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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.

  • 1761 Release Date: 2018-06-09

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    • Resolved a problem with the display of Spreadsheets which arose in a recent version which occurred under certain conditions.
    • Resolved an issue from a recent release with displaying TPO profiles in their own column which would cause an exception. Also other TPO profile related issues from the recent pre-releases, after the performance improvements, have been resolved.
    • Some users have experienced an issue where there are unusual window display problems within the program, when using the new Control Bar. We are aware of this. We are only aware of two cases of this and this will be resolved.

  • 1757 Release Date: 2018-06-04

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    • TPO and Volume Profile performance improvements.
    • Added new ACSIL functions for accessing volume at price data from TPO and Volume Profiles in the chart from other studies.
    • Improved the Trade Statistics for Charts tab on the Trade Activity Log. All charts that are maintaining a Trade list are now listed.

  • 1754 Release Date: 2018-05-31

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    • Added new Time in Force setting to submit order at a set time.
    • Added a new Input to the Volume at Price Threshold Alert Study V2 that will highlight any group of adjacent alerts that is the same size or larger than the setting.
    • Numbers Bars study new Font Size input and new minimum and maximum font size Inputs. These inputs need to be checked to make sure they are set as you require.
    • When using scaling in, and the order which has been determined to be the order to have its quantity increased when the scaling in order fills, is no longer working, it will be reactivated.
    • Corrected a problem where in some cases changing the Tick Size through Chart Settings would not have gone into effect.

  • 1749 Release Date: 2018-05-22

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    • Implemented new Control Bar which does not use operating system buttons but instead efficiently drawn buttons which reduce system resources.
    • Added new study Average True Range - Normalized.

  • 1748 Release Date: 2018-05-12

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    • Up to 20 Graphics Settings configurations can be saved and loaded to allow changing between color schemes very quickly.
    • Corrected a problem from a recent release where when duplicating a chart which uses its own individual Graphics Settings, the settings were not copied to the new chart.
    • The General Trade Settings option HoldLimitAttachedOrdersOnClientSideUntilTouched has been removed as it is no longer necessary now that there is the Limit if Touched - Client order which effectively does the same thing. This is what is recommended to be used as the alternative. If there is any functionality which you cannot accomplish now that this option has been removed, let us know and we will see how best to implement this.
    • Corrected a problem with chart replay when jumping forward By Number of Trades or To Next Bar, where the replay would continue until the end immediately. This is resolved.
    • Added Subgraph for Count of Alerts to the Volume at Price Threshold Alert v2 study that contains the count of the alerts per bar.
    • Basic support for Cycle Chart Drawing tool from ACSIL.
    • Added new option to Chart >> Chart Settings: Do Not Change Symbol Settings for Chart on Symbol Change.
    • Working on implementation of Forward Curve study (not yet completed).
    • Corrected an issue from a recent release where when Historical Daily data needs to be downloaded from a source other than the Sierra Chart Historical Data Service, that was not happening and instead the data was being downloaded from the Sierra Chart Historical Data service. For example, this would be a problem with Interactive Brokers and IQ Feed.
    • Added Cumulative Delta Up/Down Tick Volume Subgraph to Numbers Bars Calculated Values.
    • Added new Time in Force setting for trading to send an order at a specified time. This is on the Trade Window and is named Send Order at Time.
    • Solved an issue with Trade >> AutoTrade System Bar Based Back Test with Scan where the very first symbol being scanned, would have the back test run for a second time when returning back to that symbol after the scan is completed. Also when the back test completes within a single chart update cycle for a symbol, the back testing for additional symbols would not continue. This problem is resolved.

  • 1742 Release Date: 2018-05-08

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    • Corrected an issue relating to price multipliers with the DTC server which arose recently. This was causing a problem when using services like CTS for trading from a sub instance of Sierra Chart. The order prices were being multiplied to higher values. This is now solved.
    • When combining records on the Time and Sales window, an alert will only sound the first time it is triggered for a particular record.
    • Corrected a problem with Time and Sales alert messages which could cause an exception.
    • Corrected an issue where the Always on Top state for a detached chart window would be disabled when using Global Settings >> General Settings >> Bring Detached Windows To Top On Main Window Focus.
    • Time in Force for Simulated Orders is now implemented. For example, day orders will cancel at the end of the trading day.

  • 1738 Release Date: 2018-04-28

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    • Corrected an Attached Order quantity problem when the attached orders cannot have all the same quantities as the parent order quantity. Due to the recent change to support fractional quantities, the attached orders were getting set as fractional when the parent order quantity is changed and they cannot all have the same quantity. This is now corrected.
    • Corrected problem with menu translations which arose in the last few versions.
    • Corrected some issues and made improvements to the feature to submit spread orders through A tab of the Trade Window.
    • Ranges of Base Graph and Subgraph identifiers are now supported in Simple Alert Formulas. For the documentation, refer to Referencing a Range of Data.

  • 1735 Release Date: 2018-04-21

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    • Feature to submit spread orders independent of exchange traded spreads. This supports up to four different symbols. This feature is accessible through A tab of the Trade Window. Press the Enter Spread Order button to add the Spread Order Entry study and open the Input settings for configuration. Documentation will follow shortly. This only works in Trade Simulation Mode at this time until it is fully tested.
    • Symbol Settings to limit the quantity of a Trade Position and maximum Trade Order Quantity. These apply to all orders for the symbol. These settings are in Global Settings >> Symbol Settings >> Additional 2. They are named: Trade Position Limit, Order Quantity Limit. These settings are disabled if they are set to 0. Otherwise, the specified value is the limit.
    • Updated Alert formulas and the Spreadsheet Formula Study to allow a range of data values to be entered. For example AVERAGE(ID0.SG1[0:-10]) gives the average of the last 10 bars of the Open of the Main Price Graph.

  • 1734 Release Date: 2018-04-21

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    • TPO Profile Chart sub periods can now be based on seconds in addition to minutes. There is a new Input setting to control this.
    • In Simple Alert Formulas when using the subgraphs SG22 and SG23 which refer to the Renko Open and Renko Close values, when the chart bars are not Renko, these will refer to the true Open and Close values respectively and not cause a formula error.
    • Improvements to the feature to Flatten and Cancel orders at a set time on the Trade Window. Previously a confirmation would be shown at the time the Position is flattened, and this is no longer the case. The confirmation should not have been displayed. Anytime the time value is changed, it will reset the trigger date. Previously Flatten and Cancel action would only be allowed to occur once a day. There are now options to just cancel orders only and also to disable auto trading for the chart.
    • Various other development.

  • 1731 Release Date: 2018-04-12

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    • When reordering the charts through the main window MDI chart tabs or through the Windows and Chartbooks dialog, this order was not being saved to Chartbooks and was not being used on the Study Summary window. This issue has now been corrected.
    • The Time and Sales window color settings are now in the Graphics Settings window. This allows for a global color configuration.
    • Added new main window background color setting to Graphics Settings. This is the background color for the main MDI window in Sierra Chart.

  • 1728 Release Date: 2018-04-03

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    • Added a new option to File >> Send File to User to send the main global configuration file to another user. When it is received, the users global configuration file will be replaced with what has been sent. This is useful in order to transfer your global configuration to another user to help them get started with Sierra Chart in the case where they want to share the same configuration that you have. Private account information is not transferred.
    • Implemented a new tab on the Trade Window for the chart and Trading DOM labeled A (Additional). This has settings to flatten the current Trade Position and cancel working orders for the Symbol and Trade Account of the chart at a set time. This time is always according to the time zone of the chart. In an upcoming release this tab will also implement the ability to enter spread orders for nonexchange traded spreads.

  • 1727 Release Date: 2018-03-30

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    • Implemented a solution when connecting to Interactive Brokers Trader Workstation when it prompts to allow the incoming connection, where the connection was getting immediately closed by Trader Workstation on the second prompt. This is now solved.
    • For the Chart and Trade market data columns on the right side of the chart, the volume/quantity horizontal bars are now enabled and disabled through a common interface. The new common setting is in Trade >> Customize Chart/Trade DOM Columns. The new setting is named Show Volume Bars and can be set individually for each market data column. The old settings have been removed. The documentation will be updated as soon as possible.
    • Added Chart Trade Window Selected Quantity Button Color to the Graphic Settings.

  • 1725 Release Date: 2018-03-24

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    • New background coloring options for the Numbers Bars Calculated Values study.
    • Implemented Global Settings >> Chart DOM Settings >> Recent Bid Ask Volume Timeout in Milliseconds. Documentation will be updated as soon as possible.
    • Implemented some solutions related to some issues users have encountered with the new interface to Interactive Brokers Trader Workstation.
    • Corrected a problem with market depth data during a chart replay, which arose in version 1718.

  • 1721 Release Date: 2018-03-16

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    • Resolved some issues related to the market depth work done in 1718 and subsequent versions.
    • Updated the interface to Interactive Brokers Trader Workstation to use the latest TWS protocol version. It is necessary to be running the latest Trader Workstation to be able to connect from Sierra Chart to Trader Workstation.

  • 1718 Release Date: 2018-03-16

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    • Added new MACD Bollinger Bands studies to Analysis >> Studies.
    • Now using a different function to start the Sierra Chart installer for a software update. This solves a problem where sometimes installer would not start after the Windows prompt to allow the installer to run.
    • Added support for more than 50 market depth levels. Improved the internal storage and handling of market depth data. The number of orders, if available is maintained for each market depth level and is now displayed in the Market Depth Window. ACSIL functions can no longer use the old market depth arrays in the s_SCBasicSymbolData structure and must instead use the sc.GetBidMarketDepthNumberOfLevels, sc.GetAskMarketDepthNumberOfLevels, sc.GetMaximumMarketDepthLevels, sc.GetBidMarketDepthEntryAtLevel, sc. GetAskMarketDepthEntryAtLevel functions.

  • 1717 Release Date: 2018-03-13

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    • Corrected an issue from a recent release where when getting a list of futures spread symbols through File >> Find Symbol, there would be an abnormal shutdown or subsequent instability after about 5 to 10 minutes.
    • Corrected an issue from the prior release with the BitMEX Trading Direct service where the Stop Order Price Reference setting was not being applied.
    • New ACSIL function members added.

  • 1715 Release Date: 2018-03-09

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    • New BitMEX specific order related settings in Global Settings >> Data/Trade Service Settings.
    • Added new TPO profile chart merge commands to select a beginning and ending profile to merge multiple profiles together.
    • Corrected a problem from a recent release where simulated orders submitted through the DTC protocol server were not getting filled. This problem only affected simulated orders.
    • Added user contributed studies 64-bit DLL.

  • 1712 Release Date: 2018-03-06

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    • With the Global Profit/Loss Management feature, trade locking is now per trade account rather than across all accounts.
    • When the bid price changes, the recent bid volume at that price will be zeroed. When the ask price changes the recent ask volume at that price will be zeroed.
    • Corrected a problem with the new order types : Stop with Last Triggering and Stop with Bid/Ask Triggering where there were restrictions preventing the submission of the market order on triggering due to safety checks.
    • Corrected a problem from a recent release where when submitting an order using ACSIL for a different Symbol or Trade Account, the tick size for the order was not being set before the order prices causing in some cases incorrect rounding.

  • 1710 Release Date: 2018-03-03

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    • Added 2 new options in the Volume At Price Threshold Alert V2 that apply when using Ask Volume Bid Volume Ratios. One that allows for Zero value comparisons, and the other for how to deal with the zeros when they are compared.
    • Added new order entry study: Trading: TriggeredMarketOrderForTradeSymbol . The study requires that you set the Trade and Current Quote Symbol in the Chart Settings to the symbol you want to trade.
    • With the Trading System Based on Alert Condition study, the debugging output was incorrectly going to the main Message Log instead of the Trade Service Log as documented. This is now corrected. Also improved the logic with detecting state changes with the formula. The source code for this study is in the file: /ACS_Source/TradingSystemBasedOnAlertCondition.cpp
    • Functions for enabling and disabling the horizontal and vertical chart grid have been added to ACSIL.

  • 1708 Release Date: 2018-02-28

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    • Corrected issue with Bid and Ask Quantity Triggered Stop used as Attached Orders where the market order was not filling. This issue was only in Trade Simulation Mode.
    • Added new ACSIL function to get Trade Positions by index.
    • Added MACD Leader study.
    • 64-bit build available. Resolved some issues with loading 64-bit version of existing studies.
    • Implementation changes for Triggered Limit. A negative offset now specifies a lower limit for buy orders and a higher limit for sell orders. For Triggered Limit Attached Orders, the offsets are always positive and relative to the parent order price.
    • Various other development.

  • 1702 Release Date: 2018-02-16

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    • Corrected a problem with the Relative Volume study when it is based on other studies. The calculation to determine whether there is sufficient number of bars in a trading day was not able to be calculated in this case. Everyday was always determined to have insufficient data. This is now resolved.
    • Changes to the implementation of the Trade Volume Triggered Stop order type. Also added Trade Volume Triggered Stop-Limit.
    • Corrected an issue from a recent release where the Limit price for Trailing Stop-Limit orders was not being set in the case of when these are used as the main parent order.

  • 1697 Release Date: 2018-02-01

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    • New option for Horizontal Ray and OHLC Ray drawing tools for Extend Until Future Intersection. When selected, the lines will only extend forward in time until it intersects a price bar. For the Horizontal Ray, this only works when the ray is extended forward in time. The option is removed when the ray is extended backward in time.
    • New Trading System Based on Alert Condition study added. This simplifies automated trading. It can perform either a Buy Entry, Buy Exit, Sell Entry, or Sell Exit. Any number of these studies can be added to the chart to perform more than one order action on the chart.
    • New Numbers Bars Text Coloring Method named Based On Separate AskVol BidVol Percentage. This performs the calculations in the same way as the Based on AskVol BidVol Percentage setting, but when displaying both Bid and Ask values, both sides will be colored regardless of dominance.
    • Corrected a problem from a recent release where market data columns like Recent Bid Volume and Recent Ask Volume were not being calculated according to the correct Tick Size during a chart replay.
    • Corrected a problem with one of the sub calculations for the Standard Deviation Bands in the Volume Weighted Average Price Rolling study.
    • Enhancements to the Triggered Limit order type.

  • 1694 Release Date: 2018-01-29

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    • New Order Types added: Bid Ask Quantity Triggered Stop (main order and attached order support), Triggered Limit (main order support), Trade Volume Triggered Stop (main order and attached order support). All of these stops work across all supported Trading services and in Trade Simulation Mode. Use these stops in Trade Simulation Mode to evaluate they work properly for you first.

  • 1693 Release Date: 2018-01-23

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    • Add Additional Symbol study improvements.
    • Horizontal Ray Tool now has option to be extended until future intersection with price bars.
    • Specify an ACSIL sent order to be held on the client-side and later sent through the Trade Orders window tab. Variable: s_SCNewOrder::SubmitAsHeldOrder.
    • Ability to start through the Trade menu a bar based back test for all symbols in the Associated Watch List for a chart.
    • New study Subgraph Draw Style: "Line at Last Bar to Left Side".
    • More graceful reconnect handling when using the CQG FIX Trading service. Although this has not yet been tested but we do not expect any issues.
    • In the Analysis >> Studies >> Studies to Graph list, the calculation order index, if known is displayed after each study in the list. This lets you understand the order in which studies are calculated. This can be different than the order in which the studies are listed in the Studies to Graph list.
    • Support for the Oanda Forex/CFD broker provided by an external service. Connectivity to Oanda is provided by an outside service and may not be available at this time.

  • 1684 Release Date: 2018-01-08

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    • Additional work on the Add Additional Symbol study. Various improvements have been made and corrected a problem with this study which would cause Sierra Chart to freeze after a period of time and would require a forced shutdown to recover from this condition. Internally what was happening was a deadlock condition related to mishandling of synchronization locks related to background writing of Intraday file data. If using this study, it is essential to use this version or higher.
    • Fixed an issue with Renko bars related to the filling of gaps at the first trade of the day. New Renko New Bar Modes added.
    • When connected to an external trading service which does not use the DTC protocol, when a bracket order is received from a sub instance, the child orders of the bracket order sent out to the external trading service, if supported, now have the proper quantity instead of 0.
    • Associated Watch List new features: New menu command to set charts in Chartbook to symbols in watch list. When setting charts to the symbols of the watch list, there is now a prompt to automatically open additional charts as needed.
    • Corrected problem where sometimes chart tabs would not move when dragging them.
    • Added support for dragging Chartbook tabs to be able to reorder them.
    • Additional improvements to the Study Summary window feature.

  • 1678 Release Date: 2017-12-29

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    • The data structure used by the new ACSIL function sc.GetBarPeriodParameters() which was released in 1677 has been changed. It is essential to recompile when using this version or higher to avoid a stack corruption, if you are using this function. A corresponding sc.SetBarPeriodParameters() is being added to the next release. Between these two functions, there is now in an easy to use unified way to get the bar period parameters and set the bar period parameters rather than the various other variables like sc.SecondsPerBar.
    • Corrected a problem which arose in the prior release with the Add Additional Symbol study where chart bars for that study during a replay or real-time updating, were incomplete or did not contain any data. The Add Additional Symbol study now supports all of the replay back testing modes. Although at this time Bar Based Back testing is not supported with the Add Additional Symbol study. It will be in the next release.

  • 1677 Release Date: 2017-12-27

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    • Added ACSIL member sc.IsChartbookBeingSaved to indicate when Chartbook is being saved. Study functions are now called when Chartbook is being saved so a study can perform whatever actions it needs to.
    • Added new ACSIL members: ConstantRangeScaleModeTicksFromCenterOrEdge, GetBarPeriodParameters(n_ACSIL::s_BarPeriod& r_BarPeriod).
    • Completed development of the Add Additional Symbol study.
    • Additional enhancements to the Study Summary window.
    • Improved the management of Attached Order offsets for bracket orders that originate through the DTC Protocol Server.
    • Improved Spreadsheet saving and loading performance. This will be similar to as it was before the changes to reduce memory use when saving and loading Spreadsheets.
    • Corrected some issues with exporting of study data when using Edit >> Export Bar and Study Data to Text File or when using the Write Bar and Study Data to File study.

  • 1674 Release Date: 2017-12-22

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    • New Numbers Bars Background Coloring Method and Text Coloring Method named Based On Separate Diagonal AskVol BidVol Percentage. When using this new coloring along with a display that shows both the Bid and Ask sides, the coloring will always be present for both the Bid and Ask sides regardless of which side is dominant. When displaying a single item, the coloring is chosen based on the dominant side. The comparison is done using a Diagonal Percentage of Ask/Bid or Bid/Ask Volume.
    • The move to breakeven price for Stop Attached Orders now adjusts for Scaling In to use a weighted average.
    • Study Summary window now supports all of the available Quote Board fields.
    • Corrected a problem with the loading of chart data which occurred in a recent release that some users were experiencing where the load would not either complete, or it would occur on the primary thread causing Sierra Chart to freeze during the loading process. In most cases there was not a problem but it could occur under some conditions.
    • Nearly completed the development of the new Add Additional Symbol study which loads chart data for an additional symbol into the chart.
    • Various other low-level development.

  • 1670 Release Date: 2017-12-15

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    • When opening and saving spreadsheet files, this is done using a new streaming format where a minimum amount of memory is used.
    • In version 1662, the new underlying file format for spreadsheets was released. Any spreadsheet saved with this version or higher cannot be used by an older Sierra Chart version. However, there are backups of spreadsheets available.
    • With the LMAX trading service, symbols from the SC Exchange Data Feed can now be used. These will be added on request as needed.

  • 1663 Release Date: 2017-12-08

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    • Time and Sales window supports through a new combining option, the combining of CME trades into the original summary trade when using the Sierra Chart Exchange Data Feed.
    • Trading system study to support Buy and Sell entries and exits using a crossover of selected Study Subgraphs: Trading System - Study Subgraph Crossover.
    • Study Summary now supports displaying studies from multiple Chartbooks. This can be enabled through the Settings menu on the Study Summary window.
    • Low-level improvements with the Global Profit/Loss Management feature. For example, the loss management could have potentially triggered more than once per day.

*Last modified Thursday, 25th April, 2024.