CPU Statistics Load - Longview & Email Alerts

I think I understand load, but would really like to know from someone who knows (I am guessing).

If I have a 4 core, then load is represented really at 400% being the maximum cpu load in the Linode Longview software – is that right?

Each core is 100% - so setting the alert to 350% is better than the default 90% which just keeps alerting me when the server is running at 2.00 near constantly.