Alert Guidelines

Hours

You can set up and activate alerts or alerts created from templates at any time (including outside of standard market hours) and they will display in the Alerts tab.

However, because alerts require updated Level 1 quote information to function, they will not initialize until the next trading session.

Wide Spreads

Alerts on symbols with wide spreads may not fire if the spread is too wide.

Quick Triggers

Alerts automatically cancel if triggered within 10 seconds of being set.

StreetSmart Only

Brackets, Conditional Orders, and Alerts created in the StreetSmart platforms can only be viewed and managed from the StreetSmart family of applications and are not currently available from Schwab.com or other Schwab applications.

After Hours

Index Alerts

Alerts for indices should only be set up using the variables Trade Price, Change from Open, and Change from Close. Although you can create alerts for indices using other variables such as Bid or Ask, these alerts will never trigger because the variables do not exist for indices.

After an Alert Triggers