ToS Settings, Watchlists, Alerts, and Grid

[Chuck]

ThinkorSwim Chart Settings

ThinkorSwim offers a collection of tutorials for their chart settings customization. These settings include General, Price Axis, Time Axis, Appearance settings and more. It is here that ToS allows you to add/ toggle time frame aggregations which are important based on the type of trader you are. I generally expand the area and fill in the green ticks in the Appearance tab. I find it helpful to also overlap volume on the chart (General Tab). It is also possible to remove after hours to speed up backdating testing.

In a watch list, symbols are grouped together along with market data for each instrument. In addition to making custom watchlists, traders can also include constituents of indexes such as the NASDAQ 100, Dow Jones Industrials, and S&P 500 as well. Watch Lists are a key feature itself but have also found application in other thinkorswim features: Scanner, FX Global Currency Map, Stock Hacker, Use The News, and several others. In the gadget title, you can find four controls: the watch list selector, the up/down arrow control

, the 'clip' icon

, and the Show actions button

:

• You can configure your watchlists using the watchlist selector. The configuration menu is where you can create, delete, and switch between watch lists. The public watch lists, Lovers and losers, Top 10, and industry-based watch lists are also available. In the same menu, you can also view your portfolio watch list, i.e., the watch list of symbols that have positions in the currently selected account.
• Using the arrows, you can switch between watch lists within a group: the up arrow takes you to the previous list, and the down arrow takes you to the next.
• Clip button lets you access the thinkorswim clipboard; it links one component to another. The icon opens a menu with color and number selections. By clicking a color in this menu, all components of the same color will be linked to your watch lists. Any component that uses green will be linked when you select a green box. Symbol selector and Dashboard can be linked to Watch Lists. By clicking through the watch list, the symbol selector and Dashboard will display corresponding symbols.

Are you interested in displaying multiple charts in a grid format? What is the best way to save certain studies or settings so that you can switch quickly and easily between them? By creating and saving your own studies, drawings, and settings, ToS enables you to customize your preferences. Using the grid dropdown menu at the upper right of the page, you can save your chart layout. In addition, you can select how many charts to display on the monitor using this grid. There are three aggregation types available in the Style dropdown box in the right corner: Tick, Time, and Range. You can also decide whether to record charts intraday or daily. This menu allows you to save the style once you have chosen it. Finally, you may use any number and combination of drawings and studies and save them separately within each dropdown box.

Alerts: There are 2 types of alerts available in ToS:
The Marketwatch tab has an Alerts section where you can find platform alerts. It's more limited than what you can write for a chart study and some script functions don't work. Depending on the platform, you can also send text messages or emails. Personalized audio files can also be played or a choice of sounds can be selected. Open source does not have to be part of the TOS/platform
Study-based alerts are programed as part of a thinkScript study loaded on the chart using the Alert() function. This type of alert can’t email or SMS/txt but will show up as a Platform Message and you will have an audible alert. A personalized audio file cannot be specified. Note that the platform has to be open.
In Study Alerts, you will be notified when a specified condition is met, such as a price reaching a certain level, or a relation between function values. Study alerts can include both predefined and custom studies.

• The MarketWatch tab can be accessed through the sub-tab row under Alerts. Click the Study alert button at the top-right after typing the symbol. Upon clicking the Study Alerts button, a window will appear.
• Now you are ready to create the condition upon which the alert will be triggered. This can be done using either the Condition Wizard or the standard thinkScript Editor.
• After the condition is set, several special rules can be added: the alert sound, the repetition of the alert, and date and time to activate the alert at. Click Set Alert Rules... in order to customize these additional rules.
• Once the condition and the rules are set, click Create alert. The alert will be displayed in your Alert Book.

Regular Alert: In order to set recurring alerts under Marketwatch -> Alerts, . check the box “Recreate alert for reverse crossover” in the Alert rules. That will keep the alert active after it triggers. Check the box to silence the alert, unless you’d like to be alerted about it. If this box is not checked it will only alert once. "Reverse Crossover" is really a poor name. What it means is the alert condition crossing from one to zero, or true to false. It is a reverse crossover, because when triggered it is crossing from zero to one. So when enabled, it will reset to false when the condition is no longer true, and this keeps it active.
when you create each Alert, be sure to select Reverse Crossover = Regular Alert for Reverse Crossover. That way you only have to create each Alert once, and every time price crosses that level Alert will trigger (on platform and/or to email or phone) and will automatically re-set causing Alert lines to always be on your chart (if charts have "Show Alert" selected)
Setting Alert for Entire Watchlist: It is necessary to create a custom chart study with alert built into ThinkScript for the entire watch list in order to set an alert for the entire watch list, then open a grid of charts with each chart containing the custom chart study with alert, then click on the top right Symbols to select the watch list (IMPORTANT - you can detach the grid and move it until almost off your screen but do NOT minimize (chart alerts will only trigger if the chart is open, even when the chart is hidden near the edge of the screen).