Tired of Missing the Perfect Candle? Here’s How to Set Conditional Alerts in ThinkorSwim — Without Losing Your Mind

 

If you’ve ever said, “Damn, that was the candle I was waiting for” while sipping cold coffee and staring at a chart that just left without you — welcome to the club.

I’ve been there. Staring at ThinkorSwim for hours. Watching for a specific candlestick setup. A hammer. An engulfing. Or my favorite — the elusive no-wick Heiken Ashi continuation.

And somehow, every time I blinked or checked Twitter, the setup happened. And I missed it. Again.

So I did the one thing that felt like cheating (but wasn’t):
I automated my awareness. I set conditional alerts in ThinkorSwim to watch for candle patterns — so I don’t have to.

This tutorial will walk you through it step-by-step, with no fluff and no weird scripting knowledge required.

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🚨 What’s a Conditional Alert Anyway?

Think of it like this:

“Dear ThinkorSwim, if you see a candle that looks like this, please yell at me.”

Conditional alerts let you build logic into your chart so ThinkorSwim notifies you the moment your criteria are met — price, volume, candle shape, or any combination you like.

Perfect for:

• Candlestick patterns (like bullish engulfing, dojis, hammers)

• Custom indicators (like no-wick Heiken Ashi)

• Price + momentum combo signals

• Trend continuation candles

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🛠️ Step-by-Step: How to Add a Conditional Alert in ThinkorSwim

Let’s walk through how to create a basic candlestick pattern alert — for example, a bullish engulfing pattern. You can tweak this to match your favorite setup.

🔹 Step 1: Go to the “MarketWatch” Tab

1. Open ThinkorSwim

2. Click on MarketWatch

3. Choose the Alerts sub-tab

This is where you’ll define the “if-this-then-that” logic.

🔹 Step 2: Click “Study Alert”

• Hit “Create Alert”

• Choose your symbol (or your watchlist)

• Under Condition, click the pencil icon to open the conditional wizard

🔹 Step 3: Define Your Candlestick Pattern Logic

Here’s where it gets fun. For a bullish engulfing, try:

• Previous Candle: Close < Open (bearish)

• Current Candle: Close > Open (bullish)

• AND Current Candle’s Body > Previous Candle’s Body

It sounds like a lot, but ThinkorSwim’s wizard lets you build this without writing code.

You’ll click:

Add condition → Price → Close → is greater than → Open
AND
Add condition → Price (1 candle ago) → Close → is less than → Open
AND
(Optional) Add logic to check for larger candle size

You can even save this as a custom study to reuse.

🔹 Step 4: Choose Your Notification Style

You can choose:

• Pop-up

• Sound alert (Ding, Bell, Chime)

• Email or text (requires setup in TOS settings)

Now hit Create — and boom. You just set your first conditional candle alert.

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💡 Want Alerts for Custom Candles (Like Heiken Ashi No-Wick)?

If you’ve written or pasted in a custom ThinkScript, like one that detects Heiken Ashi candles without wicks, you can also create alerts from that.

1. Apply the study to your chart

2. Add a plot like: plot Signal = condition logic here;

3. In the Alerts tab, reference the study and the Signal plot

Example:

thinkscript
plot signal = c > o and l >= o;  # Bullish no-lower-wick candle
alert(signal, "No lower wick detected", Alert.BAR, Sound.Chime);

Now every time that candle forms, ThinkorSwim will ring you like a dinner bell.

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🧘‍♀️ Why This Changed My Trading Psychology

I used to think being a “real trader” meant staring at charts all day.
Now I know better.

Setting alerts:

• Reduced my stress

• Protected me from overtrading

• Made me feel like I had a robot assistant watching charts for me

I still do the analysis. But now, I let the platform tell me when it’s go time. That’s a level of peace you can’t put a price on.

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💬 Final Thoughts: Alerts Aren’t Just for Lazy Traders — They’re for Smart Ones

If you feel overwhelmed by chart watching, or keep missing perfect setups… this is your sign.

Don’t try to mentally babysit a dozen tickers. Let ThinkorSwim do the dirty work.
Set the alert. Walk away. Come back when it pings.

Because honestly?

If your strategy requires perfect timing, it better come with a damn good alarm.