Alerts and notifications

MyTraderDash can tell you when something happens to a stock you hold or watch. Some alerts you set up yourself on a watchlist item; others are on for you from the start and watch your open positions automatically. Everything can be turned off.

The kinds of notifications

All prices come from the app's regular price refresh, about every 10 minutes on trading days. An alert can only be as fresh as the last refresh. See Market data.

Watchlist price and yield alerts

You set these on a watchlist item (Add Item or Edit on the Watchlists page):

• Price Above: fires when the price is at or above your level.
• Price Below: fires when the price is at or below your level.
• Yield Target: fires when the dividend yield is at or above your level. Yield = the yearly dividend divided by today's price, so it rises when the price falls. Example: a $2.00 yearly dividend on a $50 stock is 4%; if the price drops to $40, it's 5%.

They are checked after every price refresh, and also right away when you save the item, so a level that's already met fires at once.

Each one fires once. After it fires, the target shows crossed out in the Target column and stays quiet until you re-arm it. To re-arm:

• open the item's ⋯ menu and choose Re-arm for that alert,
• click Re-arm this alert in the alert email, or
• change the level on the item and save (a new level starts fresh).

Daily swing alerts

A swing is how far a stock has moved from its last regular close, up or down. Example: the last close was $100; at $95 the swing is 5% (down), at $104 it's 4% (up).

Two things can ask for a swing alert on a ticker:

• Open positions: every ticker you hold, using the default threshold in Settings (5% to start) or the ticker's own threshold.
• Daily Swing % on a watchlist item.

When they're checked:

• During the session (9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET), after hours (4:00 to 8:00 PM ET) and pre-market (7:00 to 9:30 AM ET), on trading days. Nothing overnight.
• Canadian listings may have no after-hours prices. Their moves then alert at the open.

One move = one alert. Each stretch from one regular close to the next counts as one move. If a stock drops after hours, you hear about it then; the same drop doesn't alert again pre-market or at the open.

• A bigger move alerts again, at each further step of the threshold. With a 5% rule: at 5%, then "now" at 10%, then at 15%. A jump straight to 13% alerts once, and the next step is 15%.
• A move the other way is a new move. Up 6% after hours, then down 6% at the open, alerts twice.
• Outside the session a move must hold for two checks in a row, about 10 minutes, because a single odd trade can print far from the real price. During the session alerts go out at once.
• The lowest rule decides. If you hold AAPL (5% threshold) and also have it on a watchlist with a 3% Daily Swing, you get one alert when it moves 3%, not two.
• When several tickers cross in the same check, they arrive together in one notification.

The alert includes a link to the stock's news on Yahoo Finance, so you can see why it's moving. If earnings were scheduled around the move, it says so ("Earnings scheduled after the close today"). That comes from the calendar: it doesn't mean the report is out, and the alert carries no earnings figures. A date nobody has confirmed reads "Earnings expected"; reminders mark it too.

Ex-dividend and earnings reminders

The ex-dividend date is the first day a stock trades without its next dividend. To get the dividend, you must own the shares by the close of the trading day before it.

• Sent at 8 AM ET on the trading day before the ex-date or earnings date. A Monday date is reminded on Friday; market holidays are skipped.
• An earnings reminder says when, if the date comes with a time: before the open, during the session or after the close.
• One reminder per ticker per date.
• Who gets one: every ticker you hold (unless muted), plus watchlist stocks and tracked tickers where you ticked Ex-dividend reminder or Earnings reminder.
• Turning off Ex-Dividend Reminders or Earnings Reminders in Settings stops both kinds: holdings, watchlist items and tracked tickers.

A future ex-date often has no amount yet; the reminder is sent without one. Dates come from the app's market data and can change. Earnings dates in particular are often estimates until the company confirms them.

Market moves

To hear when the market moves, give the indices a Daily Swing % on a watchlist. New accounts start with a Market Indices watchlist (SPY, QQQ, DIA, IWM) set to 3%. Indices that move in the same refresh arrive as one alert.

Digest

A summary sent after the close (4:30 PM ET):

• Weekly (the default): on the last trading day of the week.
• Daily: every trading day.

It shows your open positions' biggest movers (up to 15), a line for the market indices, and "Coming up": ex-dividend and earnings dates for the next 5 trading days (daily) or next week (weekly). You can add watchlist tickers to the movers. Nothing is sent when there's nothing to show.

Turning things off, and one-click links

Every alert and reminder ends with links that act at once, without logging in:

The links stay valid for 30 days. Each email also links to your notification settings. You can change everything later in Settings → Notifications.

Email or push

There are two channels: Email and Push (a notification on your phone). What's ticked is what you get: Email, Push, or both.

• Open-position alerts go by push to start. Reminders and the digest go by email. You can switch each in Settings.
• Watchlist alerts use the item's own Notify via boxes. A new item starts with Push. With none ticked, the alert is silent.
• Push needs the MyTraderDash phone app signed in to your account. Until then, anything set to push goes by email, so nothing is lost. The same goes when you switch Push off in Settings. Your choices are kept, so push takes over again once the app is signed in.
• When your first phone signs in, it gets one push saying what now comes there instead of email, with a link to the settings.

Screener automation

A watchlist stock can run your option screener when one of its alerts fires. In the item's settings, turn on Run Screener on Trigger, pick one or more screener templates and an Action:

• Email results: one email with the matching contracts of every selected template (up to 20 per template): strike, expiration, days to expiration, bid, ask, delta and implied volatility. It goes by email even when the item's Notify via has only Push ticked.
• Add to watchlist: the matching contracts are added to a watchlist named TICKER - Template name (created the first time).
• Both.

It runs when a Price Above, Price Below, Yield Target or Daily Swing % alert of that item fires. Reminders and open-position alerts don't trigger it. If a template finds nothing, nothing is sent for it.

Example: you watch KO with Price Below $58 and link the Wheel - Cash Secured Put template. When KO drops to $58, you get the price alert and an email listing KO puts 30 to 45 days out with a delta between -0.35 and -0.20.

See Get alerted on a ticker and screen its options for a walk-through.

Testing your alerts

The Simulate button on the Watchlists page asks for a ticker and a price, then runs the rules as if the stock were at that price. It really sends the notifications that would fire, so you can see what they look like, and runs the screener automation of the price and yield alerts that fire. It doesn't mark anything as fired. A price or yield alert that already fired must be re-armed before it can be simulated.