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How to Set a Stock Alert for a BMO InvestorLine Self-Directed Account Including Price Alerts

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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

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

Using the MyLink Secure Email Function to Contact BMO InvestorLine in Writing

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UPDATE: In January 2021 using MyLink to send messages to BMO InvestorLine staff was suspended “temporarily” as BMO switched to telephone support only during the Covid-19 pandemic. InvestorLine would still send secure messages through MyLink to clients but would not accept messages sent from clients. This limitation is STILL in place in January 2023! I do not know if or when they will re-activate the Send function. I hope they do as using the phone is not convenient.

I like to write my brokers to ask questions, so that I have a written transcript of what I wanted to know and what they said. I find there is less confusion if my question is clearly set out in writing, and there is less chance of me misunderstanding the answer if I can re-read it several times. Here’s how you can use MyLink to send a secure email to InvestorLine, too.

One of the features offered by BMO InvestorLine to its customers is the MyLink secure email service. After you have logged in to your InvestorLine account, you can write an email message and send it to the customer service group using MyLink instead of using your regular email service.

Written: 2014
Reviewed: 2023
Revised: 2023

Using MyLink to Send an Email to BMO InvestorLine

In January 2023, the MyLink Send Us a Message tab was removed from the MyLink page. Prior to that, this is how you could send a message:

  1. Login to your InvestorLine account.
  2. From the list of links on the top line of the screen click on MyLink.
  3. Click on the Send Us a Message tab.
    The program automatically adds your name and account number and the date to the start of the message.
  4. In the Subject field, type a description of your question or comment.
  5. From the Category list, click to select to which department you think your email should be sent. The choices may include:
    • Account Administration
    • Holdings / Asset Inquiry
    • Document Requests
    • Corporate / Issuer Distribution
    • Fees and Commissions
    • Transfers Inquiry
    • Registered Account Inquiries
    • Trade Inquiries
    • Product and Services
    • Web Support
    • Suggestions or Compliments
    • Complaints and Concerns
    • Other
  6. In the Message field, type your note.
    Be careful not to click on the Clear button or you will erase your entire message.
  7. When you are sure you are finished, click on the Send button.

A copy of the message will be saved in your Sent Messages file. To see it, click on the Sent Messages tab.

Sent messages will be automatically deleted after 90 days. If you want a permanent copy of your message, you have to print it, or save it electronically before the 90 days limit.

Receiving and Reading Messages from MyLink

To review your received messages, click on the Inbox tab.

The messages are described by the following

  • From
  • Subject
  • Action Required (as indicated by a N or Y)
  • Received (the date received in your Inbox)
  • Expires (the date BMO will automatically delete the message from your Inbox)
  • Account (the account the message refers to, for example your RRSP or TFSA account number)

You can sort your messages using each of these descriptions. For example, you can sort them by date received or by the account to which they refer.

Watch Out for Expiry Dates and Automatic Deletion of Messages from MyLink

To reduce storage space, BMO sets an expiry date on each message sent and received by you. You can’t change this expiry date.

Their help function states: “If you want to keep a permanent record of any message, you can print it using your browser’s print function, or cut and paste the text into a word processing program and save it.”

If you need to keep a message for tax reasons or perhaps to prove what advice you received, make sure to print a copy and/or electronically save a copy.

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Have you used MyLink? What did you think? Does your brokerage have a similar service? Please share your experiences with a comment.