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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.

  • 224

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    • Completed development of our Automated Trading Support. Automated trading is performed using our Spreadsheet System for Trading study. See the Spreadsheet Systems/Alerts documentation for more information. This study also supports stops and targets through custom Spreadsheet formulas, letting you use the most advanced exit strategy that you require. This study directly integrates with your trading service. It requires no other front end. If you have any problems or suggestions, please let us know on our Support Board. Trading is still in development and is still being updated continually with new features.

  • 223

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    • Corrected a problem with pivot points when used on a TPO Chart.
    • Also corrected some other minor issues

  • 222

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    • Updated the trading interface of Sierra Chart to work with the new version of the Ameritrade Server. This will solve problems of trade functionality not working with Ameritrade. Additionally, Chart Trading now works with Ameritrade as well.
    • Corrected a problem with the function that moves out data from large Intraday data files.
    • Added the following functions to the Advanced Custom Study Interface:
      1. DMI
      2. ADX
      3. ADXR
      4. TrueRange
      5. WellesSum
      6. DMIDiff
    • Spreadsheet trading is now supported inside of the Spreadsheet System For Trading study. When a system condition formula is true or non-zero in the last column, then an order may be placed depending on the column type. The different column types consist of Buy, Sell, Buy Entry, Buy Exit (Sell), Sell Entry, Sell Exit (Buy). This study is still being improved upon and will be completed in version 224. It will have the ability to support advanced exit strategies.

  • 221

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    • This version fixes the problem where you may have gotten an application error "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0150002). Click on OK to terminate the application." or some message saying that the DLL file MSVCR80.DLL could not be found. This was an issue introduced in version 218. This was not an issue if you had the .NET Framework version 2.0 installed on your computer. This version does NOT require the .NET Framework.
    • Fixed a minor issue where the time zone defaulted to Other/Custom DST... rather than UTC (+0 UTC) in the Data/Trade Service Settings when starting from a fresh install or with no stored configuration.

  • 220

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    • This version no longer supports integration with Bracket Trader. The reason for this is to provide a clear and direct interface for trading within Sierra Chart. If you still require Bracket Trader integration, then continue to use previous versions of Sierra Chart until the trading features that are now under development meet your requirements. Basic trading development has already been completed within Sierra Chart. More advanced trading features are still being worked on. We have added a new study called Spreadsheet System/Alert for Trading which directly integrates to the Sierra Chart trading interface. This study will be released in a later version. Buy and sell orders will be able to be triggered by Spreadsheet conditions. We are still developing documentation for this. The existing Spreadsheet Study/System/Alert study no longer supports trading. Trading will be supported by the new study.
    • Corrected various minor issues.

  • 219

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    • Added a new Pivot Points study formula.
    • Corrected a problem where the menus do not display correctly when Sierra Chart is installed to a folder other than the default, and instead display the programmatic names which do not include spaces and shortcut keys. This was most noticeable for Transact users because in most cases Sierra Chart is not installed to the default location. Another issue is that the German and Czech menu names do not show up on the menus when the default folder is not used.
    • Supports the new AddMethod constants for the UseToolEx function in the Advanced Custom Study Interface. Added support for LineStyle and LineWidth for all tool types.
    • Corrected a problem that arose with the release of the new .scid file format that may cause extra bars to appear when using tick or volume charts, and the Intraday Data Storage Unit was not 1 tick. It is important that you upgrade if you have experienced this issue. However, it is recommended that you set your Intraday Data Storage Unit to 1 tick for tick, volume, and range bar charts.

  • 217

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    • A new member namedAddMethod was added to the s_UseTool struct to replace the AddIfExists member. This new member supports several new methods of adding or updating a chart drawing when using tools from an Advanced Custom Study. See the Using Tools From an Advanced Custom Study documentation for details.
    • Fixed an issue with the Intraday editor that caused times to be saved incorrectly in the file when the time offset was non-zero.

  • 216

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    • Corrected a problem from version 214 and 215, that would cause chart windows to continuously redraw at the update interval. In most cases this would not be noticeable or cause any problems. It would cause higher CPU usage though.
    • Corrected a problem from a recent release where historical charts using data from the SC Historical Data Service would not automatically update when you are connected to the data feed. It is very important if you are using the SC Historical Data Service or you notice this problem, to upgrade to this version or higher. This problem has nothing to do with the recent IB Historical data problem. If for any reason you wish to update your historical daily data files and charts, you can select File >> Download Historical Data on the menu. This command is used to download historical daily chart data. It is not for Intraday data.

  • 215

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    • Improved chart updating efficiency.
    • Fixed a bug with Chart Trading that did not display fraction correctly.
    • Chart Trading now works correctly with TD (True Data) symbols with IB.
    • You can now type in the Price Increment in the TPO/Volume Profile chart using the short format.
    • Completed development of the Gann Grid Tool.
    • Corrected a bug relating to the UseToolEx function in the Advanced Custom Study Interface.

  • 214

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    • Fixed some bugs with the UseTool Function that arose from recent versions.
    • Trading has been significantly updated with new dialog boxes and various options. Always keep confirmations on, and use the trading interface on a simulation or demo account until you are comfortable with it. This is still a relatively new feature.
    • The new IB TWS versions have changed the time-stamping of historical daily data. This causes historical daily downloads to fail and results in an incorrectly timestamped bar in the chart. We have put a patch in version 214 which solves this issue. If you have any problems with Historical daily downloads, then use this version. This will not solve pacing violations. Although in this release we have limited the daily downloads to 6 months to minimize the pacing violations. If you want reliable historical daily data, then you can use the SC Historical Daily Data service if it includes the markets you follow.

  • 212

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    • Fixed a problem with the TPO study where some letters were not being displayed.
    • Chart Trading has been improved so that you can now add new orders using the Chart DOM. Additionally, you can modify the quantity of an existing order by left clicking on the order in the Chart DOM, and you can also cancel the order by right clicking on the order in the Chart DOM.
    • Improved the Angle Ellipse Highlight tool, Cycle tool, and the Pitchfork tool. The Cycle tool now also shows in the status bar the distance between the 2 points when drawing the cycle.
    • Added an option to remove gridlines from Time and Sales.

  • 211

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    • Added an option to display the base main price graph of a chart on top of all other studies on that chart. This setting can be found in Chart >> Chart Settings >> Display main chart graph on top of studies.
    • Drawing tools now continue to work when you start a drawing in one region and move the mouse into another region.
    • Sierra Chart now only downloads 1-minute or 30-second bars from IB backfill when the Intraday data storage time unit is set to 1 minute or 30 seconds respectively. Otherwise backfill behavior is the same.
    • Fixed a bug with Open E Cry data collection where the bid volume and ask volume were not set correctly if the symbol was not subscribed to depth data.
    • Added controls for all services to set the maximum number of days of historical Intraday data to download.
    • The Chart DOM now supports trading. In Trade Mode, clicking in the Bid Boxes signifies a buy, while clicking in the Ask Boxes signifies a sell. Left click is for a Limit Order, and right click is for a Stop Order.
    • The Gann Grid tool is temporarily disabled for this pre-release until it is completed.
    • Fixed a bug that changed the fill space when the chart was minimized
    • Added an option in the Data Settings on the Data/Trade Service Settings window called Simulate trades to match daily volume. This is a special algorithm to simulate trades if fewer trades are received than actually occurred. The purpose of this is to provide accurate volume counting, even if the service does not send all trades. If you notice any volume abnormalities, let us know. The option can be disabled.
    • Added a Zig-Zag drawing tool.

  • 209

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    • The Chart Trading feature has been significantly improved. This is still a work in progress but many basic features now exist. To activate Chart Trading, go to Trade >> Chart Trade Mode On. Active orders are shown on the chart and you can manipulate the orders by right clicking them or dragging them around. Currently Sierra Chart only supports Ameritrade and IB for trading. Transact trading support will be available in the coming weeks. For safety, please keep confirmation options on. They are on by default.
    • When historical data is downloaded for TransAct, and the primary server is unavailable, a backup server will be used automatically.
    • A few issues corrected from the prior pre-release.
    • Although this is a pre-release, it solves many minor issues relating to the large amount of development that has been done in recent months, and all users are encouraged to use this version. If you need to downgrade, you can very easily. Instructions are on the Software Download page.
    • Corrected a problem from a recent release which prevented the renaming of a data file while the chart is open for it. This allows for easier futures contract rollover if you wish to include data from the prior contract month.

  • 208

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    • Replaced the Time Offset setting with a Time Zone setting. The old Time Offset setting is still used when using either IB or MyTrack. See this page for documentation: Time Zone Settings.
    • Fixed an issue with the Intraday Editor related to not displaying correctly offset times. More information about this can be found here.
    • The last used mode for interactive scaling is stored between sessions.
    • Tool alerts is now an advanced feature.
    • Fixed the Go To Chart feature on the Alerts Log.
    • Added an option on the OEC service to choose to download from either the OEC server, or from the Sierra Chart server. The Sierra Chart server provides longer term detailed data on selected contracts. This historical data is still under development.
    • Added more color settings for the Time and Sales window.
    • Corrected a few minor issues with the new Tool Settings and Chart Settings windows.
    • Various minor issues were corrected relating to the new tool development. The most significant changes are to chart drawing alerts feature. The other changes are low level and for the most part unnoticeable.
    • Added a cycle tool. We are continuing to do more work on tools and the goal is to provide complete tool functionality. Let us know if there is anything else you want to see.
    • Sierra Chart now supports customizing menu text through ini files. This allows support for multiple languages. The current language files can be found in the language sub-folder. The active language file is named SCLanguage.ini and is simply a copy of the selected language file. If you want to create a language file for your language you are welcome to do so.
    • Fixed the SideWinder study array out of bounds error.

  • 206

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    • Removed the s_ChartDrawing struct from the Advanced Custom Study Interface and Language. This affected the GetChartDrawing function. The GetChartDrawing function now uses the s_UseTool struct. If you are compiling old code that uses GetChartDrawing with s_ChartDrawing, you will need to update your code.
    • Supports downloading historical tick data when using the TransAct service. For this to work, the Intraday Data Storage Unit needs to be set to 1 tick.

  • 205

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    • Corrected a few issues with chart drawing alerts.
    • Some Chart Trading Features have been developed. These have not been well tested and should not be used for actual trading until you have tested them on a simulation account and are comfortable with them. By default chart trading is disabled. It can only be enabled by selecting Trade >> Trade Mode On. Confirmation messages are also shown.

  • 204

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    • Fixed a problem with a recent pre-release that caused chart drawings to not show up and show an "Array is unallocated" error in the log when chart drawings were in a region other than the main price graph.
    • Fixed an issue from a recent pre-release where the log would show a failure to load DLLs when the charts did not contain DLL studies.
    • Changed the formatting of dates from mm/dd/yyyy to yyyy-mm-dd.

  • 201

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    • Corrected a problem with the Daily OHLC Study that would not display the correct OHLC day when referencing a weekend date (For example, referencing the prior day on a Monday would not reference the prior Friday).
    • The Daily OHLC Study has been modified so that it now calculates the values based on the trading session (instead of the day as before). This means if you set your Intraday Start and End Times in Chart Settings from 16:00 - 8:00, Daily OHLC will be calculated based on those times.
    • Various issues were corrected and many performance improvements have been made.
    • Any of the three points of a Pitchfork drawing can be adjusted.
    • Added a Flow Ellipse Highlight tool.
    • Alerts can be set on Horizontal Lines, Trend Lines, Extending trendlines. To set an Alert, right-click on a line and select Alerts.
    • Various improvements to Tools. Major development has been done on Tools in recent versions. This development is almost complete. If you see any issues, then please let us know.
    • Made many improvements to the Time and Sales window. To display this window select Chart >> Display Time and Sales.
    • Reduced CPU usage for the DTN IQ Feed and MyTrack data feeds.
    • Some Chart Trading Features have been developed. These have not been well tested and should not be used for actual trading. By default chart trading is disabled. It can only be enabled by selecting Trade >> Trade Mode On. You agree to all terms of license agreement with the software when using the Trading Features.
    • This version is compatible with OEC version 3.1.1.0.

  • 200

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    • Corrected a problem from version 199 that would cause abnormal shutdown sometimes on login. This issue could also cause other unusual problems.
    • Fixed a few issues from 199.
    • The Pivot Point Study has been modified so that it now calculates the values based on the prior trading session (instead of the prior day as before). This means if you set your Intraday Start and End Times in Chart Settings from 16:00 - 8:00, pivot points will be calculated based on those times.

  • 199

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    • Bid Volume and Ask Volume data is now included when downloading historical intraday data as tick data from DTN IQ Feed.
    • Added option to download historical intraday data as minute data or tick data in the Data/Trade Service Settings for OEC (option later removed).
    • Disabled filtering on spreads for OEC.
    • Updated the Advanced Custom Study Interface functions AllocateColorArray, ResizeArrays, and AddElements to not require the sg parameter.

  • 198

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    • Added support for downloading historical daily, intraday, and tick data from Open E Cry. Soon, we will be maintaining our own database of long term Intraday Data for the most popular contracts. You will have the option to use this database. It is very useful because Open E Cry only has 5 days of history.
    • Added support to send an E-Mail when an alert is triggered. This is configured inside of Global Settings >> General Settings >> Alert Sound Settings.
    • Added a separate alert condition log window. This can be opened by selecting Window >> Show/Hide Alert Log.
    • The pitchfork drawing object is now a single object. This means it can be easily adjusted as a single object.

  • 196

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    • Fixed a bug processing options computation data that would cause lost connections to the IB data feed.
    • Supports Open E Cry.

  • 195

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    • Real-time bars (True Data) with IB is now timestamped correctly to the local time. For more information on using True Data, see the True Data section on the IB Symbols page.
    • Fixed a problem with some studies causing an array is unallocated error.
    • Fixed the "E2028: __wcpp_4_fs_handler_ is an undefined reference" linker error with Watcom when using SCString or s_UseTool in the Advanced Custom Study Interface and Language.
    • Simple trading with IB is now supported for users on levels that support Special Features.

  • 194

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    • Added Bid Volume and Ask Volume to exporting and importing intraday data.
    • Corrected a problem with importing intraday text data that arose with the new file format.

  • 193

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    • Improved HTTP code to handle the TD Ameritrade data stream more reliably.

  • 192

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    • Various performance enhancements and a few minor issues were resolved.
    • Fibonacci Auto Retracement study has been added.
    • The Fan tool has been improved. It now works as a Fibonacci Fan, Percentage Fan, Speed Resistance Lines or Gann Fan Tool.

  • 191

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    • Corrected several issues from 190.
    • Added PlaySound() function to the Advanced Custom Study Interface to support up to 50 Alert Sounds.

  • 190

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    • Corrected several issues from 188 and 189.
    • Added support for 50 Alert Sounds.
    • Corrected a problem when using the TD Ameritrade service, where there will be an abnormal shutdown when connecting to the data feed and you had outstanding trade positions. The Trade interface in this version fully supports TD Ameritrade, including balance and positions display. If you have any problems please let us know.
    • Added support for real-time bars (True Data) with IB. For more information on using True Data, see the True Data section on the IB Symbols page.

  • 189

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    • Corrected a problem with the Chart Values tool that would cause a corrupt graphics display after some time. This problem arose in recent pre-release.
    • Tool Drawings can now be drawn after the last bar in the chart. This allows you to do forward projections.
    • Sierra Chart now supports, data file records down to one tick. To adjust this setting, Select Global Settings >> Data/Trade Service Settings. Set the Intraday data Storage Unit to whatever unit you require. Using a setting of one tick will use a lot of disk space. Newly created intraday data files will have the extension SCID. The SCID type file format is an enhanced format supporting the BID Volume and ASK Volume. You can convert the files to this type by selecting File >> Convert .mnd to .scid. This is a major update to the software and it is recommended to install this version to a separate folder than the folder where you have the current Sierra Chart installation.
    • Backup Chartbook files contain the version number. This lets you use your old chartbooks from the prior version, in case, if you need to go back to an earlier version.
    • This version now supports intraday charts on levels 1, 6, and 7.

  • 188

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    • Made some improvements to the Fibonacci and 3 Point Retracement/Extension tools.
    • Corrected a problem with the Chart Values Tool arising from a recent release.
    • Corrected a few issues with the TPO study

*Last modified Thursday, 25th April, 2024.