Price alerts, targets and percent moves

Just Stock Quotes, 28 September 2026

A price alert is a promise: you stop watching, and the app taps you on the shoulder when the thing you were watching for happens. It is the feature that turns a quotes app from something you check into something that checks for you. This guide explains the two kinds of alert, how to pick a level worth a ping, and how to spend five slots wisely.

Two kinds of alert

Open any stock, tap the bell, and you get a choice.

A price target watches for the stock to trade at or above a price you name, or at or below it. It fires once, the moment a trade prints past the line, and then shows you the price it fired at.

A percent move watches for the stock to move a chosen percent in a day, up or down, measured from the previous close. It fires once, when the day's change crosses the line in either direction.

The first is for a level you have a reason to care about. The second is for "tell me if something happens", when you do not have a level in mind but you do not want to miss a big day.

Picking a price target

A good target is a price at which you would do something. If you would buy a stock at 150 and it trades at 170, set the alert at or below 150 and forget about it. If you own it and would take profits at 200, set at or above 200. An alert at a price where you would merely feel something is a ping you will ignore.

Round numbers are where a lot of other people's orders sit, so a stock often pauses or bounces near them. Setting an alert a little inside the round number, at 149 rather than 150, tells you it is approaching before the crowd reacts. Setting it a little past, at 151, waits for the level to actually break. Which one you want depends on whether you want an early warning or a confirmation.

Picking a percent move

For most large stocks, a three percent day is notable and a five percent day is news. Smaller and more volatile names move three percent on an ordinary Tuesday, so the threshold should scale with the stock. Look at the one month chart: if the stock has had several three percent days, set the alert higher.

A percent alert is the right choice for a stock you own and do not plan to trade, but want to hear about if something happens. It is also the right choice for earnings days, when the direction is unknown but the size of the move is the story.

After hours counts

Alerts watch extended hours trading too. A stock that crosses your line at 4:10 in the afternoon on its earnings print fires the alert then, not at 9:30 the next morning. Usually that is what you want, because the news is the reason you set it. Extended hours prints are thin, though, so read the ping with the guide on pre market and after hours quotes in mind, and check the stock page before you act.

Five slots

You get five active alerts, so make them count. The alerts screen shows how many are in play and how many are free. An alert that has fired stays on the screen with the price it fired at until you clear it, and it no longer takes a slot. If a stock stops quoting, the app retires its alert and says so.

Five is enough if the alerts are good ones. The way to keep them good is to review the screen once a week: clear the fired ones, delete the ones whose reason has passed, and ask of each one that remains whether you would still do something when it pings.

Notifications have to be on

Alerts arrive as push notifications, so the phone has to allow them. If notifications for the app are switched off in your phone's Settings, the alerts screen shows a note saying so, and the pings go nowhere until you flip them on. Push is a mobile feature, so alerts live in the iPhone, iPad and Android apps rather than on the web.

The habit

Set alerts where you would act, not where you would wonder. Use price targets for levels and percent moves for surprises. Scale the percent to the stock. Review weekly. Then put the phone down, which is the whole point.