Alerts - gifts of freedom

As a professional day trader, most of my time at the charts is spent on preparation and waiting. By 8am EST, I have identified key areas of interest. It might not be ONE price level, but it could be a zone. Often, once I mark the chart, I am sitting and waiting for 30min - 1 hour before price reaches my levels and gives me an entry signal. Now, I realized that sitting there and staring at EACH tick movement can start to get my monkey brain going - either through boredom, overeager behavior or just straight up FOMO ‘near’ my area of interest. Enter: the gift of alerts.

If your platform doesn’t come with robust alerts, you can use www.tradingview.com, which has very easy to set alerts. Most of my alerts are price alerts, which you can see below, as an example.

Areas of interest are one type of alerts you can set. Another I find of value are alerts once I am IN the trade. Part of my personal trading challenge has been watching the price action as it moves towards my target. Have you ever thought to yourself: Should I take this profit before it turns around? Is this retracement really a turn around?? Is that a bullish candle? Meanwhile you are watching a 1000 tick chart and feeling CRAZY with every micro movement. The choice you have is to either manage your trade from a higher time frame chart, which will give less frequent false signals OR set up alerts so you know when to come back to the charts. So, I often set alerts at certain target areas or areas where I think price might get stuck at, so I can come back to the chart to evaluate the situation. You can also set indicator alerts, such as MACD crossovers, etc. You would be surprised how refreshing it is, mentally and psychologically, to give your eyes a break from the screens.

Basically, alerts have the advantage of saving your mental/emotional capital for when it is needed. Novice traders often lack sufficient pre-market prep and sitting there while the market is moving can lead to many impulsive decisions. Why not come back when it’s in an interesting area? While you are in it, alerts can allow you to “own” your trade and let the stop and targets do their job.

There’s no need to be this dude: