Understand alert conditions, cooldowns and priorities

Choose level or crossing behavior intentionally

Above and Below answer whether a fresh current value satisfies a level. Crosses above, Crosses below and Crosses either way answer whether eligible observations establish movement through the threshold. These are different questions even when they use the same instrument and number. If a rule is created while price is already above the threshold, an Above condition can be eligible from that current value, while a newly created crossing condition does not reach backward through earlier chart history to invent its starting observation.

Work through a crossing example

Suppose a threshold is 100 and the rule observes an eligible value below it, followed by an eligible value above it. That sequence can establish an upward crossing. Seeing only the final value above 100 does not establish how the market arrived there. A Crosses below rule needs the opposite directional sequence, and Crosses either way permits either observed direction. The application's exact comparator contract determines equality handling; do not build a strategy around an assumed equality edge without checking the reported condition and recorded values.

Understand initial and edited baselines

A new crossing rule starts from the current eligible observation. Editing its instrument, metric, threshold or condition resets evaluation state so an old baseline from a different question cannot produce a trigger. A source restart establishes a fresh baseline while preserving the applicable saved arm and cooldown state. Repeated or out-of-order observations do not become new crossings. When testing a changed rule, note when the edit completed and examine only the observations that the live evaluator could legitimately use after that boundary.

1. Choose a crossing direction and save the intended threshold.
2. Inspect Selected alert evaluation for a usable current value.
3. Evaluate the later recorded firing against the post-save baseline, not an older chart segment.

Treat missing data as a broken observation path

Feed loss, stale inputs and delivery gaps reset the crossing baseline. A value before a long gap and a value after it do not prove the market crossed continuously during the missing interval. A reconnect can restore fresh data without reconstructing the missed movement, so the first new value may seed rather than fire. Activity in another instrument does not keep this rule's input fresh. The source, contract and metric must provide their own eligible observations. Replay and historical views remain separate from live alert evaluation.

Use cooldown with the rearm behavior

Cooldown limits how quickly a condition can fire again after a recorded firing. It is not a recurring timer that sends a notice every few seconds while a price stays above a level. Level conditions fire once and rearm when the value returns to the other side before another eligible satisfaction. Crossings still require their observed directional sequence. A cooldown therefore works together with state and rearm behavior. Increasing it reduces repeated notices, while lowering it cannot make stale inputs valid or force an unobserved crossing into history.

Set priority for the notice presentation

Priority 1 appears green, 2 yellow and 3 red in the browser's alert notices. Choose a consistent scheme so a red notice has a clear meaning in your own workflow. Priority does not grant faster market inputs, additional account entitlements, email delivery or a shorter source delay. It also does not override cooldown. Review the saved priority independently of the metric and threshold when editing a rule; a presentation change should not be mistaken for a different analytical condition or evidence that the event was more certain.

Explain unexpected firing and non-firing cases

For an unexpected event, compare the firing-history value, threshold, condition and time with the saved version of the rule. For a missed crossing, check whether the rule was new, edited, paused, stale or recovering from a gap. An Above rule that already fired may simply be waiting to rearm. Preserve the evaluation status before changing settings, because an edit can erase the baseline you are trying to understand. Support needs the observed sequence and saved configuration; a screenshot of a threshold line without input freshness and timing cannot establish the evaluator's state.