Trader Alerts skill

trader-alerts

Price Alerts watches the numbers so the user does not have to. An alert is information, never an order: when a stop rings, nothing is sold. If the user wants to act, the normal path runs (size, risk, their yes).

${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" quote AAPL KO --write         # -> trader/prices.json
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" quote --holdings --write      # portfolio + targets tickers
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" add --symbol AAPL --above 350
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" add --symbol BAC --stop 50 --note "my stop"
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" add --symbol KO --pct 3
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" add --opening-bell
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" check                         # exit 0 = something rang
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" list
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/alerts.py" reset aapl-above-350

What it reads and writes

file	what
trader/alerts.json	the rules (alerts.example.json in this folder)
trader/state/alerts.json	which rules rang and when, so each rings once
trader/prices.json	the latest quotes, merged in, for trader-budget, trader-risk, trader-tax and trader-rebalance

Rule types

type	rings when	rings again
above	price at or above price	after reset, or on its own if "rearm": true and the price fell back
below / stop	price at or below price	same
pct_move	moved pct percent from the previous close (or ref), optional direction up or down	once per day at most
opening_bell	the NYSE is open	once per trading day

Quotes

• yahoo (default): query1.finance.yahoo.com/v8/finance/chart/<TICKER>, an unofficial free JSON endpoint, one request per ticker, half a second apart.
• stooq: stooq.com/q/l/?s=aapl.us&f=sd2t2ohlcv&h&e=csv, Stooq's free CSV. It answered 404 when this was written (2026-10-13); the parser stays for when it is back. Use --source stooq to try it.
• Free quotes are delayed. They are fine for alerts and for checking sizes, not for timing an order. The broker's price is the one that fills.
• If both are down, read prices from the broker connector (Alpaca get_stock_snapshot, IBKR get_price_snapshot) and write them into trader/prices.json as {"as_of": "...", "prices": {"AAPL": 341.27}}.

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. For any other year it says the holiday list is unknown.

Steps

1. Ask what to watch, in the user's words ("tell me if Apple drops under $320"), and add the rule. Confirm it back: ticker, type, level.
2. Run check now, and on a schedule if the user wants (a Claude scheduled task or cron, every 15 minutes in market hours is plenty). Each run fetches only the tickers in the rules and rings each alert once.
3. Tell the user what rang in one line each. If they want to act, send them to sizing and /trader-risk. Never act for them.

Example: the reel's portfolio

After the copy portfolio is bought, add --opening-bell, add --symbol AAPL --above 350, and add --symbol BAC --stop 50. On 2026-10-13 AAPL closed at $341.27 and BAC at $53.96, so check that evening prints "Nothing hit" and exits 1. At 9:30 the next morning the opening bell rings once.

What it never does

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

Safety

• Education and tooling, not financial advice. An alert is a fact about a price, not a signal to trade.
• 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.