Setting Alarms in TWS

Study Notes:

In this video, we will go over setting an Alarm in the Trader Workstation or TWS. An alarm can be set in either Mosaic or Classic and is useful when you want to be notified when a volume or price threshold has been crossed. Alarms can be set for last traded price, bid price, ask price, or volume. Each alarm uses one line of market data, supports any asset, and you can choose to use a voice or sound warning by going into Global configuration’s Sound Manager. For example, an investor may want to set an alarm if they are tracking a stock and want to know when it reaches a certain price.

Let us go through the two different ways to set alarms in Mosaic.

For this example, we will choose IBKR. Right-click on the symbol in a Watchlist or your Portfolio tab.   Scroll down to Analytical tools and choose Set Alarm. The Alarm Settings box will appear. You may choose multiple conditions for an alarm including less than or equal to for the bid, ask, or last price: greater than or equal to for the bid, ask, or last price. You can also choose a volume threshold greater than or equal to. Choose to play a warning sound when triggered and decide whether to keep it active between trading sessions if not triggered on the day you create it.

For this example, we will choose to set an alarm if the bid is less than or equal to 50 and the ask is greater than or equal to 100. I will choose not to play a warning sound. Once you have input the values, click ok at the bottom of the box. Once set, you will see the values in the corresponding data columns highlighted in green showing that they are armed for that input. If your watchlist doesn’t have the bid, ask, or last data column showing they can be added by clicking on the gear in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

Now let’s look at what happens if an alarm is triggered. We will go back to IBKR and reopen the Alarm Settings box; notice the values we added still appear. We will now add an input for volume greater than or equal to 1,000 to see what happens when an alarm is triggered. I’ll elect to continue to keep the sound off. Since the volume alarm we just set was triggered, the volume field is flashing red and green. And it will continue to flash until you acknowledge that it has been triggered by clicking on the flashing box.

Going back into the Alarm Settings box, we see that the value for volume is no longer there since the condition was met and the alarm triggered. However, our earlier inputs for bid and ask prices are still armed since they have not yet been triggered.

Alarms can also be set through the New Window Area. First, select a symbol either on a Watchlist, Portfolio tab, or type one into the Order Entry Panel, then go to the New Window Area and scroll down to the More Advanced Tools and select Set Alarms. The Alarm Settings box will appear. Type in whichever price or volume change levels you would like to be notified about.

Alarms are a great tool for investors to be notified of price or volume changes without having to constantly watch the trading activity. Simply pick the symbol, set the parameters, and choose whether to have the alarm transfer between sessions or just be for the day. Once an alarm is triggered it needs to be reset if you wish to continue to be notified for movements in that specific condition. You can also choose whether to hear a sound warning or just a visual in the bid, ask, and Last Data columns.

Resources

Alerts & Notifications User Guide

Global Configuration: Messages & Sound Manager