How to Save Chart Settings on Create Alert?


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After clicking Create Alert on a TOS chart, how do you get the Preview Window  chart to pop up with one’s moving average settings each time??? I can set them up once by right clicking on the preview window chart but I can’t seem to find how to save them. Also, will the time frame match what is on the chart one clicks on? That too seems non-trivial. TIA!

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Posted by (Questions: 1, Answers: 1)
Asked on May 30, 2022 8:02 am
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From the terms used in the title of your question I understand you are creating a price alert on a ticker symbol by right-clicking on the chart and selecting "Create Alert". The default price of the alert is determined by the location you right-clicked the chart to create it.

Let's make sure everyone reading this understands this important distinction. There is another tool on Thinkorswim which is named "Study Alert". But the only way to create a Study Alert is from the MarketWatch tab. You cannot set a Study Alert from within a chart. So I am pretty sure you are describing the process of creating a simple price alert.

Since this is a price alert the time frame is completely irrelevant and the platform will display the 1 minute time frame in the preview chart. This cannot be changed. When creating a price alert, there is no point in adding chart studies to the chart, since the studies themselves are in no way connected to the fixed value you enter for the price alert. The only valid options are to select the fixed value for your alert and then select the price type and crossing direction. Chart studies can NOT be used as trigger events in the price alert tool. For this reason, Thinkorswim developers have not included any methods for adjusting the time frame of the preview chart or save any changes to the studies you add to the chart.

Now, having explained the differences between price alerts and study alerts I will include a bit more detail about Study Alerts. When you go to the MarketWatch tab and create a Study Alert, you get a preview chart which shows the alert value on the bottom subgraph. You add conditions to your Study Alert using the available tools and those conditions can be based on chart studies. The alert value displayed at the bottom shows up just like a scan signal. When the conditions you have entered are true, the alert value is 1, when the conditions you have entered are false, the alert value is 0.

Yes you can add chart studies to the preview chart when creating a Study Alert and you can also adjust the time frame. Of the two alert types I have described, this is the ONLY one in which your request is valid. (which is the only reason I took the time to describe them both). However at this time there is now way to save any of those changes. Thinkorswim developers would need to add this functionality. So if you consider this an important feature, you should submit this as a feature request to TD Ameritrade support. But please be sure to use the correct terminology and don't even bother asking for these features to be added to the price alert, because within the context of a simple price alert your request is not relevant.

 

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Posted by (Questions: 37, Answers: 4079)
Answered on May 30, 2022 8:27 am
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Hello Pete, thanks so much for taking the time. I recently learned from a Youtube video (Master Think or Swim (ToS) Alerts by the Trade Brigade 24:48 minutes) of an alternate route into Study Alerts via right clicking the chart/Create Alert/accessing the pulldown under \”Price: \” and choosing Study/Edit, as you probably know. While watching the video, I noticed the createor used the right click on the chart/Create Alert approach to just get to the Preview Window there (without going to the Study Alert via Marketwatch); and several times, it can be clearly seen that the 50 and 200 Day SMA which were on the chart he was right clicking on, re-appeared in the same manner on the Preview window. I wrote to him asking how he had accomplished this and he answered that unfortunately ToS was in one of those quite finicky areas which was difficult to understand, and that he was unsure as to why he sometimes got the chart to pop up with the indicators and sometimes not. Are we missing somthing?
( at May 30, 2022 9:58 am)
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Thanks for the updated details. I was able to follow your instructions to edit and create a study alert from the chart view. However when I tested this several times it never once populated the preview chart with the studies that were on the chart. And was sure to test this using built-in studies such as simple moving averages. Neither did it adjust the time frame in the preview window to match the chart. I suspect what you have here is a bug, or a glitch. It may also be a feature, which the developers of Thinkorswim were not able to fully implement or perhaps they broke it while updated some other aspect of the platform. Either way, your next step is to contact TD Ameritrade support. It's way beyond the scope of anything we can accomplish through writing custom scripts.
( at May 30, 2022 11:13 am)
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The creator of the video mentioned in the comments section that one could get the time frames to sync by locking and unlocking the price on the original chart but that did not work for me. What does work every time is to add any moving average to the preview window. The time frames sync up immediately. I was wondering if you were able to save any of the indicators (MAs or otherwise) made to the preview window? I was not and I tried for quite some time. Also, by right clicking the preview and hovering over Style I noticed the word Default* at the very top (greyed out), and wondered where that default could be coming from. This part of Thinkorswim *does* seem uncharacteristically inconsistant and buggy. I’m going to call in tomorrow after the holiday and ask the Trade Desk as the weekend staff also seemed to be unaware as to how this worked and will let you know if I find anything to shed some light here. Thanks for your comments and help.
( at May 30, 2022 3:21 pm)
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Oops! The price lock in the preview window does, in fact, work nicely.
( at May 31, 2022 6:03 am)