Alert notifications in TradeStops is one of the key components to managing the positions in your portfolios. They give you the ability to get alerts when your stocks hit certain targets. And TradeStops lets you set up an almost infinite number of alert types and helps you manage your alert notifications.
The default alert for individual positions is the Stock State Indicator Alert (SSI Alert). This alert is actually five alerts in one. It lets you know when a stock has triggered an SSI Entry signal, when a stock has triggered an SSI Stop signal, and three different alerts when the stock moves into the SSI Yellow Zone. These include whether the stock is up trending, sideways trending, or down trending.
This is the way it looks when the SSI Alert is being set up.
If your accounts are synchronized, you might not even know that these alerts are set up automatically.
But sometimes, less is more. As the market’s climb has paused recently, we’re seeing some stocks trade in narrow ranges, and this can cause new alerts to be triggered several times a week as a stock moves above and then below a certain target price.
Here’s an example.
XLV is the ETF for the Health Care sector. Here is a 3-month chart of XLV.
The stock was in the SSI Green Zone at the beginning of October. Since the middle of October, the stock has moved from the Green Zone into the Yellow Zone and back into the Green Zone. This stock movement has caused 11 SSI Alerts to be generated in the past several weeks.
Each of these alerts are then sent to your email address and your cell phone (if you have the cell option turned on). Multiply this by 50 or 100 stocks, and it’s easy to see how clogged up your inbox can get.
Many of our members have asked if there’s a way to be notified of just two things. They want to know when a stock has triggered an SSI Entry signal, and is moving from the Red Zone to the Green Zone. And they want to know when a stock has triggered an SSI Stop signal, and is moving from the Green Zone to the Red Zone.
This removes the clutter from your inboxes and only alerts you when actionable alerts have been triggered.
It’s easy to do. The first thing we’ll want to do is go to the Templates page. That is accessed in the upper right hand corner of the TradeStops site.
After getting into the Templates page, it will most likely look like this:
The Stock State Indicator is the default. Let’s set up a new default that will only trigger when a stock hits the SSI Entry signal or SSI Stop signal. Just click on the “Add Template” button and by default, it will open on the SSI Alert screen. Click on the “Show Additional Settings” link.
Now, unclick the three boxes that show the SSI Yellow Zone. Then click on “Add Alert,” name the new template, check the “Make Default” button, and then “Save.”
After clicking “Save,” this is how it now shows up in the Templates page.
We’re now set up to make easy changes in our portfolios. Here’s a sample portfolio that contains the XLV example from above. This portfolio shows all of the Sector ETFs, and they all have the normal SSI Alerts. This is how it appears on the “Alerts” page.
By clicking on the box in the upper left hand side, it will highlight all of the boxes. You can then delete all of the alerts. The TradeStops program will ask you if you want to do this.
You’ve now removed all of the standard SSI Alerts. It’s really easy to add the new “Green Zone/Red Zone only” alert that we created earlier. Just go to the “Positions” tab and check the box at the upper left hand side again and click on “Add Alert.”
The last thing you’ll do is click on the alert you want, and you’ll have set up this alert for every position.
It’s that easy. Now you’ll only recieve the alerts that matter to you most.
If you have any questions, please contact our Customer Success team at your convenience.
Best wishes for the beginning of 2017 and your investing success.
Tom Meyer
Education Director
