trader-alerts

Price Alerts watches the numbers so the user does not have to stare at a chart. An alert is information, never an order: when a stop alert rings, nothing is sold by this skill. With a bracket order the stop-loss and the take-profit already sit at the broker and do the work; the alerts tell the user what happened and when it is time to be flat.

${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR} below is this skill's folder (where this SKILL.md lives).

python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" clock                          # NYSE open or closed, next open
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" add --from-plan                # stop, target, flat by close from trader/plan.json
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" add --opening-bell
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" add --symbol TSLA --stop 358.32
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" add --symbol TSLA --target 370.04
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" add --at 15:55 --label "flat by close" --before-close
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" add --symbol KO --pct 3
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" check                          # exit 0 = something rang
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" quote TSLA --write             # -> trader/prices.json
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" quote --holdings --write       # portfolio + plan tickers
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" list
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" reset tsla-plan-stop

--now "2026-10-19 15:55" pins the clock (New York time); --offline DIR reads saved quote files instead of the network.

What it reads and writes

Rule types

A rule with "date" is watched on that New York date only; --from-plan rules carry the plan's date, so yesterday's stop never rings today. A time rule with "before_close": true moves 3 hours earlier on a 1:00 p.m. early close, so "flat by close" at 15:55 rings at 12:55 on those days.

Quotes

• yahoo (default): query2.finance.yahoo.com/v8/finance/chart/<TICKER>, an unofficial free JSON endpoint, one request per ticker, half a second apart. On a 429 it waits and tries once more; on a 429 or a 5xx after that it tries query1. It identifies itself as day-trader-skill/2.0.
• stooq: stooq.com/q/l/?s=tsla.us&f=sd2t2ohlcv&h&e=csv, Stooq's free CSV. It answered 404 on 2026-10-13; the parser stays for when it is back.
• Free quotes are unofficial, delayed and can lag. They are fine for alerts and for checking a size, not for timing an order. The broker's price is the one that fills. Each price in trader/prices.json keeps its quote time, and trader-risk only uses one under 15 minutes old.
• If both are down, read the price from the broker connector (Alpaca get_stock_snapshot, IBKR get_price_snapshot) and write it into trader/prices.json as {"as_of": "...Z", "prices": {"TSLA": 366.48}}.

The NYSE clock

Regular session 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. New York time, closed on weekends and on these holidays, from nyse.com/markets/hours-calendars (read 2026-10-13):

• 2026: Jan 1, Jan 19, Feb 16, Apr 3 (Good Friday), May 25, Jun 19, Jul 3 (Independence Day observed), Sep 7, Nov 26, Dec 25. Early close 1:00 p.m. on Nov 27 and Dec 24.
• 2027: Jan 1, Jan 18, Feb 15, Mar 26 (Good Friday), May 31, Jun 18 (Juneteenth observed), Jul 5 (Independence Day observed), Sep 6, Nov 25, Dec 24 (Christmas observed). Early close 1:00 p.m. on Nov 26.

Daylight saving time is worked out in the tool, so it needs no time zone files and ignores the computer's own zone. For any other year it says the holiday list is unknown.

Steps

1. Right after trader-exit writes the plan, run add --from-plan. Confirm the three alerts back to the user: the stop, the target and the flat-by time.
2. Run check while the trade is open: every few minutes from a Claude scheduled task or /loop. Each run fetches only the tickers in today's rules and rings each alert once. A check reads the latest delayed quote; it is not a live feed, and a price can pass a level between two checks.
3. Tell the user what rang in one line each. A stop or target alert means the bracket order has probably filled: check get_open_position and record the fill with trader-broker. "Flat by close" means close anything still open: trader-broker flatten, then trader-risk, then the user's yes. Never act for them.

Example: the reel

TSLA on Monday 2026-10-19: entry 364.18 at 10:15 AM, stop 358.32, target 370.04, flat by 15:55. add --from-plan writes tsla-plan-stop, tsla-plan-target and tsla-flat-by for that day. A check at 10:53 reads the real 10:52 quote, 366.48, between the stop and the target:

NYSE OPEN (2026-10-19 10:53 New York, regular session).
Nothing hit. 3 rule(s) watched today, TSLA $366.48.

At 3:55 PM:

ALERT Flat by close: it is 15:55 New York (set for 15:55), the market closes at 16:00. If TSLA is still
open, close it: trader-broker flatten --symbol TSLA builds the sell ticket, then trader-risk and your yes.

It rings once. The next morning the plan's three alerts are no longer watched; with add --opening-bell, the bell rings at 9:30.

Rules

• An alert is a fact about a price or the clock. Say it as a fact.
• Never present a quote as live. Free quotes are delayed and unofficial.
• Confirm every new rule back to the user: ticker, type, level, day.

What it never does

It never places, cancels or changes an order, never claims a quote is live, and never predicts where a price is going.

Safety

• Education and tooling, not financial advice. A PASS is a rules check, not a recommendation.
• Paper trading by default ("paper": true). Going live is the user's own decision, in their own config.
• Nothing in this pack places an order except trader-broker, and only when all three hold: trader-risk passed that exact order today, the user typed an explicit yes for that one order in the chat, and the user clicked Allow once on Claude's own card because the order tool is set to "Needs approval" (Customize > Connectors > tool permissions). Never set an order tool to "Always allow".
• No options, margin, short selling or leverage unless the config allows it and the user confirms.
• Broker keys live in environment variables or the Claude Desktop config, never in the chat.