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What Is New

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Log of Changes and Improvements to Sierra Chart

This list contains major items of development, and changes and additions which users need to be informed about.

This is not a comprehensive changes and additions log. And it should never be relied upon for such. It only represents a very small percentage of the actual development being performed every day. The vast majority of development is not documented here. Or receives, one small comment after it is all complete. There are not version notes for each version. The main Sierra Chart documentation is updated as needed relating to the changes and additions.

The maintenance of this page has mostly been abandoned by Sierra Chart development for many years due to the difficulty of maintaining it and because users can be incorrectly misled by or misinterpret notes that are made here. This does not change, the development of Sierra Chart which is very active every day and new releases are made nearly weekly or several times a week. The Sierra Chart project is still very active, with extensive development and it remains a very high quality software in the world. The engineering is at the very top of the world.

  • 256

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    • Added Historical Volatility Study.
    • New recording modes have been added. For complete information see Recording Modes. The suffix -INV can be added to any symbol to get the inverse price. This is very useful for the SC Real-Time and Historical Forex Data service. For example, you can use EURUSD-INV, EURUSD-INVBID, EURUSD-INVASK, EURUSD-INVBIDASK, or EURUSD-INVBAAVG. The SC Forex Historical Data Server supplies historical data only for -INV and -INVBID out of these new modes.

  • 255

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    • Added the Moving Average - Triple Exponential study.
    • Improvements have been made to the SC Real-Time and Historical Forex Data service.

  • 254

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    • The Sierra Chart Trading interface now works with TransAct for approved users.
    • Modified the Renko study to handle smaller box sizes for volatile markets.

  • 253

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    • The Stop or Limit price for a Stop Limit order can now be automatically set. This applies to order entered through the chart or trade window. To activate this feature select Trade >> Open Trade Window for Chart>> Advanced >> Automatically Set Other Price for Stop Limit Orders. Select the desired unit and enter your value with From Other Order controls.
    • Added support for the SC Forex service for levels 3, 4 and 10. This will be available until March 1, 2008.

  • 252

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    • Some additional low-level improvements to Tool and Chart Drawing related ACSIL functions were made to provide better support for Kiwi's Copies Lines From Another Chart study.
    • Sierra Chart now offers a Real-Time and Historical Forex Data service. For complete information, refer to the Sierra Chart Real-Time And Historical Forex Data Service page. Historical Daily Forex data is and has always been available with the Sierra Chart Historical Data service.
    • Some improvements have been made to Range bars, and additional improvements will be made in the next version.
    • Better handling of IB True Data symbols. Data for these symbols are continuously restarted every 5 minutes in case the data feed stops from Interactive Brokers.
    • Corrected a problem with the Difference (Single Line) study from the prior version.

  • 251

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    • Added a study that writes chart bar data in real-time to a text file. The study is called Write Bar Data To File.
    • Added a draw style called Candle Outline.
    • Optimized and added a study named 'Copies Lines from another Chart' developed by Kiwi, to our custom study list. This can be found under Analysis >> Studies >> Add Custom Study >> Sierra Chart Custom Studies. This study was updated in the second revision of 251.
    • The tool related functions in the Advanced Custom Study Interface and Language no longer accept a Line Number of zero. If zero is used, it will be set to 1. This should not be a problem. However, if your custom studies do not function correctly and they are using tool functions, then you may need to update your code.
    • Corrected a problem with the Spreadsheet System for Trading study where the position data in column J in a Spreadsheet was not reset to zeros when there was no position data available for the symbol. The Spreadsheet in this case may have showed any previously received position data. Potentially this could have been a minor problem if any formulas relied on this position data until the time that position data became available for the symbol. This was corrected in the second revision of 251.

  • 250

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    • Our Intraday data importing function, which imports text data into a Scid or Mnd file has been improved to handle many more data line formats. See the Exporting and Importing documentation page.

  • 249

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    • Improved the Candle-Stick coloring logic when open and close prices are equal.
    • Corrected a problem with displaying Alert Messages.
    • Low level improvements have been made to the Drawing Tool related functions which are part of the Advanced Custom Study Interface and Language. If your advanced custom study uses the sc.UseTool(Ex) or related functions, you may need to rebuild your DLL if you see any problems when using this version or higher.

  • 248

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    • Updated the interface to TransAct to properly format the data received for the CBOT contracts that are moving to CME GLOBEX beginning January 14, 2008.
    • Improved the detection of Intraday data in an ASCII/Text format. This applies when you open an Intraday text file from File >> Open Historical Chart.

  • 247

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    • We have internally updated the RSI studies to be faster. It is recommended if you have these studies in your charts or in study collections, that you verify all your input settings. Some inputs have changed.
    • sc.RSI function has been added to the Advanced Custom Study Interface. This calculates the Relative Strength Index.
    • Added the Stochastic RSI study.

  • 246

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    • Corrected a problem that arose from 245 that prevented the trading functionality from working properly and caused errors.

  • 245

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    • Added Bracket Trader Integration for Back Compatibility purposes. We do not provide support for this, you will have to contact Bracket Trader.
    • Added the Demarker study.
    • Added support for reading number of trades and Bid/Ask Volume when directly opening an ASCII file to chart. Added support for more ASCII data file formats. All of these formats, other than the standard export format for SCID files, can be imported into a SCID file in an upcoming version.
    • With the Study Overlay study, the name of the main price graph from the source chart is shown on the data line above the study for easier identification.

  • 244

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    • For the DTN IQ feed service, out of order time-stamps in historical Intraday data records are not filtered. This solves the problem that some users had with missing data. We have also advised DTN of this out of order time-stamp problem.

  • 243

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    • Corrected a problem from version 242 for the DTN IQ Feed Service that did not filter out data earlier than the last time in the file. This would cause duplicated data. DTN IQ Feed has had time stamping problems with their historical data. This will cause Sierra Chart to filter out some historical data. We are working on removing this filter. This problem arose from the work we did to remove this filter.

  • 242

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    • Corrected a problem with IB backfill downloading of FOREX data that arose in version 240.
    • During a chart replay, the chart will update more often when using a fast chart update interval. This provides much smoother replays. Especially when tick data is used.
    • Optimized and added Kiwis Trailing Stop to the list of available studies.
    • For Internal Positions, the Profit and Loss field is always up to date and is based upon the unrealized Profit/Loss for the current position.

  • 240

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    • Forex sell orders now work correctly with IB.
    • Corrected a problem where the Go To Chart command on the Alert Log may not always work in some cases.
    • Various other low-level improvements.

  • 239

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    • Improved the downloading of OEC Historical Intraday Data and other OEC interface improvements to resolve issues that you may have experienced with data.
    • When using TD Ameritrade, historical daily data comes from Ameritrade by default now.
    • Stop-Limit orders can now be inputted through the chart trade interface. 4 new menu items have been added: Buy Stop-Limit, Buy Limit-Stop, Sell Limit-Stop, Sell Stop-Limit. The order of the words Stop and Limit indicate the order in which the 2 prices are inputted. If stop is first, then the price level where you initially click on the chart sets the stop price. You can then move your mouse pointer around to the limit price level. The second left click will then set the limit price. Right clicking during this process cancels the input of the Stop-Limit order.

  • 238

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    • Updated the OEC Historical Intraday Data download interface to work with the major changes they have made in their version 3.1.2 client software.
    • Added support for getting more historical data from TD Ameritrade. TD Ameritrade now provides historical daily data going back 15 years, and historical Intraday data back to May 1, 2007.

  • 236

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    • Corrected a problem with reversal handling in the Spreadsheet System for Trading study. Reversals only apply when the Support Reversals input is set to Yes.
    • Other minor improvements.

  • 235

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    • Support for GAIN Capital/Forex.com has been added. Shortly, an account will not be required with them to access the forex data. Standard forex symbols such as EURUSD can be used. EURUSD-BID and EURUSD-ASK can also be used. Without -BID or -ASK the average price of BID and ASK is given.
    • Some improvements with Spreadsheet System/Alert For Trading study. "Allow Opposite Entry with Opposing Entry Count" input has been added.
    • Other minor improvements.

  • 234

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    • Change to Spreadsheet System/Alert for Trading study: If the Buy Entry count is 1 or greater, and there is a Sell Entry, then Buy Entry is decremented by 1. Sell Entry is only incremented by 1 when Buy Entry is 0. The opposite rule applies when Sell Entry count is 1 or greater and there is a Buy Entry. Another change planned is that we will add an input named Allow Opposite Entry with Opposing Entry Count. When this input is set to No, then when Buy Entry count is greater than zero, then Sell Entries are not allowed until it reaches zero. The opposite rule when Sell Entry count is greater than zero.
    • Herrick Payoff Index has been rewritten, it is now more efficient and has more inputs
    • Various low level improvements
    • Added Alligator as a separate study. Added Moving Average - Smoothed study.

  • 233

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    • This version supports the Open E Cry version 3.1.2 client software which is required to connect to the simulation system. This will be required for the production system very shortly. Therefore, if you are using the simulation system, you must use this version or higher.
    • Corrected a problem with the processing of position data by automated trading system formula's in the Spreadsheet System/Alert for Trading study.
    • Added a new tab in the Positions and Balance window that keeps track of all the positions of the current session, that is, since Sierra Chart was started. This new tab is called "Internal Positions".
    • Added the ability to use the Internal Positions for position calculations in both the Spreadsheet Study and the chart trading feature. This option can be found under Trade >> Global Trade Settings on the menu.
    • Added a study named Percentage Price Oscillator.

  • 232

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    • Corrected a minor issue with the Chart Values Tool from a recent release.
    • TransAct Trading has been updated to work directly with their trade server. However, it can not be used until it is approved by TransAct. This is pending.
    • Other low level improvements

  • 231

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    • Corrected a problem with the Spreadsheet Study from a recent release where the "Use Excel" and "Use Price Graph Style" inputs did not work when set to Yes.
    • Changed the behavior of the sc.BarHasClosedStatus ACSIL function.
    • Improved the reporting of trade position data from IB in the Spreadsheet System/Alert for Trading study.

  • 230

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    • The Sierra Chart trading interface now supports the TransAct trading service. This is still new. If you have an suggestions or problems please let us know.
    • Corrected a problem with the color coding of the alert flag on the data line above chart regions.
    • Corrected a problem where pivot point and daily OHLC lines for Tuesday may not have correctly referenced the correct prior day when using session times that would span two different days.

  • 229

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    • IB: The current real-time daily data is forward adjusted to match the historical data if it is behind it. This should solve the problem of historical charts having out-of-order data at the end when using IB.
    • IB: For symbols that only provide bid and ask data such as Forex, we ask for midpoint data instead of bid_ask data when downloading historical data. One kind user pointed out that IB is not properly setting the open/close for daily historical data records when we were asking for bid_ask data. Midpoint data seems to be better in this area. We take no responsibility for what IB sends. We chart exactly what they provide. It is responsible and detailed user feedback with proper foundation that does help us make improvements.
    • Invalid IB volume or number of trade values are filtered.

  • 228

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    • IB stop orders will now be processed at any time. We set a flag in the order structure sent to IB to support this.
    • Now downloading the last two days of data when downloading historical daily data from IB.
    • Various other low-level improvements.

  • 227

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    • Put a patch in to solve the problem where IB historical data would be dated 1 day ahead of time during the evening session. It is critical to have your computer clock set correctly with this patch, otherwise you may filter out data from your historical charts.
    • Made changes to greatly reduce the possibility of pacing violations when downloading historical daily data from IB. Due to this change, we now request one full year of data as previously was the case. It recently was reduced to six months, but it has been put back up to one year.
    • Tick and volume charts are now 100% constant. The volume or tick count per bar will be exactly what is specified. This is accomplished by splitting data records, if necessary. 100% constant tick charts have been available since the introduction of our new file format recently. Although, if a data record is longer than 1 Tick there would be an over-count. Now data records can be split to create 100% constant Tick and Volume counts per bar. Although, this is not always desirable if data records cover a large period of time such as one minute. Therefore, this can be disabled by unchecking the Split Data Records option in Chart >> Chart Settings.
    • Made a modification to reversal handling in the Spreadsheet System/Alert For Trading study. This applies when the buy or sell counts are over one. The handling is now consistent to what actually happens in the market.
    • Corrected a problem from a recent release where adding or subtracting a fixed amount with the Adjust Data function would cause all values to be set to this amount. It is critical to update before using this function. This affected versions 224 through some revisions of 226.

  • 226

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    • Corrected some problems with the Spreadsheet System/Alert for Trading study which is used for automated trading. Support for Reversals has also been added.
    • Allowed uploading of multiple images at the same time. This also solves the problem where you would not be able to continue to upload images when 1 upload failed due to a communications problem.

  • 225

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    • Spreadsheet System for Trading Study: Buy and Sell are now associated with each other, for more information see the Spreadsheet Systems documentation.
    • The Spreadsheet System/Alert for Trading study now shows the Buy Entry, Sell Entry, Buy, Sell counts in column I and J. This allows you to a better understanding of how the column signal types are working, and lets you reset them. For example, if Allow Multiple Orders in the Same Direction is Set to No, and Buy Entry count is 1, then you need to have a Buy Exit in order for Buy Entry to trigger another order.

*Last modified Thursday, 25th April, 2024.