SENTINEL BY ZERODHA

SENTINEL INTRODUCTION

Its very difficult in your daily busy schedule to track each and every monument of market which you wish to capture. This is a time consuming job as well as need lots of analysis. Over the past few years trading market has been much of a low-alert and no technical comparisons in the trader's mindset. To overcome with  this issue Zerodha had created an app that alerts you by a new methodology which are “THE TRIGGERS”, This App will alert you by sending notifications to your email and Zerodha Kite mobile app, . The name of the app is “SENTINEL”. The meaning of sentinel is ‘A Soldier or guard Whose Job is to Stand and Keep Watch’.  Similarly Zerodha sentinel also keeps watch assumed triggers and alerts when the assumed trigger conditions are matched.

In Summary, Zerodha added one more tool in their portfolio which is clearly a market Alert platform. You can set your alerts and Sentinel will take care when specific Alert condition match, you will get real time update when your alert conditions match via email or kite alert.

SENTINEL TRIGGERS- A BREIF OVERVIEW

One of the main key features in the sentinel app is triggers. There are 15 triggers that the trader can set for the users who use free version. The premium and pro version users have different features that well discuss later. For instance, we compare the “last traded price” of ICICI bank from the ‘last traded price’ of HDFC bank. We name the trigger as “Project A”. We set the trigger to know if the value is greater than the HDFC bank.

Now, we click create and the trigger is created. The trigger will be active for 1 day and the notifications will be sent to your Kite Trading platform (Web or Mobile) and the email that we set in the sentinel website. The trigger will look like this:

As you can see the trigger is active. The only drawback in this app is that we have to set the triggers to active every day. For pro users there’s an additional feature ADVANCED TRIGGERS.

SENTINEL ADVANCED TRIGGERS

Advanced triggers are only for pro users. These triggers are based on scripted language and arithmetic expressions. This can be easily decoded in Sentinel pro and there are classified by FUNCTIONS.

SENTINEL FUNCTIONS

Functions are nothing but the details of the instruments. Functions are classified into 3 types:

• Instrument function
• Date function
• Math function

ATTRIBUTES AND OPERATIONS

Attributes are the functions of the instruments. The following are all the attributes in sentinel app

• Last traded price
• Low price
• High price
• Open price
• Close price
• Day change
• Day change percent
• Intra day change
• Intra day change percent
• Last traded quantity
• Average trade price
• Volume traded
• Total buy quantity
• Total sell quantity
• Open interest
• Open interest day high
• Open interest day low

Operators are mathematical constructs which compares volume/value between two values. They are:

• Greater than (>)
• Greater than equal to (>=)
• Less than(<)
• Less than equal to (<=)
• Equals (==)

SECURITY OF SENTINEL

Sentinel app is secured by SSL encryption and 24/7 support team ready to kick out the hacker or hacker type accounts for the betterment of the security. Data transmissions are impossible because of maintenance of the identity of the customers.

Latest update on Zerodha Sentinel - Dec 2018

The latest update on Sentinel is based on Basket orders, with Basket orders in place, users can create a basket and execute it depending on the trigger condition. You will get an alert in the same way you were getting till the previous version, but now you can execute complete basket order in one click.

• Now user can create Basket order with Multiple Scripts, ETF and F&O contracts.
• Equity SIP alerts is possible.
• GTC/GTD alerts can be created.
• Conditional based multi-level triggers also possible.
• Multi-leg F&O orders possible with basket orders.

Baskets

Using the Baskets feature, Sentinel users can create a group of equity, ETFs and F&O contracts. Once they have been bunched together, users can set up an alert that can facilitate buying or selling orders for the entire basket rather than individual entities. Once the condition set by the user is met, users will get an alert that will allow them to take necessary action almost immediately.

Example: If you wish to buy some bank stocks, you may create a basket of bank stocks and add a trigger on bank nifty>26500. When BankNifty hits that condition, you will get an alert for your basket on Kite Notification and on your email. You can open your notification, which will redirect to your pre-set basket order. From that page, you can directly execute the basket.

Equity SIP

This feature is available only with Sentinel PRO, where you can set up a basket of Equity or EFTs with weekly, fortnightly, or monthly alerts. On specific date you will get an alert. By clicking on your alert, you can execute your order in just a few clicks. This is just like Equity SIP, the only extra process involved is that you need to manually execute your trade where in Equity SIP, on given date trade execute automatically.

Longstanding Orders

This is also a long-awaited feature with Zerodha where users can place GTC/GTD orders. The newly introduced Baskets feature can be used to create longstanding order alert, which replicates GTC/GTD orders (Good till Cancelled/Good till Day orders). To set it up, users need to create a basket with the items they wish to trade in, and then create an alert while mentioning the price for which they need to buy/sell stock, once the basket is tagged to the sentinel trigger, the trigger will then allow users to instantly carry out the requisite action. While it may be an attractive feature, there is one disadvantage which is that the trade does not execute on its own. Since you need to manually execute your order, this is not 100% GTC/GTD orders.

Conditional Based Trigger/Execute Multiple Strategies

With Baskets, users can create a trigger to either buy or sell any instrument if there is a change in a different instrument. Users may add the scripts or contracts that they wish to trade in along with the condition where the alert should be triggered. With the system in place, the alert, which is linked to the basket, will allow users to put/hold for various strategies.

This is again a new feature launched in Sentinel, where if one script hits the trigger, you have the ability to buy another script. i.e if NIFTY>11000, then buy Nifty Future or buy Nifty 11000 Call.

Also, with the latest update, you can now create a basket of multi-leg orders on one trigger.

PROS AND CONS

SENTINEL PROS

• 24/7 support team to look after our privacy and security.
• Amazing customer care support polite and very understanding to the customers.
• Notifications not only on the web site but also on emails and phone app.
• We can choose between volume and value of the stock to know the differences.
• We can compare a particular stock with the same stock using different attributes.
• Advanced triggers are so useful when using of scripted languages and arithmetic scripts.
• In advanced triggers you can combine multiple situations for creating your alerts.
• You can also watch the history, the last created alerts on the app.
• Very useful for traders as well as investors too.

SENTINEL CONS

• The mobile app only has notifications and we can’t active the trigger from there itself.
• The trigger gets deactivated once the alert is reached by you and you have to reactivate by going to “my alerts” app.
• There is no direct link to buy stocks from the sentinel app and the accuracy is not a bit of a high range.
• The persons who use like 220 triggers or more triggers have to reactivate each of them. There should be one click reactivation in this app.
• The data is not fully secured because internet is never safe and they can’t provide more security than that.

FUTURE UPDATES THAT CAN COME IN SENTINEL OR SENTINEL 2.0

• Prices of sentinel pro will be decreased
• Sms service from the app with cost.
• Live trading market stats
• Push notifications and betterment of the mobile app
• It is possible that sentinel will be base on timeframes like 30 minutes or 60 minutes etc.

SENTINEL FAQS

Q: Do I need a Zerodha Account to use Sentinel?

A: No, You don’t need to be a Zerodha customer, you can use your google or facebook account with limited access of Sentinel App.

Q:What are the data points/alert conditions that are supported by zerodha sentinel platform?

A: You can set alerts based on  today’s open price, High, Low, Close, Volume, Percentage of Change, Open Interest, total bids, total asks, and many more

Q:What is the cost of Zerodha Sentinel?

A: Sentinel Basic Version is FREE with 30 triggers and 1 data point.

Sentinel Plus Version is available with 100 Triggers and 40+ data points @Rs 40 PM with year plan

Sentinel Pro Version is available with 200 Triggers, 40+ data point, Advance Triggers and combined Trigger feature @Rs 160 PM with year plan.

Please refer pricing plan section for half yearly or Monthly plan price.

Q: For which Segments I can set alerts via Sentinel Platform?

A: Zerodha Sentinel support Alerts for Equity, Derivatives, Currency and Commodity Segments.

Q:What is one of the unique features on The Zerodha Sentinel Platform?

A: A unique feature you would find on this platform is to create triggers based on the total bids and asks for specific stocks. Not many platforms in the industry support this feature for day traders.

Final Verdict About Sentinel

The most important thing matters in the market are timing when u enter or exit, for that u cant monitor each and every script for the whole day. Zerodha managed to put a lot of efforts on Sentinel app and it also became successful. Sentinel is now an important aspect of traders and investors life and they hope to keep this app updated with lots of new features and very accurate. The customer support is very loud and clear that they would need some changes and the app is very useful for trading and investing purposes. The Zerodha Sentinel made it easy for those who need the alerts to capture special movement in the market. It has many useful features and user-friendly. The best part is you can use free version to start and can upgrade when comfortable with service/quality of triggers.