How to Set Price Alerts for Your dYdX Positions

dYdX’s own mobile app already includes built-in liquidation-risk alerts and margin-utilization insights, but for more flexible or customized monitoring, the strongest options are community-built, self-hosted tools that route notifications through Discord, Telegram, Slack, or even PagerDuty.

This guide is part of TradeOnDEX’s dYdX how-to series within Perpetual Futures, and closes out this stretch by building on the liquidation worked-example guide.

Disclosure: TradeOnDEX may earn a commission from links to dYdX on this page, at no extra cost to you. Full details at the end of this article.

What’s built into the platform already

The dYdX mobile app, covered in the mobile app guide, provides instant alerts when a position approaches liquidation risk, along with risk management tools offering clearer visibility into buying power, margin utilization, and overall liquidation risk. This means for you, concretely: if you’re already using the official app, you have a baseline layer of liquidation-risk monitoring without installing anything additional.

Community-built alternatives for more control

Beyond the built-in app alerts, community-developed tools exist specifically for more customizable liquidation monitoring. One documented example, dYdX Alerts, monitors positions in real time and sends notifications when an account approaches its liquidation threshold, you submit a subaccount address, select a notification channel (Telegram, text message, or PagerDuty among the options), and specify how close to liquidation (as a percentage price move) should trigger the alert.

This means for you, concretely: these tools let you set your own specific sensitivity threshold and choose a notification channel that fits how you already monitor other alerts (for example, routing trading alerts to the same Discord or Telegram setup you use for other purposes), rather than relying solely on whatever threshold and channel the official app uses by default.

How to set up alerts, step by step

1. If you’re using the mobile app, review its built-in liquidation-risk and margin-utilization alerts first, this may be sufficient for straightforward monitoring needs.
2. For more granular control, consider a community-built tool like dYdX Alerts, which requires self-hosting.
3. Submit your subaccount address to the tool, select your preferred notification channel, and set your desired liquidation-proximity threshold.
4. Test the alert setup with a small position first to confirm notifications actually arrive as expected before relying on it for a position that matters.

Risk: what to understand before relying on any alert system

Self-hosted tools require you to actually keep them running. Unlike a built-in platform feature, a self-hosted alerting tool depends on your own infrastructure staying online and correctly configured, if your hosting environment goes down, so does your alert coverage, without necessarily any indication that this has happened.

An alert is a notification, not an automatic action. Setting a liquidation-proximity alert tells you when to act; it doesn’t itself close or adjust your position, you still need to actually respond to the notification in time, which matters especially during fast-moving market conditions where the gap between alert and effective action can be small.

Community-built tools are third-party software, not officially maintained platform infrastructure. Review a tool’s source and maintenance status before trusting it with monitoring a position that matters, an abandoned or poorly maintained community tool may not reflect current dYdX mechanics accurately.

Notification delivery itself can fail or lag. Whether you’re using Discord, Telegram, SMS, or PagerDuty, any notification channel can experience its own delays or outages. Treat alerts as a helpful layer of risk management, not an infallible one, and combine them with the position-sizing and margin practices covered in the liquidation worked-example guide.

Alert options compared

See it for yourself

Start with the built-in mobile app alerts if you haven’t already, and consider layering a community tool with a custom threshold on top if you want earlier warning or a notification channel you already monitor for other purposes. You can review the mobile app’s alert features via dydx.xyz/ios-download or your device’s app store.

Frequently asked questions

Does dYdX have built-in liquidation alerts?

Yes, the mobile app includes instant alerts when a position approaches liquidation risk, along with margin-utilization and buying-power insights.

Do I need a third-party tool if I use the mobile app?

Not necessarily, the built-in alerts may be sufficient for straightforward monitoring; a third-party tool adds custom thresholds and alternative notification channels for those who want more control.

Are community-built alert tools officially maintained by dYdX?

No, they’re third-party, community-developed software; check a specific tool’s maintenance status and source before relying on it for a position that matters.

Does setting an alert automatically protect my position?

No, an alert only notifies you; you still need to take action (adjusting margin, reducing size, or closing the position) yourself, and quickly enough to matter during fast-moving conditions.

Affiliate disclosure

TradeOnDEX may earn a commission if you sign up or trade through a link on this page, at no extra cost to you. dYdX’s own affiliate/referral terms are still being confirmed for this site, so links here are direct and untracked for now. This article is educational and is not financial advice. See our disclaimer for the full risk warning.