MT5 Alerts and Notifications: Never Miss a Trading Opportunity

Why Alerts Matter in Trading

No trader can watch charts 24 hours a day. Markets run around the clock five days a week, and the most significant price movements often happen when you are away from your screen. Alerts solve this problem by monitoring the market for you and notifying you when specific conditions are met.

MetaTrader 5 offers multiple alert delivery methods: on-screen popups, sound effects, push notifications to your mobile phone, and email alerts. Combining these methods ensures you never miss a critical price level, trend change, or trading opportunity regardless of where you are.

Alerts also improve trading discipline. Instead of sitting at your desk watching every tick (which leads to impulsive trades), set your alerts at key levels and walk away. The market will come to you — and you will enter trades only when your predefined conditions are met.

Types of Alerts in MT5

Setting Up Price Alerts

Price alerts trigger when the bid or ask price crosses a specified level. There are two ways to create them:

Method 1: From the Alerts Tab

1. Open the Terminal panel (Ctrl+T)
2. Click the Alerts tab at the bottom
3. Right-click in the Alerts area and select "Create"
4. Configure the alert:
   • Enable: Check to activate
   • Action: Choose Sound, File, Email, or Notification
   • Symbol: Select the trading instrument
   • Condition: Bid >, Bid <, Ask >, Ask <, Time =
   • Value: The trigger price or time
   • Expiration: When the alert should expire if not triggered
   • Maximum iterations: How many times the alert can trigger
5. Click OK

Method 2: Right-Click on Chart

1. Right-click at the desired price level on the chart
2. Select Trading > Alert
3. The alert creation dialog opens with the price pre-filled
4. Configure alert action and click OK

This second method is faster because the price level is automatically set to where you clicked on the chart. A horizontal dashed line appears on the chart showing where the alert is placed.

Configuring Push Notifications

Push notifications send alerts directly to your MT5 mobile app. This is the most practical alert method for traders who are not always at their desk.

Step 1: Get Your MetaQuotes ID

1. Open the MT5 mobile app on your phone
2. Go to Messages or Settings
3. Find your MetaQuotes ID (an alphanumeric code like "A1B2C3D4")

Step 2: Configure Desktop MT5

1. On desktop MT5, go to Tools > Options
2. Click the Notifications tab
3. Check "Enable Push Notifications"
4. Enter your MetaQuotes ID
5. Click Test to send a test notification
6. Verify you receive the test notification on your phone
7. Click OK

Once configured, any alert set to "Notification" action will be delivered to your phone. Expert Advisors can also send push notifications using the SendNotification() function in MQL5. Learn more about using alerts with your mobile setup in our mobile app guide.

Setting Up Email Alerts

Email alerts require configuring an SMTP server in MT5. Here is how to set it up with Gmail:

1. Go to Tools > Options > Email
2. Check "Enable"
3. Configure the fields:
   • SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com:465
   • SMTP Login: your Gmail address
   • SMTP Password: your Gmail app password (not your regular password)
   • From: your Gmail address
   • To: the email where you want to receive alerts
4. Click Test to verify

Gmail requires you to create an "App Password" in your Google Account security settings since regular password authentication was deprecated. Other email providers (Outlook, Yahoo) follow a similar process with their respective SMTP settings.

Customizing Sound Alerts

MT5 comes with default alert sounds, but you can customize them with any .wav audio file:

• When creating an alert, select "Sound" as the action
• Click the browse button to choose a custom .wav file
• Place your custom sound files in the MT5 Sounds folder for easy access

Useful customizations: use different sounds for different alert types (e.g., a gentle tone for price approaching a level and an urgent sound for a triggered entry). This lets you distinguish between informational and action-required alerts without looking at the screen.

Indicator-Based Alerts

MT5's built-in alert system only supports price-based conditions. For alerts based on indicator values (RSI crossing 70, MACD crossover, etc.), you need one of these approaches:

• Custom indicators with alerts: Many indicators on the MQL5 Market include built-in alert functionality. Look for indicators that specify "alerts" in their features.
• Alert scripts/EAs: Write or download a simple Expert Advisor that monitors indicator values and calls Alert(), SendNotification(), or SendMail() when conditions are met.
• Third-party tools: Some services monitor MT5 data externally and send alerts through their own platforms.

For basic MQL5 scripting to create indicator alerts, see our MQL5 programming basics guide.

Managing Your Alert List

The Alerts tab in the Terminal panel shows all your active and triggered alerts. Key management actions:

• Enable/Disable: Right-click an alert to toggle it on or off without deleting it
• Modify: Double-click an alert to edit its conditions
• Delete: Right-click and select Delete to remove individual alerts
• Delete All: Right-click and select "Delete All" to clear your entire alert list

Keep your alert list clean. Old, triggered alerts add clutter and make it harder to manage active ones. Review your alerts weekly and remove any that are no longer relevant to your current analysis.

Alert Best Practices

• Layer your delivery methods: Set critical alerts to trigger both a sound and a push notification so you are covered whether you are at your desk or away
• Set alerts on key levels before they are reached: Place alerts at support/resistance, round numbers, and previous day high/low as part of your daily preparation routine
• Use expiration dates: Set alerts to expire at the end of the trading week so you start fresh each Monday with updated levels
• Avoid alert fatigue: Too many alerts lead to ignoring them. Focus on the 5-10 most important levels across your watchlist
• Combine with pending orders: For levels where you want automatic entry, use pending orders instead of alerts. Use alerts for levels where you want to make a decision before acting

Frequently Asked Questions