Server-Side Alerts

If you’re new to TradingView or Pine Script and you are unsure of how to properly set server-side alerts and alert conditions on the TradingView platform, then this post is for you!

Server-side alerts are alerts that are monitored by TradingView’s servers, meaning you do not need to leave your computer running with the charting platform open in order for them to trigger.

In one of my Pine Script Lessons I explain how to add alert functionality to your custom scripts. That post is intended for people interested in Pine Script coding.

In this post I will sum up exactly how to create all types of script alerts on the TradingView platform including price alerts, drawing tool alerts and indicator alerts.

TradingView Alert Types

TradingView has several different types of alert actions, all of which can be enabled or disabled as you wish (depending on your membership plan).

Notify on App only works if you first download the (free) TradingView app (Android or iOS). If you have the app installed and a trading alert is triggered then you will receive a push-notification straight to your mobile device.

Show Popup will display a window popup inside your TradingView chart window when an alert is triggered. The popup will display on every chart you have open.

Send Email sends you an email whenever an alert is triggered. You can specify the message that is sent so that you know which indicator triggered the email alert.

Play Sound plays an audio alert whenever a signal is triggered. You can select from 8 different sounds and you can choose how long the sound plays for. This is a fantastic tool for day-traders and I use it every day.

Send Email-to-SMS will send you a text message to your phone. In order to use this feature you must have a phone data carrier that allows email-to-SMS functionality (eg. MobileNumber@online.telstra.com.au).

How To Set TradingView Alerts

You can set alerts like so:

You can set alerts a multitude of ways. The easiest way is to just click on the Alert menu and then click the Plus button. Then you can choose what to set an alert for and the conditions that trigger it.

The alert options are fairly straight-forward to understand, but I’ll break them down below.

Alert Options & Conditions

Condition

This section sets the conditions which must be met in order for the alert to trigger. You can click on the first box to select the script that you want to generate your trading signal.

In the second box you can choose which variable you want to monitor.

The third box is used to set the condition that the second box’s variable must meet in order to trigger the alert.

Note that if the script you are using generates its own alerts based on internal conditions that the script looks for (like in the above example with my RSI Signals) then you do not need to touch the second or third box.

Simply select the script you want to use for alerts and the script will decide when to send out the alerts. These particular options are more for using basic alerts on drawing tools which I will demonstrate below. For most script-based alerts you will only need to touch the first box to select the script.

Options

These four buttons let you choose when the alert is triggered (on a candle and time basis).

If you set it to Only Once then the alert will trigger a single time without repeating, and it will trigger during the current candle without waiting for it to close.

If you set it to Once Per Bar then it will trigger once per bar (before the candle closes), and it will repeat on any new bars.

If you set it to Once Per Bar Close it will only trigger when the candle closes. This is the most common setting that you will use for trading signals if you are a systematic trader, and it will repeat on any new bars if the alert conditions are met.

Once Per Minute will trigger the alert on any current candle multiple times, but only once per every minute. This is great for detecting potential setups before the candle closes so that you can be prepared in advance. I often use this for assistance with trading my intraday strategies, so that I spend less time staring at charts during the day.

Expiration Time

This section lets you set the expiration time of the alert.

How long you can have the alert active depends on your membership plan. On a Free account you are limited to only 1 alert per account and the maximum alert expiration is 2 months.

On a Pro account you can set multiple alerts (up to 10 on Pro and 30 on Pro+), also with a maximum expiration of 2 months.

On the Premium account you can set up to 200 alerts and gain access to the open-ended setting which will leave the alert active forever until you manually disable it.

You can set any date within your maximum time period and any time of day. Expiry times are useful for tracking day-trading setups with a limited time window, but most of the time you will want to set the alert for the maximum time possible – until your setup is invalidated or you have already acted on it.

If you’re not sure what account type functionality you need or you want a full break-down on the features and pros vs. cons of each account type, then check out my comprehensive TradingView Review for more information.

Setting Alerts on Indicators

One of the simplest ways to set alerts for indicators with alert functionality is to simply click on this little plus symbol (+) when your mouse is hovering over the indicator box.

For example here is how you can set a simple alert for when the RSI goes oversold at 30:

This will only work on certain indicators, but it is a common feature for most of them.

If the indicator you are using does not have this functionality then you can set alerts using the Manage Alerts interface instead. Here are some examples of how to set alerts for a few of my custom indicators:

Setting Price Alerts

The other way to add alerts is to click on the same Plus sign on the actual chart itself. This will create a horizontal alert.

If you click the Add Alert button then it will create a basic price alert. If a candle crosses that specific price in either direction you will be alerted.

You can change this in the settings menu.

Adjusting Alert Settings

Once you have set an alert you can change its settings at any time from the alerts menu.

Simply open up the menu and click on the cog icon:

Then the settings menu will appear. From inside this menu you can adjust the conditions and settings of the alert.

If you click on the box beneath the indicator you have set an alert for you can choose which alert condition will trigger the alert.

Crossing Down will only trigger if price or the indicator value moves past the specified value in the downwards direction, whereas Crossing Up does the opposite.

There are several other options that are all fairly self-explanatory, but most of those options are designed to be used on Drawing Tools.

Setting Alerts on Drawing Tools

This feature is particularly useful for pattern traders.

You can set alerts based on your technical analysis drawings. This is great for flag, wedge, trend-line and channel breakout signals. You can set alerts on any type of drawing tool you wish.

For example here is how you would set an alert that triggers when the candle closes beyond a trend line (signalling a breakout setup):

How To Add Alert Functionality To Existing Scripts

This is for people with prior coding experience or people who have gone through the basics section of my Pine Script Lessons.

If you come across an existing indicator script that you like but it doesn’t have an option to set alerts for a variable you want it to, you can add alerts easily with this line of code placed at the end of your script:

alertcondition(true/false variable, title="Alert!", message="Alert triggered")

Simply replace the first parameter (“true/false variable”) with a variable that you desire. The variable or operation must return a Boolean type in order to successfully compile.

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