Alerts

Fairly straight-forward:

1. Go to the Gmail website.
2. Click on the "Sign up for Gmail" link just below where login details are normally entered.
3. Fill in the mandatory details.

Note down your new email address and password. You'll need to enter these details into ATM.
 

To clarify what the "current", or "most recently completed" bar is:

1. Look at a chart.
2. Make sure the chart is scrolled all the way to the right.
3. Point at the right-most bar. This bar is still being made. It's not complete.
4. Point at the bar just to the left of the right-most bar. That's the most recently completed bar.

ATM uses the most recently completed bar for its calculations.
 

Bar Offset

The "bar offset" is the number of bars before the current bar. So a bar offset of zero refers to the current bar itself (the default). A bar offset of 1 means the bar before the current bar. A bar offset of 2 means the bar before that. And so on.

When you create a rule and use a bar offset greater than zero, ATM steps back that number of bars and does its calculations as of the situation as it was back then.

The bar offset is most often used when looking for when one line crosses another. This event is often used for trading signals. To check for such a cross, 2 rules are needed: (1) check that line 1 was under line 2; and then (2) check that line 1 is now above line 2.

Rule (1) has to use a bar offset of 1 to check what the situation was 1 bar ago. Rule (2) uses the bar offset of zero to check what the current situation is.
 

Rules and values can all use the same interval, e.g. Hourly bars. Like this:

• Rule 1 does its calculations with EURUSD/Hourly/FXCM
• Rule 2 does its calculations with EURUSD/Hourly/FXCM
• Rule 3 does its calculations with EURUSD/Hourly/FXCM

Or they can all use different intervals, e.g. some use 5-Minute bars, others 20-Minute bars, and others Hourly. Like this:

• Rule 1 does its calculations with EURUSD/5-Minute/FXCM
• Rule 2 does its calculations with EURUSD/20-Minute/FXCM
• Rule 3 does its calculations with EURUSD/Hourly/FXCM

In fact ATM doesn't really care where the prices came from. This is also possible:

• Rule 1 does its calculations with EURUSD/5-Minute/FXCM
• Rule 2 does its calculations with EURUSD/20-Minute/Oanda
• Rule 3 does its calculations with EURUSD/Hourly/Gain Capital

And finally, not all rules need to check the same symbol:

• Rule 1 does its calculations with EURUSD/5-Minute/FXCM
• Rule 2 does its calculations with USDNZD/20-Minute/Oanda
• Rule 3 does its calculations with GBPJPY/Hourly/Gain Capital

So you can make trading decisions in one symbol based on what a different symbol is doing. In fact in this last scenario you can do the actual trading in yet another symbol if you like - it doesn't have be any of EURUSD, USDNZD, nor GBPJPY.
 

 
Trading systems

Rules specify when some trading action is to take place; values specify where.

Rules and values - where you have one, you always need both.

For example, it's optional to specify stop loss management rules. But if you do, you also have to specify a stop loss management value (and vice versa). The former tells ATM when it should move the stop loss; the latter at what price to move it to.

Here's the full list:
 

Each of the above can be used for both the Long and Short directions.

You can have multiple rules, of course. But less obvious is that you can also have multiple values.

See also:

• What determines a complete trading system
• Stop Loss Mgmt #1-#9, Take Profit Mgmt #1, #2
• Multiple timeframes
• Trading decision flowchart
   

Alerts

Alerts have only alerting rules - there are no values to worry about. This is because alerts only need to know when to send you a notification.

Normally all alerting rules must be true for alert to fire. However, you can use groups to set up optional alerting rules.
 

Most likely you are reading this article because your alert refuses to send you any notifications. So we will focus on the possible causes. Check these:

• Does your alert have at least one alerting rule?
• If there is more than 1 alerting rule, can they actually all be true at the same time?
• Is the alert's status set to "Enabled"?
• Is there a holiday attached that's preventing alerts?
• Are the settings on the "Frequency" tab set correctly?
• Have you set the frequency to stop after a certain number of alerts have fired, and that number has been reached?
• Are you sure that the alerting rules have been true at some point after starting alerting?
• Scheduled processes on the Command Centre:
  • Have you started the price download and/or creation process? Is it working and new price bars are coming in? You can check this by using the Chart window or Price History Search window. If no then read this.
  • Have you started the alerting process?
  • Are the alerting tasks being processed without error? You can check this on the "Alerting Tasks" > "Completed List" tab. Scroll to the right-side of the result grid. Anything in the "Error Text" field is bad.
• Did you accidentally set the alert's "last bar used" dates or "last checked" date into the future? This will pause alerting until those dates are reached.
• Have you created at least one Broadcast Setting which matches the alert?
  • Is it enabled?
  • Is the address being sent to enabled?
  • Is the address correct?
  • On the Options window, have you enabled messages in general?
  • Each time a message is broadcast, ATM Activity is logged. Search through that ATM Activity and check the results of the broadcast attempts. Error messages there will give more clues.
     

Graphical representation of the checklist

Here's what it kind of looks like graphically:

If it still doesn't work

If your alert still refuses to fire, you will need to seek advice in the forum. Give as much information as you can. An exported version of your alert would be ideal. If you are worried about your privacy, then make a copy of your alert. Edit the copy, delete the private stuff, and maybe make a generic version of your alert that still displays the same problem but doesn't give away your special sauce. Export that one instead.

Screenshots are also good. We've found that glancing through these screenshots, it takes about 20 seconds to diagnose the problem. Without the screenshots or the exported alert it takes a lot longer.
 

"Alert" could refer to any of the following:

Price-based alert is an alert that sends you a message when the price reaches a certain level. E.g. AUD/USD reaches 0.9876.

Indicator-based alert is an alert that sends you a message when an indicator (or group of indicators) reaches a certain level. E.g. you can create an alert which notifies you when:

• Relative Strength Index (RSI) is above 70; and
• Commodity Channel Index (CCI) is above 100; and
• MACD Histogram is below zero.

When all of those alerting rules are true, you get a message. Useful if you want to trade manually but want to be notified when certain conditions are met.

Trading alerts are sent when any of these occur (you can pick which ones):

• An order is placed
• An order is modified
• An order is cancelled
• A trade is opened
• A trade's stop loss or take profit is modified
• A trade is closed