2. The terminal and your workspace

Alerts (ALRT, SA)

An alert watches the market for you, firing on a price level or an event such as an earnings date, a filing or an insider trade, and ALRT lists them all.

  • 4 min
  • 3 questions
  • Lesson 4 of 8

Why you would care

How do you stop staring at the screen? You want to buy if a stock dips to 195, or know the moment a company files an 8-K. Watching all day is not a plan. An alert turns "I'll keep an eye on it" into a rule that tells you when it happens.

The idea from scratch

An alert is a rule plus a notification:

  • Price alert

    a ticker, a condition and a level. "NVDA above 240" fires the first time the price trades above 240.

  • Event alert

    a ticker (or your whole portfolio) and a kind of event, like "8-K filed" or "earnings in 3 days".

The three price conditions:

ConditionAlso typedFires when
above>the price goes above the level
below<the price goes below the level
crossesxthe price crosses the level either way

Once an alert fires, it is done until you re-arm it (set it to watch again).

Event alerts

ALRT, Events tab, or the command Add Event Alert. For a US-listed ticker you can follow:

  • a confirmed earnings date (some days before),
  • an SEC filing type (8-K, 10-K, 10-Q, S-1, 13D/G...),
  • a news keyword,
  • an analyst upgrade or downgrade,
  • a new 52-week high or low,
  • unusual volume (a multiple of the last 20 sessions' average),
  • a change in short interest,
  • an open-market insider buy or sell,
  • an option's implied volatility spike, and large options flow prints (both Pro).

You can also follow Congress members' trades (by name) and a fund's 13F filings (by its SEC number). These are taught in chapter 05.

Diagram: Your rule: NVDA above 240 leads to Gloom watches every price tick; Gloom watches every price tick leads to Alert fires (crossed); Alert fires leads to Notification in the app, and on your phone if set up; Alert fires leads to History tab; Alert fires leads to Re-arm to watch again.
Wide diagram: scroll sideways to see all of it.

See it in Gloom

Gloom screenshot: The Alerts pane, Prices tab, with six demo alerts
The Alerts pane, Prices tab, with six demo alerts: current price, target, distance and trigger type. Historical example.

open ittype ALRT. Create one from anywhere with SA NVDA above 240.

  1. Tabs: Prices (price alerts), Events (event rules), History (alerts delivered to your phone in the last 90 days).
  2. NVDA 223.82 240.00 +7.2% Above: the price is 223.82, the target 240; it must rise 7.2% to fire.
  3. NVDA 195.00 -12.9% Below: the same stock can carry several alerts: one for a breakout, one for a dip.
  4. TSLA ... Cross: fires if 400 is crossed in either direction.
  5. QUOTE ◷4h: the age of the quote the alert compares against; the clock means a delayed quote.
  6. ALERTED -: empty until the alert fires.

Keys: a add, e edit, d delete, m re-arm.

Practice and recap

Try it3 tasks
  1. Write the command for an alert when TSLA falls below 300. (SA TSLA below 300, or SA TSLA < 300.)
  2. In the screenshot, which alert is closest to firing? (TSLA, 5.7% away.)
  3. Which event alert would tell you about a surprise CEO departure? (An SEC filing alert on 8-K; companies file an 8-K for executive changes.)
Common mistakes4 mistakes
  • Setting an alert far from the price and forgetting it. Review ALRT every few weeks.
  • Expecting a fired alert to fire again. Re-arm it.
  • Relying on a delayed alert for a fast trade.
  • Putting "above" when you meant "crosses" for a level the price might gap through.
Check yourself3 questions
  1. What three things make a price alert?
  2. What does m do in ALRT?
  3. Name two event alerts that need Pro.
Answers
  1. A ticker, a condition (above, below, crosses) and a level.
  2. Re-arms the selected alert so it watches again.
  3. The option implied volatility spike and options flow alerts.
Words in this lesson5 words
alert
A rule that notifies you when a price or event condition is met.
price alert
Fires when a price goes above, below or across a level.
event alert
Fires on an event: a filing, an earnings date, an insider trade...
re-arm
Set a fired alert to watch again.
52-week high / low
The highest / lowest price of the past year.

Educational material about reading market data, not investment advice.