--- title: "Create alerts on chart lines" slug: "chart-line-alerts" kind: "HELP_ARTICLE" category: "alerts" locale: "en" canonical: "https://help.forecastcity.com/alerts/chart-line-alerts" published: "2026-09-08T17:58:35.210Z" updated: "2026-10-27T17:01:24.330Z" description: "Create alerts on chart lines in 4CM-AI Charts: touches, breaks, bounces off or approaches, with a buffer, a confirmation and a line that stays linked." --- # Create alerts on chart lines You drew a support line or a trend line and want to know when price reaches or breaks it. Put an alert on the line itself. On a trend line, the alert uses the line's price at each moment, so you do not calculate it. Move the line on the chart with your mouse later, and the alert follows the new level. Setting it up is simple, fast and accurate. Right-click the line on the chart, or tell or ask **AI Trading Assistant** by voice or in writing. The example: EURUSD has a support line at 1.0850, and you want an alert when two 15m candles in a row close below it. ## Lines you can use You can put an alert on a Horizontal Line, Horizontal Ray, Trend Line, Ray or Extended Line that you drew. You can also use the straight guide-lines that 4CastMachine AI draws. For a Rectangle or a Fibonacci drawing, see [Create alerts on rectangles and Fibonacci levels](). ## Add an alert to a line 1. Open EURUSD in 4CM-AI Charts and find your support line. 2. Right-click the line and choose the item that names it, such as **Add 1h Horizontal Line to Alert Condition**. When several lines are close together, choose **Add Line to Alert Condition** and then your line. 3. The alert editor opens with a **Line** condition for that line. It starts on touches for a Horizontal Line or Horizontal Ray, and on breaks for a Trend Line, Ray or Extended Line. There are two other ways. Click the line to select it and press the lightning button in its small toolbar (**Add alert on this drawing**). Or, in an open editor, choose Line in the first box, click **Pick on chart** and then click the line. Press `Esc` to stop picking. The editor stays open. Line alerts need a subscription plan that includes them. If yours does not, choosing **Line** or pressing **Create** opens an upgrade card. Move the mouse over the condition and click the gear (**Details**) to see its other settings. **Show on chart**, at the end of the details, highlights the line the alert watches. ![A Line condition on 1h Horizontal Line set to touches, with Buffer 0.25 ATR × and ATR on 1h in its details.](https://m.forecastcity.com/t/tnt_forecastcity/media/67/6752d557988a4cf076e1d9894819db213c6c4a23b077f2fcf2844f9119b34d77.png) A line condition right after picking a horizontal line, with its details open. 1. **touches**: what has to happen at the line. The other choices are breaks, bounces off and approaches. 2. **1h Horizontal Line**: the line the alert watches, by its name. Click the name to pick another line. 3. **Buffer**: how close price must come to count as reaching the line. ATR × 0.25 is a quarter of the average candle range. The buffer grows in a fast market and shrinks in a quiet one. ## Example: a confirmed break below support 1. In the second box, change **touches** to **breaks**. 2. Open **Details** with the gear. Keep **Buffer** at 0.25 with the unit ATR ×. 3. Set **Confirm** to **2** bars. A bar is one candle. 4. Set **Confirm on** to **15m**. Candles of this timeframe decide the break. 5. Press **Create**. ## When does the break alert fire? With **ATR ×** 0.25, the buffer is a quarter of the ATR (the average candle range) of 15m candles. Say the buffer comes to 0.0003. A close then counts as below the line when it is under 1.0847. - EURUSD trades at 1.0872 when you save. The next 15m candles close above the line. The alert now knows that price is above it. - At 10:15 a candle closes at 1.0844, below the line and its buffer. That is one close. - At 10:30 the next candle closes at 1.0839. That is two in a row, and the alert fires at 10:30. If the 10:30 candle had closed back above 1.0853, the count would start again. A candle that dips to 1.0835 and closes at 1.0856 is not a break. Only closes count. ## Choose what should happen at the line - **touches**: price comes within the buffer of the line. - **approaches**: price comes within a wider distance, as a warning before the touch. Distance counts in buffers: a 0.25 ATR buffer with Distance 3 gives 0.75 ATR. - **breaks**: candles close beyond the buffer on the other side of the line, as many in a row as **Confirm** says (1 to 10). - **bounces off**: a candle reaches the line but closes clear of it, and the next candle also closes on that side. The choices **touches** and approaches are checked on the live price. The choices **breaks** and bounces off always wait for candles of Confirm on to close. With the trigger Once per bar close, touches and approaches wait for a close too. A wick that touches the line then does not count. No trigger turns a wick into a break. All four work from either side of the line. A **breaks** alert first learns which side price is on. Then it waits for closes on the other side, up or down. ## Why a line condition has no timeframe box A line condition has no timeframe in its second box. Price can reach a line at any moment. **Details** shows a timeframe only where one is needed. For breaks and bounces off it is **Confirm on**, which also sets the candles for an ATR × buffer. For touches and approaches with an ATR × buffer it is ATR on. The summary still starts this condition's line with a timeframe and Price, like every other condition: **1h Price touches 1h Horizontal Line**. The first 1h is the timeframe the condition uses for the ATR, for Confirm on and with Once per bar close. The second 1h is only part of the line's name. ## Lines that slope or end A sloped line has a different price at each moment. The alert uses its price at the current moment, where the line exists: - A **Horizontal Line** and an **Extended Line** reach in both directions. - A **Horizontal Ray** and a **Ray** start at their left end and continue to the right. - A **Trend Line** ends at its two points, unless you extend it in its settings. If the line ends before the time you want to watch, the alert has nothing to compare with. Extend the line, or use a **Ray**. ## When you move or delete the line - To adjust the alert level, move the line on the chart with your mouse. Moving a line, or changing how far it extends, updates its alerts a moment later. If the update fails, the alert is paused and a message says so. - Deleting a line pauses its active alerts. A message says "Alert paused (linked drawing was deleted)". Click the lightning icon (**Alerts**) in the top toolbar to delete those alerts, or edit them to pick another line. - A 4CastMachine AI guide-line is copied into the alert as it was when you picked it. **Details** labels it **Fixed forecast reference**, with its timeframe and version. It does not follow later forecasts. For zones that move with the forecast, see [Get an alert when price reaches a forecast zone](). ## See which lines have an alert A line that an alert watches shows a small lightning mark beside it, near its right end or at the right edge of the chart. The mark shows on lines you drew and on 4CastMachine AI lines such as R1 or S1. Rectangles and Fibonacci levels you drew carry it too. The mark appears on every chart and workspace that shows the symbol and draws that line. - The mark is grey when every alert on the line is paused. - One mark shows, however many alerts watch the line. - An alert that has stopped, because it fired its last time or expired, leaves no mark. - When a later forecast moves R1, the alert keeps watching the R1 it was made with. The new R1 has no mark. - The eye button in the drawing toolbar, **Hide All Drawings**, also hides the marks on the lines you drew. - The mark is only a sign. To open the alert, click the lightning icon (**Alerts**) in the top toolbar. ## Good to know - With an alert editor already open, **Add … to Alert Condition** adds the line as one more condition of that alert, joined with and. It does not create a second alert. With and, both lines have to be reached at the same moment, and that rarely happens. To hear about either line, change and to **or** at the start of the new condition. - The line must be on the alert's symbol. For a line on another symbol, save or close the current alert first. - An alert holds up to 10 conditions. Many lines with long names can reach the size limit before that. The editor then says "This alert carries too many chart lines to save. Remove one condition." - If price is already at the line when you save, that does not count as a touch. Price first has to move away from the line. The next touch then counts. ## If the alert does not fire - For breaks and bounces off, look at the closes of the **Confirm on** candles, not at wicks. - Check that the line reaches the current time. A **Trend Line** stops at its right end unless you extend it. - Check the alert's status: click the lightning icon (**Alerts**) in the top toolbar. A deleted line leaves its alert on **Stopped: Paused**. - Check the buffer. **Absolute** sets a fixed distance (0.0005 on EURUSD is 5 pips), and a small one can be too tight for a fast market. ## Related guides - [Create alerts on rectangles and Fibonacci levels]() - [When does an alert fire? Timeframes and repeats]() - [Choose how often an alert fires and when it is active]() - [Combine several conditions in one alert]()