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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.

• 66

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  • A Toolbar has now been added to Sierra Chart with the most common commands.
  • The error filter has been greatly improved over version 64. For more information see the Error Filter Settings documentation page.
  • Support for extended IB Backfill for multiple days has been added. In order to use this IB Backfill, you must be running the newest versions of TWS. There are no known problems with this feature. However, the IB system that provides this data is still in beta. If you have any problems with IB backfill, see help topic #3.1. This section explains possible problems and how to disable the feature. IB Backfill times out after 60 seconds, this is the same as disabling it.
  • IB Currency symbols are charted whether the "Include Bid/Ask Data in Intraday Charts" option is on or not. Additionally, you should be able to get IB Historical Intraday Data for currencies.
  • The active Study Collection on the chart is now check marked in the Analysis menu.

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  • Supports our new login system. Support for all versions prior to 64 will be discontinued after September 31, 2005. You will not be able to log into prior versions after this date.

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  • The problem of intraday charts not updating in some cases relating to historical intraday data downloading from myTrack has been corrected.
  • If you are using an invalid symbol with the IB data feed, all other intraday charts will continue to update.
  • If you have any trouble with the new IB historical intraday data feature, see help topic #3.1.

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  • Sierra Chart will now download all available IB historical intraday data to fill in the areas of your charts for times that you were not connected. This version requires that your IB TWS is up to date.

• 61

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  • The data service interface and data processing architecture has been improved and simplified in order to make integration to existing and new data services easier. Expect support for new services to be added.
  • When the Spreadsheet Study is added to a chart, the associated Spreadsheet window will be opened in the background. The chart will continue to be visible and active.
  • An option has been added to the Data Source Settings window to disable composite trade and quote data from the myTrack service. This may be useful if you are tracking a large number of symbols and you want to reduce bandwidth. When the option is on, all trade and quote data from all exchanges a symbol is traded on is received by the software. Otherwise only data from the primary exchange is received.
  • Data arrays passed to custom DLL studies now have safety zones to protect against programming errors in custom studies. Custom study programming errors in the past could cause Sierra Chart to be unstable or to abnormally shut down. It is very unlikely that custom DLL studies will cause these problems with this and future versions. If a custom DLL study has an error, it will now be reported when you remove the study from a chart. Upgrading to this version is safe if you are using custom DLL studies.

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  • A Replay Chart feature has been added.
  • Pivot Point half level studies have been added. Pivot Point studies now show pivots for all days. A Formula Type input has been added to select among 3 different available pivot point formulas. A # Days to Calculate input has been added to set the number of days to display pivot points for.
  • When using a quote request symbols on a Spreadsheet, all data is outputted unformatted. To control formatting highlight the cells and select Spreadsheet >> Number Format on the menu.
  • Three new tools have been added. A Move line tool, a Change Color tool, and a tool that can "snap" a trendline to highs or lows. The Adjust line tool has been improved to allow you to adjust from the beginning of a trendline. For more information on using these new tools see the Chart Drawing Tools page.
  • When using a command to adjust or erase lines, the number of the line is printed along the entire line for easy identification.
  • If you are using the myTrack service, 45 days of intraday data is initially downloaded.

• 58.1 Release Date: 2004-12-31

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  • Corrected a problem where studies and trendlines would not appear when using Windows 98 or ME.
  • Corrected a problem where if an invalid password is used to login to the software it would shut down and not allow the correct password to be entered.

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  • Intraday charts based on volume have been added. This is similar to tick charts except that bars are based on volume instead of ticks. To make an intraday chart based on volume select Chart >> Chart Settings on the menu. In the Volume Per Bar box enter the number of shares/contracts that each bar in the chart should have a minimum of. The Number Of Ticks box needs to be left blank.

  • The Chart Values window has been made into three separate color coded enhanced windows. To display these windows select Tools on the menu.
  • Keyboard commands to switch to volume and second charts have been added. For instructions see Changing the Period of the Chart Bars.

  • Version 57:
  • Greater control over candlestick bar coloring. Select Chart >> Graphics Settings on the menu to adjust colors.
  • Upgraded IB data processing. IB now sends trade volumes along with trade prices. Sierra Chart now processes this data as one unit.
  • Formulas should now fill down in non-English versions of Excel.
  • Long symbols can now be used on Quote Spreadsheets. For example IB IdealPro symbols can be used.
  • Options to enable or disable the display of the Fibonacci tool values, percentage, and diagonal line. Select Chart >> General Settings on the menu to set these.
  • This version no longer flushes file buffers every 2 seconds because of concern that this could slow data processing on slower computers. It is unnecessary to flush buffers. Versions 47 to 55 never flushed the buffers. It was added to solve intraday chart updating problems that some users had as a result of problems with their file system. If version 57 causes intraday chart updating problems for you, then you have a problem with your file system. There DEFINITELY is nothing wrong with Sierra Chart file processing. For a solution to this problem, see help topic 3.5. If you continue to have trouble, you will need to examine your computer.

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  • When erasing lines, the line number is shown in the middle of the line also and at the end of the Fibonacci retracement lines. This makes identifying lines easier.
  • The Studies window has been improved. Move Up and Move Down buttons have been added to control the calculation order of Studies.
  • The status bar has been improved. The adjust spacing buttons have been removed. To adjust spacing use the Up and Down arrow keys on your keyboard.
  • The font for text typed on the chart can be independently controlled. Select Chart >> Graphics Settings on the menu to set the font.

• 55

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  • Sierra Chart starts intraday trade and quote data updates from regional exchanges a symbol is traded on. This is in addition to the data already received from the primary exchange. This feature applies to the myTrack service. This increases the amount of real time trade information the program receives. This makes a significant difference with ETF's (example QQQQ).
  • A text input box has been added to the Study Settings window. This text is passed to custom DLL studies to allow text input for the DLL function.
  • Problems with the Donchian channel study and the new studies added to the version 54 have been corrected.
  • Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) study has been added.

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  • New studies added:
  • Positive Volume Index
  • Negative Volume Index
  • Standard Error Bands
  • Money Flow Index
  • TRIX
  • Moving linear Regression line
  • Moving Average-Volume Weighted
  • The following studies have additional inputs added and/or conform to the formulas given in Technical Analysis from A to Z:
  • Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD)
  • Chaikin Oscillator
  • Relative Strength Index (RSI-W)
  • Directional Movement Index
  • Historical Volatility Ratio
  • Bollinger Bands

• 53

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  • The problem with text not appearing on the chart with the chart calculator, Fibonacci, and other tools has been corrected.
  • Improvements with the Spreadsheet study. The Study Moving Average now appears on Spreadsheets.
  • The True High and True Low items in the Input Data input for studies have been changed to the average of high, low, and close and the average of high and low.

• 52.1 Release Date: 2004-08-19

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  • A new Overlay Study with a OHLC bar style has been added. Studies including DLL studies that use the OHLC bar style are now colored to the color settings with the study. This allows you to independently control colors. This also allows DLL studies to color main price graph bars to signal certain conditions.
  • The chart update interval can be set from 200 milliseconds to 60,000 milliseconds. If you are upgrading, then it will default to 1200 milliseconds. To adjust it select Chart >> General Settings on the menu. If you find your CPU usage is high, then use a larger update interval. Using a very short interval (less than 900 milliseconds) is going to require a very fast CPU.

• 52 Release Date: 2004-08-09

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  • Smooth scrolling charts and flicker free graphics. This is a major improvement in the graphics display. The entire screen is redrawn every chart update. This new feature allows DLL studies to change the color of study subgraphs on the fly to signal when certain conditions are met. Additionally, a DLL study can use very wide lines under the study graph display to color a region. That color can be changed on the fly when certain conditions are met.
  • When charts are printed, lines are drawn with increased thickness based on the ratio of your printer resolution to the screen resolution.
  • The Most Recently Used list at the bottom of the File menu has been increased to eight items.

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  • Corrected a problem with date and time display on Spreadsheets when using the Spreadsheet Study.
  • All three Momentum studies follow the formula in Technical Analysis from A to Z.
  • There is now Rate of Change - Percentage study and Rate of Change - Points study. If you use Rate of Change - Points then this is the same as the old Momentum formula.

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  • The software can automatically open a chartbook. To open a chartbook automatically when you start Sierra Chart, save the chartbook you want to automatically open with the name "default". Do not use the quote marks.
  • Out of order volume data from the IB data feed no longer causes volume spikes.
  • The Copy to chart.bmp function on the Edit menu is now functional.
  • The software now gives you an alert if it detects a bug in a custom DLL study, and will not shut down.

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  • The program now passes a random number to IB for the client ID. This allows you to connect multiple running copies of Sierra Chart to IB at the same time.
  • The program counts real-time volume messages from IB as trades. This provides accurate tick counting.
  • A minimum of 2 days of historical chart data for a symbol is downloaded from myTrack even if the data is already in the file. This will give you up to date open interest data for futures since the data is reported late.
  • When the price display format is set to 1/32 and the symbol trades in half 1/32nds, the halves are now displayed.

• 48

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  • IB ticker ID numbers will not conflict with ticker ID's used by other programs connected to the TWS at the same time Sierra Chart is connected. This will allow multiple programs to be connected to the IB TWS at the same time.
  • The tick count in intraday charts is now displayed immediately after the bar closing price on the top line of the window.
  • The Adaptive Moving Average now follows the formula provided in "Stocks and Commodities V13:6"
  • The chart type and bar period or number of ticks are now passed to DLL functions. Refer to the sierrachart.h file for the variables.

• 47

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  • A new tick bar will be started when the date changes in an intraday chart even though the specified number of ticks has not been reached. This allows price gaps to be visible.
  • The "Request ID Number Not Found" message will only be shown once.

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  • Intraday data can now be stored in units as small as 2 seconds. This allows you to create tick charts, charts with bar periods less than one minute and precise intraday point and figure charts.
  • The Chart Values window scroll position is saved for each chart. When you activate a chart, the scroll position will be restored to the very same position it was when the chart was last used.

• 45.1 Release Date: 2004-05-04

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  • Corrected a problem with downloading historical chart data from myTrack.
  • You will not receive CreateToolhelp32 errors when running the software on Windows NT 4.

• 45

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  • New studies added: Chaikin Oscillator, RSI (for small values), and Historical Volatility Ratio.
  • Corrected a problem with the LSE filter to allow only automatic trades in intraday charts.
  • Improved reporting of invalid symbols in message log.
  • Added commands to the tools menu for switching between charts and chartbooks.
  • Intraday data files will automatically be compressed if your hard drive volume is NTFS formatted. NTFS is supported by Windows XP and NT. This will save disk space.

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  • The chart symbol and daily volume can now be accessed in a DLL function.
  • A function to make a trendline parallel to another. This command is available on the Tools menu.
  • Fibonacci retracement levels are stored with each drawn Fibonacci lines. Therefore adjustments to Fibonacci levels in the General Settings window will not affect already drawn Fibonacci lines.
  • The ability to erase ranges of trendlines has been added to the "Erase lines" Tool. For example to erase lines 7 to 12, you would type 7-12.
  • Extending trendlines are drawn with virtually perfect accuracy. This should correct the problem where an extending trendline spanning a long-distance would appear to move as a chart scrolls.
    
    The "Study Draw Width" can now be set to any value.

• 43

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  • A function to adjust existing lines drawn on a chart. This function can be selected from the "Tools" menu.
  • If the option to include only LSE Type A trades is enabled then filtering messages are not displayed in the message log.
  • Corrected a problem which prevented the IB Tick and Trin symbols from working.
  • The setup program no longer stops responding after choosing the installation language if there is an application running on your system that has a window which is in a frozen or hung state.

• 42

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  • Tick and Trin symbols can now be used with IB.
  • Daily data files with .prn extensions are now included in chart scans.
  • The data server port number can now be specified in the Data Source Settings window.
  • Bid and ask data from the IB data service can optionally be included as trades in intraday charts. An option has been added that allows only automatic trades from the LSE to be included in intraday charts. These two options can be enabled by selecting File -> Data Source Settings on the Sierra Chart menu.
  • Corrected a problem where the IB TWS window would repeatedly be brought to the top of the screen while Sierra Chart was waiting to connect to the data feed and shortly after it did connect to the data feed.
  • Corrected a problem where there would be a longer than usual delay when Sierra Chart is trying to reconnect to the IB data feed if it was unable to.

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  • The problem with version 40 chart graphics going blank under certain conditions has been corrected.

• 40

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  • A new averaging method has been added to the RSI study, this method follows the standard RSI formula.
  • Chart graphics updating has been improved to eliminate any possibility of flicker and when dragging application windows over the chart window, there is no longer gray areas left on the chart.
  • Text labeling has been made more compressed on the chart window, this allows for more data to be seen.
  • Pivot Point formulas are now included within the description for the study.
  • Corrected a problem where the Open File window would not display if the active cell in a Spreadsheet contains a "/".

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  • Corrected a problem where the New/Open Chart menu commands and other file open commands did not work on operating system versions earlier to 2000/XP.
  • Corrected a problem where Spreadsheet Study formula column names do not display correctly in the charts.
  • Data from IB that has six decimal places is now fully displayed in Sierra Chart.

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  • The message " Some files not updated during installation." no longer occurs the first time you connect to the data feed. It was never necessary to have rebooted the computer or reinstalled the program to correct this. It was only necessary to restart the program. This problem has been corrected.
  • Improved the feature that automatically logs you in to the standalone IB TWS software when the TWS New Login window is displayed, so that it works reliably every time. To enable the IB TWS automatic Login feature, select File-Data Source Settings on the menu and enable the Retry If Fail to Connect option.
  • Support for IB TWS API version 8 and higher. Support for version 8 and higher means the program uses the high, low and net change information from the data service and allows you to use any type of symbol.
  • The Login button is automatically pressed when the Sierra Chart Login window displays.

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  • Corrected a problem where a runtime error would sometimes occur when logging into the software when using a firewall. Firewalls should no longer cause a problem.