every execution-failure ticket we see starts with the same question — did my alert actually trigger? the TradingView alert log is where you answer it.
this article walks you through opening the log, reading what's in it, and using it to diagnose the 3 failure modes we see over and over in support:
the alert triggered — but on stale settings that no longer match what you think is live
the alert triggered — but the webhook URL is masked or wrong, so edgeful never got the payload
the alert triggered, edgeful got it — but the broker rejected it (expired token, 2FA, disconnected account)
we'll cover each one with exactly what to look for in the log and exactly what to do.
did my alert trigger?
the fastest way to answer: open the alert log in TradingView and look for an entry with a timestamp matching the bar close you expected.
if there's an entry — the alert triggered. the next question is which alert triggered and whether it reached edgeful.
if there's no entry — the alert never triggered. that's a TradingView-side problem (conditions didn't meet, alert paused or expired, or TradingView didn't evaluate the bar). see TradingView alert didn't trigger for those next steps.
opening the alert log
in TradingView, the alert log lives inside the alerts panel — the clock icon on the right sidebar.
click the clock icon on the right sidebar of TradingView. this opens the alerts panel.
at the top of the panel, you'll see two tabs — alerts and log. click log.
the log shows every alert event across all your alerts, newest first.
if you don't see the log tab, your TradingView window may be too narrow — widen the panel or collapse the chart toolbar until both tabs are visible.
anatomy of the log
every row in the log is a single alert event. each row has three things you care about:
timestamp — exact date and time the alert triggered, down to the second. this is in your TradingView account's timezone, not necessarily ET.
alert name — the name you gave the alert when you created it (e.g.,
NQ ORB algo).message payload — the exact JSON or text body TradingView sent to the webhook. for edgeful algos, this is the JSON that tells edgeful what trade to execute.
click any row to expand it — you'll see the full payload and the delivery result from TradingView.
proving an alert triggered at a specific bar close
this is the one that catches most people. you saw the setup on the chart, your algo should've triggered, but nothing happened. here's how to prove it one way or the other.
note the exact bar you expected the alert to trigger on — say, the 9:30 ET bar close on NQ.
open the log and look for a row with that timestamp. TradingView alerts trigger on bar close, so a 9:30 ET 1-minute bar alert will show up with a 9:31:00 timestamp (the moment the 9:30 bar closed).
match the alert name in the log to the alert you care about — if you have multiple algos running, there will be multiple rows.
if you find a matching row — the alert triggered. now move on to the next section to find out why the trade still didn't execute.
if there's no matching row — the alert didn't trigger. most of the time this means the conditions weren't actually met, the alert was paused or expired, or you're looking at an alert that's locked to a different indicator setting than you think (see failure mode 1 below).
the 3 most common reasons an algo didn't trade
if the alert row exists in the log but no trade hit your broker, it's almost always one of these three. walk them in order.
failure 1 — the alert is locked to old indicator settings
TradingView alerts capture the indicator settings at the moment you create them. if you later update your ORB range, IB size, session, or any other input on the edgeful indicator — the existing alert keeps triggering on the old settings. it doesn't update automatically.
how to spot it in the log:
the alert triggers at times that don't match your current setup (e.g., triggering off a 30-minute ORB when you updated the indicator to a 15-minute ORB)
the payload references levels, sizes, or session times that don't match what you see on the chart
the alert triggers, but the edgeful algo dashboard shows "no trades" for that session
the fix: delete the old alert and create a new one from the edgeful algo panel. the alert has to be recreated any time you change the underlying indicator settings — updating the indicator doesn't update the alert.
failure 2 — the webhook URL is masked or wrong
when you look at the webhook URL inside an existing TradingView alert, TradingView displays it in a masked form — dots in the middle, first and last few characters only. that masked version is not the real URL. if you copy what you see, you're pasting gibberish.
how to spot it in the log:
the log row shows the alert triggered, but the expanded row shows a delivery error or a 4xx response
the URL visible on the alert has dots in the middle and doesn't look like a normal URL
edgeful shows no record of receiving the alert — the algo dashboard is empty for that timestamp
the fix: in the edgeful algo panel, click the copy button (or the double-boxes icon) next to your webhook URL. that copies the full, unmasked URL. paste that into the TradingView alert's webhook field and save. don't retype it — copy-paste only.
failure 3 — the broker rejected it (token, 2FA, or disconnected account)
the alert triggered, the webhook delivered, edgeful got the payload — but the trade still didn't show up in your broker. this usually means your broker connection has stale or missing credentials.
how to spot it:
the alert log row in TradingView shows the webhook was delivered successfully (status ok)
the edgeful algo dashboard shows the alert was received, but the trade shows an error or never executed at the broker
this often happens after you enable 2FA on the broker account (Tradovate is the common one) — 2FA invalidates the existing access token that edgeful uses to place trades
the fix: open the edgeful algo dashboard, click connect to broker in step 1, and re-sign in. this refreshes the access token. if you've recently turned on 2FA and the reconnect doesn't stick, disable 2FA on the broker side, reconnect, and test again.
reading delivery status in the log
when you expand a log row, TradingView shows you the delivery result. here's what you'll see and what it means for edgeful.
what the log shows | what it means | what to do |
row exists, delivery ok | the alert triggered and the webhook was accepted. edgeful got the payload. | if the trade still didn't execute, skip to failure 3 above — it's a broker-connection issue. |
row exists, delivery error / 4xx | the alert triggered but the webhook URL was rejected. almost always failure 2 — masked or stale URL. | recopy the webhook URL from the edgeful algo panel using the copy button and update the alert. |
row exists, delivery error / 5xx | edgeful's webhook endpoint had a temporary issue receiving the alert. | open a support ticket with the timestamp — we can check whether the payload hit our logs. |
no row at the expected timestamp | the alert didn't trigger. conditions weren't met, it was paused, it expired, or it's tied to the wrong indicator settings. | check failure 1 — is the alert locked to stale indicator settings? if not, see TradingView alert didn't trigger. |
if you see a specific status code or error message not listed here, grab the row's full expanded text and send it in through the chat — it helps us build this table out with real evidence.
still stuck
if you've walked all 3 failure modes and the trade still isn't executing, open a support ticket with:
the exact timestamp from the log row
the alert name
the full message payload (copy it from the expanded row)
a screenshot of the expanded log row showing the delivery result
with that info we can trace the payload through edgeful and tell you exactly where it stopped.