Alerts

Overview

An alert is a rule on one stock symbol or one option contract: "when this value crosses this threshold, tell me". After each data snapshot is ingested, the platform evaluates every active alert against the latest delayed data and records a trigger when the condition holds.

Before you start

• Alerts are a plan feature. The number of alerts you can keep depends on your plan; see Account and billing.
• Email delivery needs a confirmed email address and a plan that includes email reports.

Steps

1. Open Research → Alerts.
2. Click New alert.
3. Fill in Name, then Symbol or OCC contract: a ticker such as AAPL for a stock alert, or an OCC option symbol such as AAPL 251219C00200000 for a single contract.
4. In When, choose the value to watch: last price, bid, ask, change % (day), volume, open interest, volume / OI, implied volatility or delta.
5. In Condition, choose is above, is at or above, is below, is at or below, equals, crosses above or crosses below, and type the Value. Implied volatility is a decimal: 0.35 means 35 %.
6. In Notify via, choose In-app, Email or In-app + email. Browser push and Telegram are added from your notification settings once they are connected (plan permitting).
7. Click Create alert. The rule appears on the Rules tab, switched on.

How alerts are evaluated

• Alerts run on the ingestion schedule, not continuously. During market hours snapshots are taken on a fixed interval; outside market hours only end-of-day data is available. See Understanding data freshness.
• A stock alert checks the symbol's latest values. A contract alert checks that one contract.
• One notification per episode. When the condition becomes true an episode opens and you are notified once. While it stays true you are not notified again on every snapshot. You hear again only when:
• it escalates: the watched value crosses the next band you set (for example IV rank 80, then 90, then 95);
• it moves materially: a watched value changed by 10 % or more since the last notification;
• the alert is set to repeat, and its cooldown (60 minutes by default) has passed.
• When the condition is no longer true the episode closes. If it becomes true again later, a new episode starts and you are notified again.
• Every decision is recorded, including "held back: still met, no escalation", so support can tell you why a message was or was not sent.
• If several of your alerts fire in the same run you get one message listing them all, not one per alert.
• Your notification settings still apply: quiet hours, digest mode and market-hours-only can hold a message back and deliver it later. See Notification settings.

What a trigger contains

Each trigger is listed on the History tab with the time (US Eastern), the alert, the target, the observed value, a message and the delivery status (sent, held for a digest, skipped or failed). A trigger keeps up to 10 matches (the contracts or values that met the condition). A notification names each alert, the condition, the observed value and why it was sent (new episode, escalation or move), plus the provider, delay and "as of" time of the data, and ends with "Delayed data. Not investment advice.". When several alerts trigger in the same run you get one e-mail that lists them (at most 25; the rest are on the History tab). Nothing in a notification is a trade recommendation.

If the daily e-mail limit is reached, an alert e-mail moves to your other channels (in-app, browser push or Telegram). See E-mails we send.

Example

A rule named Sample IV watch on the invented contract XYZ 271217C00050000 with When set to Implied volatility, Condition is above and Value 0.8 notifies you after the first snapshot in which that contract's implied volatility is above 80 %. If it stays above 80 % all afternoon you hear nothing more, unless it jumps by 10 % or more (for example from 0.82 to 0.91), which sends one update. When it falls back below 80 % the episode closes; the next time it rises above, you are notified again.

Managing alerts

• The Rules tab lists every alert with its target, condition, channel, last trigger and status. Use the switch to pause or resume an alert; a paused alert keeps its settings.
• Use the row menu to Edit or Delete an alert.

Troubleshooting

My alert fired once and then went quiet

That is the episode rule: a condition that stays true notifies once. You hear again on escalation, a material move, or after the cooldown if the alert repeats. Check the History tab for the recorded decision.

My alert never triggers

Check that the alert is switched on, that the symbol or OCC contract is covered by ingestion, and that the value makes sense for the field (implied volatility is a decimal, not a percentage). Outside market hours the data only changes once a day.

The trigger arrived later than the market move

Expected: the data is delayed and evaluated per snapshot. The History tab and the email show the "as of" time of the data used.

I cannot create another alert

You have reached your plan's alert limit. Delete an alert you no longer need, or see Account and billing.

Related

• Understanding data freshness
• Options screener
• Account and billing
• Notification settings, quiet hours and unsubscribing
• E-mails we send