Alerts Overview

Overview

StreetSmart Pro® software offers a variety of ways to keep you informed of specific quote and volume changes for specific equities, options, and indices that you select. Alerts range in degrees of complexity from basic to advanced. Examples of each Alert type and how they function are included in this section of the online help.

Basic Alerts:

Basic alerts use a single "absolute" criterion to set off (trigger) the alert. Once the alert condition is met, no additional calculations are required before the alert is fired. There are two absolute operators:

• Increases to
• Decreases to

Intermediate Alerts:

Intermediate alerts use a single "variable" criterion to trigger the alert. The variable criterion is based upon a change from a value that is determined at the time that the alert is created.

There are two variable operators:

• Gains
• Loses

Advanced Alerts:

Profit and Loss alerts (Share P&L and Trade P&L) and change from open/change from close are advanced alerts that are always based upon two separate calculations involving the operators you select. The sequence of calculations in a P&L alert is as follows:

• First, your current P&L is calculated using the Original Trade Price you enter in the field shown below. Trade P&L and Share P&L are calculated differently although the end result is much the same. Your choice depends on which you feel more comfortable using.
  
  The application takes the Original Trade Price that you enter and compares it to the current Bid or Ask at the moment the alert was created to determine your unrealized profit or loss. The Bid is used if you are long the security and the Ask is used if you are short the security.
• Second, a calculation is made based upon the criteria you select. Note that when using the gains or loses operators, the system is using the current P&L amount as a basis. If you have $100 profit already and you input ‘gains $50’ the alert will trigger when your profit reaches $150.   

You can also set up alerts and conditional order commands for using different symbols for the condition and the conditional order. Useful combinations include an index coupled with an individual stock or an order for an option using its underlying equity for the condition.

Alert Persistence

StreetSmart Pro® Alerts support server-held alerts and conditional orders to better customize your platform to your risk management needs. There are two ways to manage the time-frame of an alert:

Persistent Alerts:

This type of alert remains active, unless triggered, until the expiration date you specify. To make your alert persistent, check Keep alert active after logoff when setting up the alert and set an expiration date up to 60 days out. This alert can be set up at any time, but will be active only during the standard session.

NOTE: If you create an alert to fire when the Bid for a particular security gains 1 point, the software will initialize using the current inside Bid at the moment the alert was created. Alerts created outside of market hours on NYSE listed securities will initialize off the first Level II quote from the securities primary exchange.   The alert will subsequently use the consolidated Level I quote to trigger off of during market hours.

Alerts will reinitialize or reset each day based on the inside bid/ask at opening.  For example: New Enhanced Alert 9 (Alert 9): If GE's bid loses 5 percent then sell 2,000 shares of GE at market on SmartEx and beep.  If the alert does not fire on the first day it is active it will reinitialize the next day at the opening bid/ask and reset the trigger price.

Logon Session Only:

This type of alert (initiated by not checking Keep alert active after logoff) remains active only while logged on to the system. If you lose your connection to the StreetSmart Pro servers, Session Only alerts will remain on the system for 10 minutes. This allows you to log back in without losing the alerts. You must reestablish your connection within 10 minutes to ensure that any outstanding alerts are not lost. If you do not log off or get disconnected and your alert has not triggered, it will be deactivated at the end of the current standard session (4:00 p.m. ET).