If you have a self-directed investing account with BMO InvestorLine you can set Alerts for a variety of conditions. An Alert is an email message. You can be notified when the price of a stock rises or falls past a certain point. You can be notified with the PSAR signals a reversal of trend. You can receive news updates about dividend announcements and Reuters reports. In fact there are more than 18 selections and many of those have sub-selections.

You can also set Market Alerts. For more information see How to Set a Market Alert for a BMO InvestorLine Self-Directed Account.

Here’s how to set a Stock Alert.

Sign in to your BMO InvestorLine account.

Setup the General Settings for your Email Stock Price Alerts from BMO InvestorLine

1. Click on the Quotes & Tools tab near the top of the screen.
2. Select Alerts. By default the Stock Alert tab is usually selected; However, if necessary, click on the Stock Alert tab.
3. In the Email text field, type the email address where the alerts should be delivered. Remember some places of employment do not allow personal use of a work email address. You may wish to use a personal email account. Don’t lose your job for tracking whether Facebook has done a total face plant.
4. Review the samples of what the Alert will look like in HTML, Text and Abbreviated text formats by clicking on the word Sample next to a selection.
   Once you have decided which format of Alert you wish to receive, click on the appropriate radio button to select it. (For example, I clicked on Text to select the Text email format.)
5. If you do not wish to receive alerts after regular trading hours, for instance in the middle of the night, you can set a period of time during which no alerts will be sent. You cannot use this function to turn off alerts between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET on business days.
6. If you wish to keep all of your alerts set up, but you wish to stop receiving alerts for 1 or more days, you can set a Vacation Hold on your alerts.
   For example, if you do not wish to receive any alerts on Tuesday February 12 or Wednesday February 13 because you will be in an important meeting, you can select February from the respective From and To drop down menus, 12 and 13 from the respective drop down menus and 2013 from the respective dropdown menus. Regular alerts will resume on Thursday February 14.
7. Review your selections. If they are correct, click on the Save button.
8. You will receive a message at that email address confirming you have set it to receive Alert email messages.

Set a Specific Email Stock Price Alert for an Investment with BMO InvestorLine

Setting a Stock Alert from the Quotes view

Next, you need to set for which stocks you wish to receive price alerts.

1. From the Quotes & Tools tab, select Quotes.
2. Enter the symbol name and click Go.
3. Under the name of the investment, click on the Add Alert button.
   Note: if you have not set up the General Settings, the first time you try to set an Alert, it will take you to the screen with the steps described above.
4. In the Create a new alert for: text field, type the symbol or company name of the stock you wish to track. As you type a company’s name, it will prompt you with suggestions you can click on to select.
5. When you select a stock, it will bring up a new panel listing the last trade, today’s change, the 52-week range and the average daily share volume.
   You are given a variety of choices. You select the ones for which you wish to receive an alert.
   Click on the box to select a given choice, then fill in any appropriate fields, marked here with a ***.

From the Price Alert Triggers
Select any of the following items:

• Price rises above $ *** CAD or drops below $ *** CAD
  If you select this option, you can also type in a short personal note to be delivered with the Alert. For example, you can add a note about what you paid for a stock.
• Changes $ *** CAD from prior close
• Changes [select 2.5, 5, 10 or 20%] from prior close
• Reaches a new 52-week [select high, low, or either]
• Crosses its [select 15; 30; 60 day; or any of 3 ] moving average
• Changes [2.5; 5; 10; 20%] faster than the [S&P 500; DJIA; NASDAQ; S&P TSX Comp] [since previous: day’s close; week’s close; 2 week’s close]
• Trading volume exceeds daily average by [50; 100; 150; 200%]
• Breakout sets a new [high/low] for [1 week; 1 month; 3 months; 6 months; 1 year; 5 years]
• Daily price close
• End of week price summary

From the News & Research Alert Triggers
Select any of the following items:

• Dividend announcement
• Comtex Canadian corp news
• Comtex Canadian newswire
• Reuters news
• S&P Capital IQ Stocks in the news
• S&P Capital IQ EPS/Dividends ranking change
• S&P Capital IQ rating change
• S&P Capital IQ stock report

From the Technical Alerts Alert Triggers
Select any of the following items:

• The [5; 10; 15; 20; 30; 50; 60; 90 day] simple moving average crosses [above/below] the [10; 15; 20; 30; 50; 60; 90; 200 day] simple moving average
• [2 ; 5; 9; 14; 20 day] RSI crosses [above; below] [30; 50; 70]
• PSAR signals a reversal of trend
• Price is [above; below] the 20 day simple moving average
• 14 day RSI [overbought; oversold]
• Prices crosses [above; below][upper; lower] Bolinger Band Settings [10; 20; 50 day] period and [1.5; 1.8; 2] standard deviations

1. Review your selections. If they are correct, to set the Alert click on the Save button.
2. You will receive the message: Your alerts have been set.
3. Click on the Close button to dismiss the message.

Setting a Stock Alert from the My Holdings Page.

You can also set an Alert from the My Holdings page.

Under the My Portfolio tab, click on My Holdings.
Look for your investment.
At the far right side of that line, click on the Action dropdown list. Select Alert.
Complete the Alert request and click Save.

Changing a Stock Alert for an InvestorLine Account

If you click on the set Alert button for an investment for which you already have an Alert set, it will open the Alert screen with your current settings. You can then change them.

You cannot have two alerts with different settings simultaneously.

You can also review all of your Alerts.
From the Quotes and Tools tab, click on Alerts.
All of your current Alerts will be displayed.
To review the details for a specific Alert, click on the name of the stock. A summary of your selection will appear below the stock’s name.
To change the details for a specific Alert, click on Edit.
To delete the specific Alert, click on Delete.

Related Reading

• Pros and Cons of the BMO InvestorLine Stock Alert and Market Alert Functions
• How to Set a Market Alert for a BMO InvestorLine Account

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Have you used InvestorLine’s Alert function? Did you find it helpful? Please share your experiences with a comment.