Master Alerts In Think or Swim | Trading Tutorials

Creating Simple Price Action Alerts

The first and easiest method for creating alerts is to use the right click method and navigate through the Think or Swim alert dialog popup window. In this window there are multiple settings for customizing your alert.

The underlying asset and stock spread will default to whatever it was that you clicked on. From there you can set the price type, condition type, price level for the alert to go off from. Note that if you are looking at stock pricing, you can not change the exchange where the data is coming from. That is reserved for options.

The bottom half of the alert window is all about your notification settings that you will receive on your phone. By default it will send the conditions for the alert to go off, and then whatever additional information you chose to include. A useful option may be including the study values.

Lastly there are the options for submitting the alert. Usually the default is fine here, however if you wanted to provide some delay and add an expiration that is also an option. Once the alert has been generated and you can see it on the chart, you can click and drag to move it to a different price level, however you can not change the type of price reading or the condition for the alert to trigger on. As an example, if you were to drag the alert below the last price and you were looking for at or above, that alert would go off instantly.

Using The Watchlist To Create Alerts

A similar method to the right click method is clicking on the watchlist symbol and then moving through the same dialog box. You will have to adjust the trigger price of the alert as well as the price type.

Alerts From Drawings

The next method for alert creation in think or swim is to use a drawing set. You can use any drawing but we cover the horizontal price level, the trend line tool, and the fibonacci retracements. Note here that the drawing and alert are not bound. Meaning that if you move a think or swim drawing, the alert will not move or be adjusted with it.

Alerts From Studies

The final method to creating alerts is the study filter. To access this you need to go into the first alert dialog box, and then navigate the price drop down to study. From there you will be presented a popup condition wizard where you can choose from any study and then compare that study value to a hard number, a different study, a function…. the options are nearly endless in ToS.

Tips And Tricks For Stock Alerts

Some tips and tricks are that you can set alerts on news events, earnings releases, upgrades and downgrades, as well as portfolio metrics. These things are all possible and hidden features of think or swim. Please explore them and see if there is anything that fits your strategy.

Lastly we talk about setting alerts on options. The same exact methods apply, and you can also directly click on the options chain to create an alert for an option. This can be useful when looking for opportunities to buy or sell premium at cheap or expensive prices. Please be aware that the only place you can see these alerts is in the alerts menu window, not on any chart.