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Telegram alerts: send chart alerts and chart pictures to Telegram

Send SuperCharting alerts to Telegram through your own bot, to yourself, a group or a channel, with an optional chart picture of the moment it fired.

SuperCharting can send any alert to Telegram through a bot you own. You create the bot once with Telegram's @BotFather, paste its token into SuperCharting, let SuperCharting detect the chats the bot can write to, and then pick a chat in each alert's Notifications. When the alert fires the message arrives in Telegram, by default with a picture of the chart attached.

Why your own bot

Telegram bots are free to create, and using your own bot means the messages come from a name you control and go only to chats you have connected. SuperCharting keeps the bot token on its server for your account: it is checked with Telegram when you save it, it is never sent back to your browser, and messages only go to chats that SuperCharting itself detected for your bot.

You can send alerts to three kinds of chat:

• Yourself: a private chat with your bot.
• A group: add the bot to the group.
• A channel: add the bot as an administrator of the channel. Useful for sharing signals with a team or a study group.

How to connect Telegram in SuperCharting

The setup lives inside the alert dialog, so you do it the first time you want a Telegram alert.

1. In Telegram, open @BotFather, send /newbot and answer its two questions (a display name and a user name ending in "bot").
2. BotFather replies with a token that looks like 123456789:AA.... Copy it.
3. In SuperCharting press Alert (or Alt + A), click the Notifications row and click the Telegram field, which says "Off — click to choose a chat".
4. The Telegram alerts window opens. Paste the token and press Connect bot. SuperCharting checks it with Telegram and shows "Connected to @yourbot".
5. Choose where alerts should go and do the matching step in Telegram: open the bot and press Start (or send it any message); or add it to a group and send a message that mentions it, such as /start@yourbot; or make it an administrator of a channel and post any message there.
6. Back in SuperCharting press Detect chats. Each chat the bot has seen is listed with its type. Press Send test next to one to check it.
7. Press Done, then pick the chat in the list that opens. The Telegram field now reads "Send to: <chat name>".
8. Leave Attach a chart image to the Telegram message ticked if you want the picture, press Ok, then Create.

Next time, clicking the Telegram field goes straight to the list of your chats, with Add a chat or change the bot… at the bottom. Up to 20 chats are kept per account.

What the Telegram message contains

The text is the alert's message, with placeholders such as {{ticker}} and {{close}} filled in (see webhook alerts for the full list). The first line is a bell and the alert name (or the symbol when the alert has no name), the second line the message, for example:

🔔 Gold breakout

XAUUSD Crossing Up 4150.000

If your message starts with {, for example when the same text also goes to a webhook, it is sent exactly as written without the heading.

The chart picture

With Attach a chart image ticked, SuperCharting draws a picture of the alert's chart at the moment it fires and sends it with the text as its caption. The picture shows:

• the recent bars of the alert's symbol and timeframe,
• the alert level as a line, for price alerts and multi-condition alerts with a price condition,
• the alert's own script, when the condition comes from an indicator or a strategy,
• up to six visible indicators that were on the chart when you created the alert.

A Telegram caption holds up to 1,000 characters; a longer message is sent again as a separate text right after the picture. If the picture cannot be made, for example because no bars of that timeframe were loaded yet, the text is sent alone, so you never lose the alert itself.

A practical example

You follow NSE:BANKNIFTY on the 5-minute chart with VWAP and Supertrend on it, and want a message on your phone when it breaks the morning high of 52,400.

1. Right-click the chart at 52,400 and choose Add alert on BANKNIFTY at 52,400.00….
2. Condition Crossing Up, trigger Once only, expiration 1 day.
3. In Message name it "BNF morning high".
4. In Notifications pick your private chat and keep the chart image ticked.

When it fires, Telegram shows the 5-minute chart with the 52,400 line, VWAP and Supertrend, and the caption "🔔 BNF morning high" with the condition text. The alert is checked on the SuperCharting server, so this works with your laptop closed. Alerts like this are for keeping track of your own plan; they are not trade recommendations.

Limits and troubleshooting

• Rate. At most 30 Telegram messages a minute per account. Telegram itself also limits how fast a bot may post, especially in groups.
• "That Telegram chat is not set up." The chat was removed or the bot changed. Open the Telegram window from the alert's Notifications and press Detect chats again.
• Detect chats finds nothing. Telegram only reports chats where something new happened. Send the bot a message (or post in the group or channel) and press Detect chats once more.
• Errors after the alert fires appear as a status message in SuperCharting, starting with "Telegram:".
• Switching bots. Use another bot lets you paste a new token; the old one stays until the new bot is connected. Disconnect Telegram removes the bot, and alerts that were sending to it stop sending there.

Combine Telegram with multi-condition alerts for fewer, better messages, or with watchlist alerts to cover a whole list.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to keep SuperCharting open?

No. Alerts run on the SuperCharting server and Telegram messages are sent from there, whether or not a browser is open.

Is my bot token safe?

The token is checked with Telegram, stored for your account on the SuperCharting server and never shown in your browser again. Messages go only to chats your bot was detected in. You can disconnect the bot at any time, and you can revoke the token in @BotFather.

Can I send one alert to several Telegram chats?

Each alert sends to one chat. Use a group or channel when several people should see it, or create a second alert.

Why did my alert arrive without a picture?

The chart picture needs bars for that symbol and timeframe. If none were loaded yet, or drawing failed, the text goes alone. Later alerts on the same chart normally include the picture.

Can I turn the picture off?

Yes. Untick Attach a chart image to the Telegram message in the alert's Notifications.