Price Alerts & Monitoring

By the end of this page, you'll have price alerts that trigger when your watchlist hits key levels, and an intraday check-in if you want one.

Time: ~25 minutes

How alerts work in OpenClaw

OpenClaw doesn't run continuously watching prices — that would require constant API calls. Instead, you have two options:

1. Frequent cron — check prices every 15-30 minutes during market hours and alert if a threshold is crossed
2. Webhook from external service — a price alert service (TradingView, etc.) sends a webhook to your Gateway

Both work. The cron approach is simpler. The webhook approach is more responsive.

Option 1: Polling with a cron

Check your watchlist every 15 minutes during market hours:

{
  "id": "price-check",
  "schedule": "*/15 9-16 * * 1-5",
  "prompt": "Quick price check. Fetch current prices for my watchlist (watchlist.md). Alert me only if: any position has moved more than 2% since yesterday's close, or VIX is above 25. If nothing notable, don't send anything. If there's something notable, send a 2-3 line alert.",
  "channel": "telegram",
  "suppressEmpty": true
}

suppressEmpty: true tells OpenClaw not to send anything if the agent decides nothing is worth reporting. Without this, you'd get "nothing notable" messages every 15 minutes.

Adjust the thresholds

Edit the prompt to match your style:

Alert me if:
- Any stock on my watchlist moves more than [X]% intraday
- VIX crosses above [Y]
- SPY drops more than [Z]% from open
- Any of my tickers have breaking news

Lower thresholds = more alerts. Set them at levels where you'd actually want to act, not just be notified.

Option 2: Webhook from TradingView

If you already use TradingView, its alert system can POST to your Gateway.

1. Get your Gateway URL accessible externally (this requires a static IP or a tunnel like ngrok). For home use, this is optional — see Level Up: Run It 24/7 for proper deployment.

2. Configure a TradingView alert:

• Set your alert condition (e.g. AAPL closes above $200)
• Webhook URL: http://YOUR_IP:18789/webhook
• Message format:

{"action": "run_prompt", "prompt": "ALERT: {{ticker}} just hit {{close}}. Check watchlist.md for context and send a brief market alert.", "channel": "telegram"}

3. TradingView fires → webhook hits Gateway → agent sends you a Telegram message.

Weekly portfolio review

Add a Friday afternoon review:

{
  "id": "weekly-portfolio-review",
  "schedule": "0 15 * * 5",
  "prompt": "Weekly portfolio review. Check my watchlist (watchlist.md). Search for this week's performance of each ticker and any notable news. Summarize: what moved, why, and what I should watch next week. 8-10 lines.",
  "channel": "telegram"
}

Cost discipline

Finance monitoring can get expensive if you're polling frequently with a capable model. Options:

• Use claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 for routine price checks — it's 10x cheaper and handles structured output well
• Reserve claude-sonnet-4-6 for the morning briefing and weekly review where quality matters
• With Alpha Vantage free tier (500 calls/day), polling every 15 minutes for 7 hours = 28 calls/day — well within limits

{
  "id": "price-check",
  "model": "claude-haiku-4-5-20251001",
  "schedule": "*/15 9-16 * * 1-5",
  ...
}

Goal complete

Your finance setup:

• Pre-market briefing arrives every weekday morning automatically
• Market close summary at 4:30pm
• Price alerts fire when your thresholds are crossed
• Weekly review on Friday afternoon
• Cost-controlled with Haiku for routine checks

Where to go next

• Level Up: Skills & ClawHub → — financial data skills with better reliability
• Level Up: Run It 24/7 → — so alerts work even when your laptop is off
• Level Up: Security Fundamentals → — if you're exposing the Gateway for webhooks
• Pick another goal →