There are 2 ways to monitor a chart.

1) Indicator on chart.

This is my preferred option.

Advantage is the heartbeat signal can be sent frequently. Default every 5 minutes.

CPU use-age is also low for Tradestation, but NOT Multicharts

2) Alertmon Strategy (not intra-bar)

This has very low CPU usage.

Disadvantage if heart beat may not be frequent enough.

For example on a 30 minute chart, you are only going to see if the chart has failed just after the market has been open for 30 minutes.

I still consider this a acceptable risk as 30 minute systems do not typicality trade most days, and often the first order earliest entry time is at the close of this bar.

For bar intervals of > 30 minutes method 1 should be used.


To setup alertmon, see here