--- title: "Alerts for price moves and price ranges" slug: "price-movement-and-channels" kind: "HELP_ARTICLE" category: "alerts" locale: "en" canonical: "https://help.forecastcity.com/alerts/price-movement-and-channels" published: "2026-09-08T17:58:35.210Z" updated: "2026-10-27T17:01:22.363Z" description: "Create alerts in 4CM-AI Charts for a percentage or price move over several candles, or for price entering or leaving a fixed price range." --- # Alerts for price moves and price ranges Not every alert waits for one price level. You can also get an alert when price moves a set amount over a few candles, or enters a range. The alert measures each move and watches both edges of the range for you. Setting it up is simple, fast and accurate. Build it in a few clicks, or tell or ask **AI Trading Assistant** by voice or in writing. Both start with **Price** in the first box of a condition. An alert on a single price level can fire in the middle of a candle. Moves and ranges are checked only when a candle of the condition's timeframe closes, on closing prices. A spike that is gone by the close does not count, whichever Trigger you choose. The first example fires when EURUSD closes at least 0.5% higher than three hours earlier. The second fires when EURUSD enters the range from 1.085 to 1.095. ## Get an alert when price moves a set amount 1. Open EURUSD in 4CM-AI Charts. Click the lightning icon (**Alerts**) in the top toolbar and press **+**. 2. In the first box, choose **Price**. In the second box, choose **1h**. 3. In the third box, choose **moves up by**. An amount box appears at the end of the line, and a second line appears under it. 4. Change the amount from 5 to **0.5**. On the second line, leave the unit on **%**. 5. In the box before **bars**, change 10 to **3**. A bar is one candle. Here, that means three 1h candles. ![The alert editor with a Price condition on 1h set to moves up by 0.5, with % and 3 candles on the second line.](https://m.forecastcity.com/t/tnt_forecastcity/media/ba/ba2cf50b15fd637a0885e22fe81a98af9ae57e76bf6fdaff527230905feecc5f.png) A move condition: EURUSD has to close at least 0.5% higher than three 1h candles earlier. 1. **moves up by**: price has to rise by at least the amount. moves down by is the same for a fall. 2. The amount: how far price has to move, here 0.5. 3. The number of candles: how far back the alert compares, in candles of the condition's timeframe. The summary on the right now reads **1h Price moves up by 0.5% in 3 bars**. Press **Create**. Trigger starts on Once only, unless you saved your own defaults. The alert then fires once and stops. To hear about later moves too, open the **Options** tab and set **Trigger** to Once per bar close with a 1h Confirmation timeframe. ## When does the move alert fire? The alert compares the close of the candle that just ended with the close three candles earlier. Say a 1h candle closes at 1.0800 at 09:00. Three candles later, at 12:00, a candle closes at 1.0856. That is 0.52% higher. The alert fires at 12:00. Only closes count. If price jumps to 1.0870 at 11:30 and the 12:00 close is 1.0840, the move is 0.37%. The alert keeps waiting. The alert fires when the move reaches 0.5%. It does not fire again just because the move stays that large. With **Once per bar close**, it fires again only after the move drops below 0.5% and then reaches it once more. ## Get an alert when price enters a range 1. Start another alert on EURUSD. Choose **Price** in the first box and **1h** in the second. 2. In the third box, choose **enters**. A second line appears with two price boxes, both at 0. 3. Type **1.085** in the box after between, and **1.095** in the next box. 4. Check the summary. It reads **1h Price enters 1.085-1.095**. Then press **Create**. ![The alert editor with a Price condition on 1h set to enters, between 1.085 and 1.095.](https://m.forecastcity.com/t/tnt_forecastcity/media/f0/f06b694d76325d51d06740da005ac0a2a0e74eea97726b4efa3773e4a8633b92.png) A range condition: the second line holds the bottom and the top of the range. 1. **enters**: the moment a candle closes inside the range after the candle before it closed outside. 2. The bottom of the range, in the box after **between**. 3. The top of the range. ## When does the range alert fire? Say EURUSD trades above the range: - At 14:00 a 1h candle closes at 1.0962, above the range. - At 15:00 a candle dips to 1.0938 and closes at 1.0955. The close is still outside the range. Nothing happens. - At 16:00 a candle closes at 1.0941, inside the range. The alert fires at 16:00. **exits** is the opposite moment: a close moves from inside the range to outside it. The choices **is inside** and is outside stay true while candles close inside or outside the range. Both work best next to another condition, as a filter. The range stays where you typed it. It does not follow Bollinger Bands or a 4CM-AI Buy zone or Sell zone. For those zones, see [Get an alert when price reaches a forecast zone](). ## Good to know - Choose **pts** as the unit to measure the move in price instead of percent. On EURUSD, an amount of 0.0050 is then 50 pips. The summary calls this unit "price units". - The amount must be more than 0, and the first price of a range must be lower than the second. - Use at most 299 candles. The box accepts up to 500, but the alert keeps only the last 300 candles. A longer look-back never fires. - A move that is already 0.5% when you press **Create** does not fire. It first has to shrink below 0.5% and then reach it again. ## If the alert does not fire - Look at closing prices on the condition's timeframe, not at wicks. Switch the chart to that timeframe to see the same candles. - Open the alert with **Edit** and check the amount, the unit, the number of candles, the two prices and the timeframe. - Check that the alert is **Active** and that the time is inside its **Schedule**. Outside those hours it does not fire, and nothing is saved for later. When the alert fires, the **Log** tab of the Alerts panel lists it. ## Related guides - [Create your first price alert]() - [When does an alert fire? Timeframes and repeats]() - [Combine several conditions in one alert]() - [Choose how often an alert fires and when it is active]()