Support Board
Date/Time: Tue, 26 Nov 2024 02:48:44 +0000
So many threads (Global Time Zone, Session Time, Chart Times, DST and Computer/Local Time)
View Count: 506
| [2024-01-15 20:27:57] |
| User92573 - Posts: 530 |
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Dear Support Apologies for duplication.
I'm resetting my platform after many years to something that might be termed 'Sierra's best practices' but there are so many threads and not just a little confusion. Certainly on my part. John (always clear) writes - The main consideration for why to choose a specific time zone for a chart is Daylight Saving Time and the fact that the US changes on a different date than the rest of the world.
Therefore, it is best to have your time zone set to one of the US time zones that changes on the same date as the CME Group. This could be Central (where the CME Group is located), Eastern, Mountain, or Pacific. The choice of which one is personal and could be chosen based on where you live. For more information on this, refer to the following: Time Zone Setting: Resolving Differences with the Transition To/From Daylight Savings Time in Different Time Zones With regards to the Session Times, you would need to set those based on the actual open/close times for the time zone that you have set. In general this should work properly using the default information in the Symbol Settings (i.e. when you open a chart the default Session Times should be correct). But, if you are having issues, then look at the times at the CME Group website for the instruments you want and adjust accordingly. Refer to the following for more information on setting the Session Times: Chart Session Times But can someone provide simple and specific example for the following taking into account that I'm typically UK and my PC time is currently (UTC +00:00) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London; Adjust for Daylight Saving (On). Of course there is other software, less important than Sierra that also the use PC clock time settings. --------------------------------------------- My PC Date/Time Settings --------------------------------------------- Location (UK) Computer Time Zone (UTC +00:00) Daylight Saving (On) Contract: CME ES --------------------------------------------- Sierra Chart Settings --------------------------------------------- Global Settings >> Time Zone Settings: --------------- London (+0 GMT/+1 BST) Global Settings >> Symbol Settings: --------------- Symbol: ES?## Time Zone: New York (-5 EST/-4 EDT) Session Start Time: 09:30:00 Session End Time: 16:14:59 Evening Start Time: 16:15:00 Evening End Time: 09:29:59 Start New Bar At Start Time: yes (does 'yes' refer to using the time below?). New Bar Daily Start Time: 18:00:30 Chart Settings >> Session Times: --------------- Session Start Time: 09:30:00 Session End Time: 16:14:59 Use Evening Session: Yes Evening Start Time: 16:15:00 Evening End Time: 09:29:59 Data/trade Service Settings >> Historical daily Data: --------------- Historical daily Data Download (17:45:00) Historical Daily Data Download Time Time Zone Zone List: New York (-5 EST/-4 EDT) As I previously used 24 hours/Globex 00:00:00 to 23:59:50 and "Use Evening Session (No)" this was never a concern. Would be very grateful for a clear (KISS) explanation as opposed to pointing to reference material I've already struggled to resolve. Many thanks. Date Time Of Last Edit: 2024-01-15 20:32:12
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| [2024-01-16 14:12:09] |
| John - SC Support - Posts: 36286 |
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--------- PC Clock: To start with, your PC clock does not matter. Since you are getting the data from our Denali Exchange Data Feed, the times in your chart are based on the timestamps of the data as it comes in. As such, all times within Sierra Chart are strictly dealt with in Sierra Chart and have no reference to your computer's clock. ----------------- Global Time Zone: The Global Time Zone setting is just to be helpful. This is where you would set the time zone that you want to use for your charts by default. ---------------- Symbol Settings: The Symbol Settings are just a series of default values that are used to populate the chart when that symbol is selected. The Session Times and the Time Zone setting in this case are used to define the session times that are used for this symbol, but the Time Zone is only for the purposes of entering the times in the other fields. We need a reference for this information, so this is what it is. The actual time zone set in the chart will default to the Global Time Zone, and you can change it. The entries for "Start New Daily Bar at Start Time" and "New Daily Bar Start Time" are for daily historical charts and does not apply for Intraday charts, so put those aside for now. -------------------------------- Chart Settings >> Session Times: This is where the actual times are set for the start of the Regular Trading Session and the Evening Session (and whether you use an Evening Session). The Time Zone defaults to the Global Time Zone, but can be changed to any time zone for this chart. ----------------------------------------------------- Data/Trade Service Settings >> Historical Daily Data: This deals with when historical daily data is downloaded. Set this aside as it does not apply in this case. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you have used the 24 hour Session Times and you have your Time Zone set to somewhere outside of the U.S. then you will see a shift in the time of the data, since the time in Chicago would be 1 hour different from what your local time zone is. This will stay this way until your local time shifts, so it will just be during the few weeks at each time shift when the U.S. has changed and the rest of the world has not. For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, use the Teton service: Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing |
| [2024-01-17 11:27:14] |
| User92573 - Posts: 530 |
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John, that's really helpful. Thank you. Just a couple of follow up questions related to changes to the Global Time-Zone / Chart Time-Zone. I hope they make sense. For data I use Denali. 1. Is the data stored as:
a) The Exchange/s time b) UTC (un-adjusted) time c) An adjusted/corrected time relative to Sierra's Global Time-Zone. I'm assuming it's UTC so the adjustments and filters can be applied. 2. Both the 'Global Time-Zone (default Time-Zone)' and the Chart Settings (local chart) >> Time-Zone (list) access the same data file which I assume is (UTC). Are there any circumstances where I would need to delete and re-download the contract data following time changes? Lastly, 3. Given the fact that Computer time settings are understandably ignored and my 2 main exchanges are Chicago and New York. If I am travelling and would be frequently changing Time-Zones, would it make more sense to set the Global Time-Zone to Chicago and mentally note that New York times are Chicago +1. I realise this is more of a personal preference however depending on the data's timestamp I can see it may be relevant. Many thanks for excellent help and support. |
| [2024-01-17 17:23:21] |
| John - SC Support - Posts: 36286 |
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1. The data is stored in UTC time, but the time stamps are from the exchange. 2. You would never need to delete and re-download data due to time changes. Sierra Chart takes care of all that. The times in the file are always going to be the same. 3. It really is a personal preference. The only thing we can say in regard to this is our general statement that we recommend you have your charts set to the time zone of the exchange so you do not see these issues. Refer to the following: Time Zone Setting: Resolving Differences with the Transition To/From Daylight Savings Time in Different Time Zones For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, use the Teton service: Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing |
| [2024-01-17 19:33:55] |
| User92573 - Posts: 530 |
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Thank you. That's helped me understand it all. I hope it helps others. Really grateful. |
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