, open it. The first time it opens it asks about auto-configuration. Click Cancel. If you already clicked through this, no problem, nothing there matters.

OBS auto-configuration wizard with Cancel highlighted — Click Cancel on the auto-configuration wizard.

Get the SMC setup pack

One file: SMC-OBS-Setup.zip, pinned in the Discord. Inside are a Windows folder and a Mac folder, each with the SMC overlay and a ready-made OBS scene with everything already positioned.

OBS can't see inside a zip, and it can't see Google Drive or OneDrive, so the folder has to be unzipped onto the computer itself.

Windows1 · File Explorer → Downloads. Right-click SMC-OBS-Setup.zip → Extract All… → Extract 2 · Open the new SMC-OBS-Setup folder. Right-click the Windows folder (one click, don't open it) → Copy 3 · On the left, click Documents. Right-click empty space → Paste 4 · Right-click the pasted Windows folder → Rename → type SMC → Enter 5 · Open Documents → SMC and check you see SMC-overlay.png and SMC Live.json

Mac: double-click the zip, then drag the Mac folder to your Desktop and rename it SMC. Don't paste anything onto the root of C: on Windows, it gets blocked.

03 · Import the SMC scene

One typed number, one import, three dropdowns.

The import puts the overlay, camera and chart boxes in place automatically. Nobody has to position anything.

Messed up already?

If you've been poking around in OBS and it's a mess, start clean: Scene Collection → New (name it Fresh), then Scene Collection → Remove every other one in that list. Close and reopen OBS. Then do the steps below.

Make the canvas tall

Click Settings (bottom right corner of OBS, in the Controls box), then Video on the left.

OBS with the Settings button highlighted — Settings is bottom right.

The first box, Base (Canvas) Resolution, says something like 1920x1080. That's your monitor, the reverse of what we want, and the number we want is not in the dropdown list, so you have to type it: click on the numbers inside the box, press Ctrl+A, type 1080x1920 exactly (one-zero-eight-zero, lowercase x, one-nine-two-zero), press Tab. Do the exact same thing in the second box, Output (Scaled) Resolution. Click OK.

Video settings with both resolution boxes set to 1080x1920 — Both boxes typed in as 1080x1920. Aspect Ratio on the right flips to 9:16.

The preview in the middle of OBS turns into a tall black rectangle. That's the phone screen.

While you're in Settings, click Advanced and check Color Format is NV12, Color Space 709, Color Range Partial. These are the defaults, but if Color Format is anything else, TikTok has to convert every frame and the stream gets choppy.

Import the scene

This places the overlay, camera and chart for you. Top menu: Scene Collection → Import. A small window with a table opens. Click the … button at the right end of the row, go to Documents → SMC, pick SMC Live.json, click Open, then click Import. Then open the Scene Collection menu again and click SMC Live so it has a checkmark.

Scene Collection menu with Import highlighted — Scene Collection → Import, pick "SMC Live.json". Then Scene Collection → SMC Live to switch to it.

You should now see three sources in the right order: SMC Overlay, TradingView, Camera.

OBS after the import with three sources listed — Straight after the import, with placeholder pictures. Your face and chart fill in next.

Now point it at your overlay: click SMC Overlay in Sources → Properties → Browse → Documents → SMC → pick SMC-overlay.png → Open → OK. The overlay appears in the preview.

Pick your webcam

Click Camera in the Sources list, then click Properties (the gear button just above the list). In the Device dropdown pick your webcam.

Selecting the Camera source and opening Properties — Click the source, then Properties. Same for TradingView in the next step.

Then set these, they matter more than which camera you own:

Camera propertiesResolution/FPS Type : Custom Resolution : 1920x1080 (not 4K — your camera box is 1008 × 567) FPS : 30 Video Format : MJPEG (never YUY2) Buffering : Disable Always keep active : ON

Video Format is the important one. On YUY2 the camera drops to about 5 frames a second and every head movement smears. This one setting is the difference between "laggy and foggy" and sharp.

Always keep active stops Chrome or LIVE Studio grabbing your webcam out from under OBS, and removes the black frame when you go live. Downside: nothing else can use the webcam while OBS is open, so close OBS before a Zoom call.

Click OK. Your face appears in the top box. Wave a hand at the preview: it should track you cleanly with no smear.

Pick your TradingView window

Open TradingView in its own window first, a real window you can see, not a tab buried behind others. Then click TradingView in Sources → Properties → in the Window dropdown pick the TradingView window → OK. Your chart appears in the big box.

Mac: macOS will ask you to allow Screen Recording for OBS the first time. Allow it, then quit and reopen OBS, and do this step again.

If the price numbers on the right edge get cut off, your TradingView window is very wide: drag its right edge inward and they come back. Hide the watchlist and drawing toolbar in TradingView so the candles get the space.

Check it

Your face in the top box, your chart in the big box, the blue bar at the bottom, nothing overlapping any text.

The finished OBS layout — Finished layout. OBS saves this automatically, you never do these steps again.

03b · Manual fallback

Same result, built by hand.

Only use this if the import above failed. If your scene already looks right, skip to section 04.

Set the tall canvas

Settings (bottom right, in Controls) → Video. Click on the numbers in Base (Canvas) Resolution, press Ctrl+A, type 1080x1920 exactly, press Tab. Same in Output (Scaled) Resolution. Click OK.

Video settings with both boxes at 1080x1920 — Both boxes typed in as 1080x1920. Aspect Ratio flips to 9:16.

Add the overlay picture

Use SMC-overlay.png from Documents → SMC. In the Sources box at the bottom of OBS, click the + button.

The plus button under Sources — The + under Sources. Not the one under Scenes.

A list pops up. Click Image.

Source type list with Image highlighted — Pick Image. The list on Windows is a bit shorter than this one; Image is still there.

Name it SMC Overlay and click OK.

Naming the new source — Name it, then OK.

Click Browse, find the overlay PNG, open it, then click OK.

Browsing to the overlay PNG — Browse to the PNG. The other two checkboxes stay unticked.

The overlay now fills the tall rectangle exactly. If it's smaller or off to one side, right-click it in the preview → Transform → Fit to screen.

The overlay filling the canvas — This is what the overlay looks like with nothing behind it yet.

Add your camera

Click + under Sources again, pick Video Capture Device. Name it Camera, OK. Under Device, choose your webcam. OK. Your face will show up big and in the wrong spot. That's expected, we place it below.

Add TradingView

Open TradingView in its own window first. Then + under Sources → Window Capture. Name it TradingView, OK. In the Window dropdown, pick the TradingView window. OK.

Mac: the option is called macOS Screen Capture. Pick it, set Method to Window, choose TradingView. Allow Screen Recording when macOS asks, then close and reopen OBS.

It'll look wrong. That's fine.

Right now your chart is probably covering everything and hanging off the edge. Two steps fix all of it.

Chart covering the overlay, wrong sizes — Chart on top, overlay hidden, everything the wrong size.

Put the overlay on top

In the Sources list, click SMC Overlay once, then click the up arrow under the list until it's at the top. Top to bottom should read SMC Overlay, TradingView, Camera. The overlay has to be first or it covers everything.

SMC Overlay moved to the top of the sources list — SMC Overlay at the top. Use the up arrow, or drag it.

Put the camera in its box

Click Camera in the Sources list, press Ctrl+E (Cmd+E on Mac). Fill in exactly this, then Close.

Edit Transform for the camera — Position 36 and 136. Bounding Box Type "Scale to inner bounds". Bounding Box Size 1008 and 567. Ignore everything else.

Put the chart in its box

Click TradingView, press Ctrl+E again, and fill in:

Edit Transform for TradingView — Position 36 and 790. "Scale to inner bounds". Size 1008 and 860.

If your chart has black bars above and below, that's a wide window being fit into a tall box. Make your TradingView window narrower and taller and the bars shrink. Hide the watchlist and drawing toolbar so the candles get the space.

Check it

Your face in the top box, your chart in the big box, the blue bar at the bottom, nothing overlapping any text.

Finished manual layout — Finished layout. OBS saves this automatically, you never do these steps again.

04 · Send it to TikTok

Two routes. Start on the second, move to the first.

OBS has built the picture. Now it has to reach TikTok. Which route you use depends on whether your stream key has arrived yet.

Route A · Stream key, once it arrives (about 10 days)

This is the one you want. OBS talks straight to TikTok. No virtual camera, no second program, nothing in between to break mid-stream and no quality lost at a handoff. It also works on Mac, which LIVE Studio doesn't.

Every time you go live1 · Get a fresh key: livecenter.tiktok.com/producer 2 · OBS → Settings → Stream → Service: Custom 3 · Paste the Server URL and the Stream Key 4 · Start Streaming

You need a new key for every single stream. That first step is part of your routine, not one-time setup. If that page just redirects to the Live Center homepage, your agency hasn't finished the process yet, so ask them.

On this route, everything in Route B and section 05's LIVE Studio settings stops applying. Your OBS scene doesn't change at all.

Route B · TikTok LIVE Studio, for your first week or two

Until the key lands, this is how you stream, and it works fine. OBS builds the picture, OBS's Virtual Camera hands it to TikTok LIVE Studio as if it were a webcam, and LIVE Studio sends it to TikTok. Three programs instead of one, so there's more to get right. Windows only.

The whole trick is telling LIVE Studio to leave the "webcam" alone: no beautify, no auto-enhance, no mirroring. Steps below.

Start the Virtual Camera in OBS

Bottom right of OBS, under Start Recording: click Start Virtual Camera. Leave OBS open. If the button isn't there, close OBS and reopen it as administrator once, it installs the driver.

Click the small gear icon next to that button and check Output Type is Program, with Output Selection on its default. Program sends the whole live scene, all three layers. "Source" would send only your camera or only the chart with no overlay, and "Preview" sends the studio-mode preview instead of what's actually live.

Install LIVE Studio and add OBS as the camera

Download TikTok LIVE Studio from tiktok.com/studio and log in. In the Scenes section set the layout to Portrait and click Add scene (blank template). Then Add source → Camera and pick OBS Virtual Camera.

Camera source settings — this is the part that fixes the blur

Click the OBS Virtual Camera source to open its settings and set every one of these:

LIVE Studio camera sourceResolution : 1080 × 1920 (or highest offered) @ 30 fps Position / size : X 0, Y 0, 1080 × 1920 Video Format : NV12 (or I420) — never YUY2 Beauty / retouch : OFF Auto-enhance, HDR, background blur, portrait : OFF Mirror / flip : OFF Noise reduction / stabilization : OFF

If it's on 720p, that's your blurry chart. Beauty smoothing smears text. If the chart's numbers read backwards, mirror is on. YUY2 makes the computer convert all 30 frames a second for nothing, which shows up as choppy motion even though OBS looks perfect.

LIVE quality settings

LIVE Studio settings → LIVE quality. Set 1080p, 30 fps, and the highest bitrate it allows, 4,000 to 6,000 kbps. Your upload speed should be about double the bitrate. If the stream stutters, lower the bitrate, not the resolution.

Mic, title, go

Pick your microphone in LIVE Studio's audio section and mute OBS's mic, or the reverse. Never both, or you'll echo.

Title: Live trading Nasdaq futures | free indicator, link in bio

Click Go LIVE. Watch on your phone for a minute: chart readable, audio working, overlay text clear of TikTok's chat.

Test first

Do a five-minute test stream on Sunday night. Start it, watch it on your phone, end it. Monday shouldn't be the first time you press the button.

05 · Every setting, in one place

The whole list, if you'd rather check it off.

Nothing here is optional if you want the chart readable. Set them once, they stick. The LIVE Studio rows only apply on Route B.

Where	Setting	Value
OBS	Settings → Video → Base (Canvas)	1080x1920
OBS	Settings → Video → Output (Scaled)	1080x1920
OBS	Settings → Video → FPS	30
OBS	Settings → Advanced → Color Format	NV12
OBS	Settings → Advanced → Color Space / Range	709 / Partial
OBS	Settings → Output → Encoder	Hardware (NVENC / AMD / Apple) if listed
OBS	Camera source → Resolution/FPS Type	Custom
OBS	Camera source → Resolution	1920x1080
OBS	Camera source → FPS	30
OBS	Camera source → Video Format	MJPEG, never YUY2
OBS	Camera source → Buffering	Disable
OBS	Camera source → Always keep active	On
OBS scene	Camera position / size	X 36, Y 136, 1008 x 567
OBS scene	TradingView position / size	X 36, Y 790, 1008 x 860
OBS scene	Overlay position / size	X 0, Y 0, 1080 x 1920
Route A	OBS → Settings → Stream → Service	Custom + server URL and key
Route B	OBS → Start Virtual Camera	On, leave OBS open
Route B	Virtual Camera gear → Output Type	Program
Route B	LIVE Studio → Scene layout	Portrait
Route B	LIVE Studio → Camera source	OBS Virtual Camera
Route B	LIVE Studio → Camera Video Format	NV12, never YUY2
Route B	LIVE Studio → Camera resolution	1080x1920 @ 30 fps
Route B	LIVE Studio → Camera position / size	X 0, Y 0, 1080 x 1920
Route B	LIVE Studio → Beauty / retouch	OFF
Route B	LIVE Studio → Auto-enhance / HDR / blur	OFF
Route B	LIVE Studio → Mirror / flip	OFF
Route B	LIVE Studio → LIVE quality	1080p, 30 fps, 4000-6000 kbps
Your desk	Internet	Ethernet cable, not Wi-Fi
Your desk	Webcam USB port	Blue USB 3.0, straight into the PC, no hub
Your desk	Lighting	A lamp facing you, behind your monitor

It looks great in OBS but choppy in TikTok

The picture is fine, something between OBS and TikTok is dropping frames. Three causes.

1. Video Format mismatch. LIVE Studio's camera source defaults to YUY2. OBS builds frames in NV12, so YUY2 forces a conversion of every frame, 30 times a second, for no benefit. Set both ends to NV12.

2. Frame rates don't match. OBS at 30 and the LIVE Studio camera source at 60 or "auto" means it's constantly duplicating and dropping frames to reconcile them, which looks like permanent judder. Force 30 in both places.

3. The CPU is maxed. Open Task Manager mid-stream: over about 80% and that's your answer. Turn on hardware encoding, close spare Chrome tabs, and cut back the indicators on your chart while live.

One distinction worth making: choppy or stuttery motion is one of the three above. Smooth but delayed, where you move and the picture follows half a second later, is just buffering and nobody watching will ever notice.

My camera is laggy and foggy when I move

1. Video Format is YUY2. That's uncompressed, and USB can't carry it fast at high resolution, so the camera silently drops to around 5 frames a second. Camera → Properties → Video Format: MJPEG. Fixes it instantly, and it's why an expensive 4K camera can look worse than a cheap one.

2. You're asking for 4K. A 4K feed squeezed down a USB cable and then scaled into a 1008 × 567 box costs you frames and buys you nothing. Set the camera source to 1920x1080.

3. The room is too dark. In low light the camera holds the shutter open longer and cranks the gain: that's the washed-out look, and it doubles the motion blur. A single lamp pointed at your face from behind your monitor fixes more than any setting. Turn off any "low light compensation", "auto HDR" or "beauty" in your camera's own software.

06 · Every time you go live

The two-minute pre-flight.

On Route A, grab a fresh stream key first. livecenter.tiktok.com/producer. A key from last time won't work.
TradingView open, chart set up with the SMC indicator on it. The overlay literally says "the indicator on this chart", so it needs to be there.
Desktop notifications off so they don't pop over the chart.
Same title every time so people recognise it: Live trading Nasdaq futures | free indicator, link in bio
Say the disclaimer out loud in the first minute. Something like "None of this is financial advice, I'm showing you how I trade, not telling you what to do." The overlay carries it in writing, you carry it in voice.
Point at the bottom bar every 10 to 15 minutes. New people are arriving constantly and they didn't hear you the first time.
Go for 45 minutes minimum. TikTok pushes streams to more people the longer they run. Under 20 minutes barely gets shown.
End it properly. Say where you'll be next time, then end. Don't just close OBS mid-sentence.

07 · What to say, what not to say

The pitch is one sentence. Say it a lot.

The whole call to action · ten seconds · every ten minutes

"The time cycles you're seeing on my chart are Ryland's indicator. It's free, you just join the Small Money Concepts Discord, link's in my bio."

Say freely: what you're looking at and why; your own real results, with the date; "I learned this in the SMC class"; "most people who try this lose money, this is what I do to not be one of them"; "not financial advice".
Never say: "guaranteed", "risk-free", "easy money"; a number anyone else "will" make; "buy now", "sell now", or a trade someone else should take; anything about other people's results you can't prove; prop firm names or codes until Ryland gives you one.

Why it matters

Your stream has SMC's name on it. One "you'll make 10k a month" clip is enough for TikTok to pull the account or for someone to come after the program. Show, don't promise. Real trades and real payouts sell better anyway.

Stuck? Message Ryland in the Discord with a screenshot of your OBS window and the step number you're on. Most problems are the overlay not being at the top of the Sources list, or the canvas not being 1080x1920.