Do You Use Push/Email/Screen Alerts for Indicators?

I asked this blog’s readers a similar question 8 years, but back then, we only had just several indicators with alerts available for download and none of them supported push-notifications to mobile devices. Since then, EarnForex.com enabled all sorts of alerts on nearly all of our indicators that are capable of providing signals. We also published a very successful tutorial on adding alerts to custom indicators, which helped hundreds of traders with little or no coding knowledge modify their indicators to enable notifications. Moreover, not so long ago we’ve introduced a guide with an easy-to-follow process for setting up your MetaTrader platform to support both email and mobile device alerts.

When trading Forex, which is a 24-hour-a-day market, it is impossible to be in front of your trading platform every minute of every trading session. This becomes even more essential when operating with crypto pairs, which are traded 24/7. Running indicators on an always-on VPS with alerts enabled is one of the ways to reduce your personal screen time while making sure you are not missing any important trading signals. This is why nowadays, most custom indicators you can find online support alerts — and not only those for MT4/MT5 platform, but also for TradingView, cTrader, and other popular trading software.

It is possible to divide all alerts into three main types:

• Native alerts — the basic alert type that is presented by a popup window appearing on screen and a sound playing in MetaTrader platforms. This alert is good when you are not away from your computer but rather browsing other charts or just not paying attention to the trading platform. It has little use for when you need to walk away from the computer.
  
• Email alerts — good old email is a reliable, albeit not a lightning fast, method to receive alerts from your indicators. This method can be useful when you have to go to your daily job while also setting up some indicators for detection of favorable trading conditions — you will be able to react to the signals, even if a bit later than if you were sitting in front of your trading platform.
  
• Push-notification alerts — the newest method of delivering nearly instantaneous signals to your mobile phone (or another mobile device). You need to install an app to receive the notifications (MT4 or MT5 app from MetaQuotes if you want to receive alerts from a desktop MetaTrader, other apps for other platforms). With some careful configuration of such notifications on your phone, you could even react to them at night, if such disturbances don’t worry you.
  

Even though I have implemented hundreds of alerts for indicators, I actually almost never use alerts in my trading. The best substitute for using the alerts is automating the trading process with expert advisors, which is what I prefer to do. That way, the only thing I would need to be informed about is the trade execution itself. For this, email alerts suffice. However, automating everything with an EA isn’t always possible for all traders, and this isn’t even the best approach for some trading strategies. That’s why I consider support for alerts a very important part of all modern indicators. And how about you? Do you use alerts in technical or other indicators?

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If you would like to share your opinion on using different types of alerts with indicators (MetaTrader or any other platform), please feel free to do so using the commentary form below.