Thread: Price alerts don't work

Hi guys,

Quick question - why don't price alerts work?!

I've 110% sure I'm not doing anything wrong, I've been using Trading Station and Marketscope, together with indicators and strategies for a LONG time now and have programmed a lot myself.

But the price alerts just doesn't seem to work. Haven't looked at the code yet, but it should be so simple?

It doesn't mail even though the smtp server settings is correct. It doesn't even show the terminal popup message or play any kind of sound file.

It just doesn't work.

Any ideas?
Thank you!
Albert

Hello cyanidez, and thank you for your post!


My email / strategy / price alerts are not functioning properly on the platform. What can I do?

First let's make sure that you are setting up your email notifications correctly. To set up an email alert please go to "File" on the top left hand corner of Markscope 2.0 and then "Options"

On the options window, click on "Strategies Options", then enter the appropriate information for your SMTP (usually available from your email provider). Below is an example of setting up your email alerts using a gmail email address.

Please make sure that you are entering the correct information in the "SMTP server address" field. This is the most common area that mistakes are made. Also take care to type everything correctly, do not copy and paste, and do not leave extra spaces. As you can see above, the correct SMTP server address for a gmail address is smtp.gmail.com.

A common problem with e-mail alerts, even when all the information is entered correctly, is that the default Mail Port 25 is blocked by the ISP or a firewall.

A quick fix for this issue is to use an alternate port which may not be blocked. At the end of the SMTP server address simply add a colon “:” followed by the port number.

The alternate ports vary between email providers and ISPs, but the most common are 587, 2525, and 26. The specific number can usually be found with a simple Google search or trial and error with the numbers just mentioned. As you can see from the example pictured below – smtp.live.com became smtp.live.com:587

For more information on how to set up your SMTP, along with a list of some of the more popular email provider's SMTPs, please click here (How to Configure Email Alerts?).

When you are finished, click on "Apply" then "OK".

Now let's use a price alert as an example of how you can receive an email notification. In order to properly set up a price alert on the Trading Station platform, first right click on the currency pair that you would like to set up an alert for.

In this example we are using the USD/JPY pair. Once you click on "Add Price Alert", the Strategy Properties window will appear.

The Strategy Properties window will always appear whether you are setting up a strategy or a price alert. Make sure that "Show alert" is set to "Yes". If you scroll down in the Parameters sections, you can also set up your price alerts to play a sound once it is triggered.

Because you have set the appropriate information for your SMTP correctly, you can also have your strategy and price alerts sent to you by email from the "Strategy Properties" window. Just have the "Send e-mail" field set to "Yes", enter your email address, and then click "OK".

You should now receive an email notification whenever your price alert is triggered. Please keep in mind that email notifications do not sit on our servers. One would need be logged in to the Trading Station platform in order to receive notifications.


What if my price alerts are still not functioning properly?

I was not able to replicate the error that you are describing. When my strategy and price alerts are triggered I am able to receive an email notification and an alert directly from the platform. A couple of other things to look for:

• Is the volume is turned up on the computer?

To hear sound notifications please make sure that the volume on your computer is turned up and is not muted. This is a very common mistake. Also are you able to hear any other sounds from your computer? If you are not able to hear any other sounds it may be an issue with the computer itself. If the volume is up on your computer but you cannot hear anything please try to restart the computer. Also please make sure that you did not leave your headphones left plugged in the computer. This is something that I have done in the past.

• Are my price alerts actually being triggered?

Please make sure that you are looking at the correct chart. If your price alert is set up for bid prices, please make sure you are looking at the bid chart. If your price alert is set up for ask prices, please make sure you are looking at the ask chart.

• Is my period size set properly?

Choosing "T" will cause the alert the be triggered when a single tick hits or crosses the price chosen. Choosing any other time frame will only check to see if the price has been hit or crosses the price alert periodically. For example, if you chose 1 Hour period size, it would only check once an hour, every hour.

I am doing everything correctly and the email notifications, strategy alerts, or price alerts are still not working properly. What can I do?

If you feel that your notifications and alerts are not working properly even though you have set everything up correctly, there may be an issue with the platform itself. What you may need to do is perform a regedit, or a complete uninstall and reinstall of the platform. This process takes about 5 - 10 minutes. For instructions on how to perform a regedit please click here (Reinstalling Trading Station).

If that still does not work, please feel free to send me a screen shot (Problem with marketscope)so that I can see exactly how you are setting up your SMTP and Strategy Properties window so that I can continue to troubleshoot the issue with you from there.


How else can I be notified if I want to know when the market reaches a certain price?

DailyFX.com has a free service where you can have an alert sent to your mobile device when a specific price is reached for a currency pair or when market news is released! Here's where you can sign up: Mobile Price Alerts from DailyFX


Please let me know either way whether or not you are able to resolve the issue. Thank you in advance for your time and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank you again for your post cyanidez! Please feel free to post with additional questions or contact me directly at julius@fxcm.com

Originally Posted by cyanidez

Hi guys,

Quick question - why don't price alerts work?!

I've 110% sure I'm not doing anything wrong, I've been using Trading Station and Marketscope, together with indicators and strategies for a LONG time now and have programmed a lot myself.

But the price alerts just doesn't seem to work. Haven't looked at the code yet, but it should be so simple?

It doesn't mail even though the smtp server settings is correct. It doesn't even show the terminal popup message or play any kind of sound file.

It just doesn't work.

Any ideas?
Thank you!
Albert