Swing alerts¶
For strategies that move directly between long and short without going flat in between.
Purpose¶
A standard alert marks closing orders reduce-only, which stops them opening a position in the opposite direction. That is usually a safeguard, but it blocks strategies that are designed to flip in one action.
A swing alert removes prev_position, so every order is treated as an entry
and a single order can carry a position through zero — from long straight to
short, or the reverse.
Message¶
{
"ticker" : "{{ticker}}",
"action" : "{{strategy.order.action}}",
"quantity" : "{{strategy.order.contracts}}",
"pointer" : "replace with your pointer here"
}
Fields¶
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
ticker |
Yes | |
action |
Yes | buy or sell |
quantity |
Yes | Must cover both closing the old position and opening the new one |
pointer |
Yes | |
prev_position |
Omit | Including it turns this back into a standard alert |
Behaviour¶
Every order is sent as a plain buy or sell, with no reduce-only marking. Tickerly does not distinguish entries from exits.
The practical effect is that your strategy is fully responsible for sizing. If you hold 1 BTC long and want to end up 1 BTC short, the alert must send a sell of 2 BTC. A strategy written for swing trading normally does this already.
Align your position before you start¶
Open the matching position first
Swing strategies are almost always in a position. Before enabling automation, open the same position manually on your exchange that your strategy currently holds, so the two start aligned.
If you skip this, the first swing will size against a position you do not have, and your exchange and your strategy will stay out of step until you reset them.
Exchange support¶
All supported exchanges.
Constraints¶
Cannot be combined with hedge mode. Hedge mode handling requires
prev_position, and a swing alert is defined by omitting it. An alert with
both is processed as an ordinary alert and the hedge instruction is ignored,
without an error.
Not needed on MetaTrader. On MetaTrader 4 and 5 the standard alert already handles direct long-to-short transitions. Use the standard format there.
No exit protection. Because nothing is reduce-only, an oversized exit will open a position in the opposite direction rather than being discarded. Only use this format for strategies that genuinely need it.