MetaTrader 4 Terminal window – Alerts

Written by Miroslav Marinov

Miroslav Marinov

Miroslav Marinov, a financial news editor at TradingPedia, is engaged with observing and reporting on the tendencies in the Foreign Exchange Market, as currently his focus is set on the major currencies of eight developed nations worldwide.

, | Updated: October 30, 2024

This tab includes information about created alerts. The alerts signal about events in the market. Having created alerts, one may leave the monitor, as the client terminal will automatically inform about the server event.

All alerts in the current tab are presented in the form of a table with the following fields:

– Symbol – the instrument, the data on which are used in order to check for the condition specified. If the “Time=” parameter (alert triggering at the pre-defined time) was selected as a condition, the symbol does not matter.

– Condition – this is the condition, under which the alert will be triggered. The following can be used as such a condition:

     1. Bid> – the Bid price is higher than the specified value. If the current Bid price is above the specified value, the alert will be triggered.

     2. Bid< – the Bid price is lower than the specified value. If the current Bid price moves below the specified value, the alert will be triggered.

     3. Ask> – the Ask price is higher than the specified value. If the current Ask price is above the specified value, the alert will be triggered.

     4. Ask< – the Ask price is lower than the specified value. If the current Ask price moves below the specified value, the alert will be triggered.

    5. Time= – Time is equal to the given value. As soon as this time comes, the alert will be triggered.

– Counter – this is the number of times the alert has been triggered.

– Limit – this is the maximum permissible number of times for alert triggering. Having reached this specified number of times, the alert will stop triggering.

– Timeout – this is the period of time between alerts.

– Event – this is the action to be performed. It can be an audio signal, a file executable in operational environment, a message sent via email or a push notification sent to a mobile device.

Managing alerts

In order to manage alerts, one can use the following context menu commands:

– Create – creates a new alert. The same action can be performed by pressing the Insert key of the keyboard.

– Modify – edits the alert. The same action can be performed by a double-click on the alert name in the table or by pressing the Enter key of the keyboard.

– Delete – deletes the alert. The same action can be performed by pressing the Delete key of the keyboard.

– Enable On/Off – enables/disables the alert. The alert will not be deleted when disabled, but it will not be triggered anymore. It can be enabled at a later time. The same action can be performed by pressing the Space key of the keyboard or by enabling in the alert setup window, described below.

In order to manage alerts with the keyboard, one needs to activate this window first. To do so, a click with the left mouse button in the window is needed.

One can begin to modify the alert by double-clicking of the left mouse button in the alert information line. In this case, as well as upon execution of the “Modify” and “Create” commands from the context menu, the alert editor window will be called:

– Enable – the alert is on/off. When the alert is off, it is not deleted, but it will not be triggered anymore. This option is similar to the “Enable On/Off” command from the context menu and the pressing of the Space key of the keyboard.

– Action – the action performed, when an event occurs:

     1. Sound – plays a sound file.

     2. File – runs an executable file.

     3. Email – sends an email by the internal mail system.

   4. Notification – sends a push notification to a mobile device. Sending push notifications requires specification of the MetaQuotes ID in the terminal settings. MetaQuotes ID is a unique identifier, which is assigned to each mobile terminal during installation on a device. Push notifications are an effective means to inform of events, they are instantly delivered to the mobile device and are never lost. The message text is specified in the “Source” tab.

– Symbol – the trading instrument, the values of which will be used in order to check the condition.

– Condition – this is the condition (“Time=”, “Bid”, “Ask”), under which the alert will be triggered.

– Value – checks value of the condition. If the price of the instrument is equal to this value, the alert will be triggered.

– Source – depending on what type of action is performed when an event occurs, one of the following is specified in this tab:

     1. a sound file in *.wav, *.mp3 or *.wma format.

     2. an executable file in the *.exe, *.vbs or *.bat format.

     3. an email template. If one selects “Email”, a click on this field will open a window for writing a template of an email to be sent to the address, specified in the terminal settings. One can also write an email text message in the format “email subject\n email text”.

     4. a text of a push message. The message can be 255 characters in length.

– Timeout – the time period between alerts.

– Maximum iterations – the maximum number of times, when the alert repeats triggering.

The “Test” button allows one to check the usability of the selected alert. For changes to come into effect, one needs to press the “OK” button.