Alerts & TIME SESSIONS • Pine Script [OUTDATED V4] Tutorial

Alerts & TIME SESSIONS • Pine Script [OUTDATED V4] Tutorial

in this lesson I'm going to address a
question I got from Jason from over at
the Chart guys calm so the problem he's
trying to solve is that he is a stock
market trader and he has a script that
triggers alerts for trading setups but
the script is triggering alerts during
pre market and aftermarket hours so
outside of regular trading hours when
the stock market is closed to the public
and he wants his script to not trigger
alerts outside of regular trading hours
so in this lesson I'll show you how to
use the time function to detect whether
the current candle falls within a
specific time and if it does then we're
going to not trigger our lurtz and then
at the end of the lesson I'll also show
you how to trigger your alerts if the
bar falls within a time session so right
now I've got a blank script all I've
done is change overly to true and let's
get started the first thing I'm going to
do is get user input and the first input
variable I'm going to get is the
free-market hours time session so this
is going to use the input function with
a title of pre market a type of input
session for time session and a default
value of the u.s. stock markets pre
market hours which are from 4:00 a.m. -
which means until 9:30 a.m. and this is
in 24 hour time so we need to use 0 400
for 4 a.m. and 0 930 for 9:30 a.m. which
is when the regular trading hours begin
so there's our pre market session
defined let's define our aftermarket
session which will also use an input
function and we're going to call this
after market for the type of input
session and the default value for this
one is going to be 1600 or 4:00 p.m.
until 6:00 p.m.
1800 so there's our two time sessions
defined our pre market and aftermarket
hours and of course if you wanted to you
could just hard code this you don't need
to have this as an input if you're
trading the US markets and your free
market and aftermarket hours never
change you can just get rid of all of
this and not have an input so now if I
save these scripts let me come up to the
settings menu
you see we have in after-market hours
but if we didn't want to allow our user
to adjust this time period you could
just hard code it like this but I'll
leave the input in for now and now in
the settings menu we have our two pre
market and aftermarket inputs and we can
change these if you want to so let's
move on the next thing I'm going to do
here is I'm going to create a function
for detecting if the current bar falls
within a specified time period and so
the syntax for declaring a custom
function is you need to give it a name
and then give it some parentheses for
function parameters and the this
function parameter that we're creating
is only going to take one input
parameter which is session and now when
you're creating custom functions
remember you don't need to define what
data type this is because when we go to
use it whatever we treat this as - trip
will interpret it and automatically
define what datatype this input
parameter is so remember in order to
declare a custom function we need to use
the declare function operator which is
an equal sign and then a write our and
then the next line occurred is just
whatever this function returns so when
we go to use it what do we want the
calculation to be that it returns and in
this case this is going to be a boolean
function so it's going to return a true
or false value and in order to check if
a current bar falls within a certain
time period we need to use this n/a
function which will check whatever input
parameter we give it and if it is not a
valid number then it returns true and if
it is a valid number it returns false so
now we use the inbuilt time function so
we passed the time function to the n/a
function whatever we put in this time
function in this case it'll be our time
frame which is going to be 15 minutes
because we're on the 15-minute chart and
our session that we want to check if
this current 15-minute bar falls within
the session that we pass into this
custom function so first of all we're
going to pass our time frames up period
which will just give this function
whatever we've set our chart to
currently so if I change this to one
hour chart then this will change to one
hour and it
consistent with whatever timeframe we're
on the next thing you want to do is pass
in our session parameter and now close
off those parentheses we are now
checking if the current bar falls within
this time frame this time session on our
current time frame period and if it does
then this na variable will return false
because the time function will return a
number but if the current bar does not
fall within the time session that we
specify then this n/a function will
return false so what we need to do here
is if we add on this comparative
operator and we say does this function
this n/a function return false if it
does then our in session variable will
will return true and I know that's a
little confusing especially if you're a
beginner but what we're basically doing
here is if this value is false then this
whole statement will return true and our
in session variable will return true so
when we use this function and we pass it
a time session in this case it'll be a
pre market or aftermarket session and
the current bar falls within that
session then this will return true so
let's move on it'll make more sense when
we actually use this function so the
next thing we need to do is check if the
current bar falls within pre market
or aftermarket hours so the first
boolean variable we're going to declare
here and define is our is after closed
variable I'm going to use our in session
function our custom function we just
created here and we're going to pass out
after market time period into here and
so this boolean variable will be set to
true only if the current bar on the
current time frame falls within our
aftermarket hours so between 4:00 p.m.
and 6:00 p.m. if the current bar does
not fall within that time session then
this variable will be set to false and
so the next boolean variable we need to
declare is is pre open so this is for
our pre market and this will also use
the in session function and we're going
to pass our pre market time session so
this variable will turn to true only if
the current bar falls within the 4:00
a.m. to 9:30
time session so that's pretty much all
we need to do in order to detect if the
current bar falls within either of these
time sessions but now I'll show you how
to disable alerts if either of these
conditions are met so first of all we're
going to change the bar color if the
current bar falls within After Hours
time just this is just for visual sake
so that we can confirm that our
variables our boolean variables are
working and in order to do this I'm
going to create one more boolean
variable here which is called is after
hours and this is just going to be set
to either of these so is the current bar
after the market is closed or is it in
the pre open free market hours if either
of these are true there now is after
hours boolean variable will be set to
true so now we can change the bar color
of the current bar to is after hours a
question mark if so set the color to
color dot black otherwise leave the
color alone and set it to any so now if
I save the script it compiles without
any errors that's good let's come down
here and turn on our extended hours and
now this stock market I'm on right now
can it be growth corporation is not a
great example because it's prima our pre
market and post market data is very
limited so let's go over to something
like Apple for example here we go so now
see any bar that falls within our pre
market session is turned to black our
detection is working and here this after
our session actually went a little
longer than I expected it to it went
until 7:45 at night so let's extend now
after market hours from 4:00 p.m. until
let's say 20 p.m. so we can just add on
to here 20 if we save the script these
will all turn black there we go
so now we are detecting any candles
within after market hours and turning
them black so our conditions are working
so now how would you disable alerts
after this condition is met
well that's the easy part now let's
create a very simple alert trigger just
for an examples sake here we'll say
trigger alert only if the bar is outside
of after-hours time and the alert
trigger can be anything whatever you
create in your own scripts but for this
example sake let's just set it to
something simple like a bullish candle
so any candle that closes high or equal
to its open will trigger this alert so
that's right out our alert condition
function this is what will trigger the
alert when we set it in our alerts
dialog and now all we need to do is pass
in our alert trigger condition in this
case a bullish candle and make sure that
it is not after-hours so this will only
trigger an alert if we get our alert
condition met and the current bar is not
within after hours time so now we set a
title to alert title whatever you want
to call it and your message to alert
message you can replace these whatever
you need to if I save these scripts and
we come up to the alert box and we
select our script now no matter what you
set this alert to any of these settings
it will not trigger if the current bar
is outside of normal trading hours and
that's all there is to it we can get rid
of this plot now since we're using a
drawing function here this bar color and
so that's our script completed but
before I end this lesson while we're
here we have this code to work with
let's say you wanted to trigger alerts
only between certain hours like the
first hour of the market open for
example well let's get rid of one of
these and change this to say just time
session and let's say we want it to be
between 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. and
we'll call this just session and we can
get rid of this now and just change this
to say falls within our session and then
we can paste session in here and change
this to say is in session
now we can just copy paste that down
here paste that there
remove the not save these scripts and
now you can see that we are painting any
bars that fall within the session we've
specified black so within the first hour
of market open we have our candles
turning black and how alert condition
will only be triggered if we get our
alert trigger and the current bar is
within our session which is demonstrated
on the chart by these black bars so
that's how you would only trigger alerts
within a certain session instead of
outside of After Hours time within
session change this to within session
and there we have it and so that's it
for this lesson
we have successfully if I go back a few
versions this version of the script here
will disable alerts if the current bar
falls outside of regular trading hours
or in other words if it falls within the
pre market or aftermarket hours and this
version of the script will only trigger
alerts if the current bar falls within
the time session we tell it instead of
outside of it so that's it for this
lesson I hope you found that helpful if
you did and you want to learn more about
pine scripts head over to pine circuit
mastery com here you'll find my advanced
pine script courses and my basics course
which is free so if you want to learn
more about pine script head over here
and you'll find out a little bit more
about me and a little bit more about
pine scripts I hope you found this
lesson interesting and helpful I'll see
you the next one
[Music]