Chart Settings

• Chart Settings Window
• Session Times
• Creating Daily Bars with Custom Session Times

Chart Settings Window

To display the Chart Settings window, select Chart >> Chart Settings on the menu.

Click OK to saves changes or Cancel to cancel changes.

Default Settings

When you open a new chart, change the symbol of the chart, or press the Apply Global Symbol Settings button on the Chart Settings window, then the following settings will automatically be set from the defined Global Symbol Settings under Global Settings >> Symbol Settings, if they exist for the symbol or there is a matching symbol pattern: Tick Size, Currency Value Per Tick, Price Display Format, Price Multiplier, and the Intraday Session Times.

Any changes that you make to the global symbol settings under Global Settings >> Symbol Settings do not affect existing open charts. It is only when you change the symbol of the chart, open a new chart, or press the Apply Global Symbol Settings button on the Chart Settings window, do the settings get applied to a chart. Therefore you have the ability to change any of the settings in Chart Settings independent of the global symbol settings.

There are 3 ways the Tick Size, Currency Value Per Tick, Price Display Format, Price Multiplier, and the Intraday Session Times can be set:

1. They can be manually set. In the case of the Tick Size and the Price Display Format, uncheck the Automatically Set Tick Size and Automatically Set Price Display Format options if you manually set these.
2. In the case of the Tick Size and the Price Display Format, you can rely on your connected data or trading service to automatically set them. For this to happen, make certain Automatically Set Tick Size and Automatically Set Price Display Format are checked. However, if you are connected data or trading service that does not provide Tick Size and Price Display Format data for symbols, then these options will have no effect.
3. The preferred method is to use the Global Symbol Settings (Edit >> Symbol Settings) to set these. There are two ways in which this can be done. When you open a new chart, if there are Global Symbol Settings defined for the symbol or there is a symbol pattern which matches the symbol of the chart, then they will be set from the global symbol settings. The other way is to press the Apply Global Symbol Settings button on the Chart Settings window. If there are global symbol settings defined for the symbol or there is a symbol pattern which matches the symbol of the chart, then they will be applied from the global symbol settings. In each of these cases, the Automatically Set Tick Size and Automatically Set Price Display Format will both be disabled.

Apply Global Symbol Settings

This command button will apply the global symbol settings defined for the symbol to the current Chart Settings for the chart. For additional information, see Default Settings.

Edit Global Symbol Settings

This command button will edit the global symbol settings for the symbol of the chart. When you press this button, the Global Symbol Settings window will open and the symbol will be highlighted. If there are no settings for the symbol, the symbol will be added to the global symbol settings and default settings will be assigned. In either case, you can modify them as required. For additional information, see Default Settings.

Date Range in File

Displays the first and last dates in the chart data file. Your Sierra Chart Time Zone setting may adjust these displayed dates by one day. All data in the data file is timestamped to UTC time and your Sierra Chart Time Zone setting adjusts the timestamps to the selected time zone. This Date Range is not adjustable here. In the case of a Historical Daily chart, all data available from the server is downloaded. So generally you cannot download data earlier than the date shown here. In the case of an Intraday chart you may be able to get more data. To do this, see help topic 42. To try to get more data for a Historical Daily chart, see help topic 6.6.

Days to Display/Load

Maximum number of days to load (display) into the chart. The number of days you enter also needs to include weekends and holidays. For example, if you enter 2, then on Monday you will see Sunday and Monday's data. Use 0 to load all data from First Date to Last Date. For faster data loading and calculations use a small number.

Last Date to Display/Load

Sets the Last Date of data to load from the data file into the chart. This only applies to intraday charts. Normally this setting should be left blank so the last available date is always loaded into the chart. This setting works in conjunction with Days to Load. For example if you set this to 2008/7/31 and Days to Load is set to 10, then the date range that will be loaded into the chart will be 2008/7/31 to 2008/7/22. This setting is not saved when you save a chartbook. This setting is useful to look at days in intraday data file that go back a significant amount of time without having to load all the data up to the end of the file.

Price Multiplier

Sets the multiplier for the open, high, low, and last prices. This can be used to adjust historical data to match the price format used by the data feed in case you are using historical chart data from a source other than provided by the data feed service the program is connected to. It only affects data loaded from the data file. It does not affect the current days data in the chart from the data feed. It is also is useful for currencies. Since currency futures like the Yen may be quoted with many places to the right of the decimal and you may want to shift the decimal point more to the right. This setting can also be used with intraday charts. All the data in the intraday chart will be affected by this setting.

Volume and Open Interest Multiplier

Sets the multiplier for the Volume and Open Interest (OI) data for the symbol. It functions the same way as the Price Multiplier described above. Except that it's for volume and open interest.

Price Display Format

Sets the format to use for display of price values. Either fractions or decimal format.

Automatically Set Price Display Format

When this option is checked, the Price Display Format setting will be automatically set when you are connected to the data feed (File >> Connect to Data Feed), if the Price Display Format is available from your connected data or trading service. Not all data and trading services will support this, in which case this setting will not cause it to be automatically set. When you open a new chart and there are Global Symbol Settings defined for the symbol of the chart or there is a symbol pattern which matches the symbol of the chart, then the Price Display Format will be automatically set from the global symbol settings and this option will be disabled. This option will also be disabled when using the Apply Global Symbol Settings button on the Chart Settings window and there are global symbol settings defined for the symbol.

Time Period Per Bar/ Amount of Data Per Bar

The following controls in Chart >> Chart Settings set the time period or the amount of data for each element in the price graph. An element is typically a bar and occupies one column in the chart. A chart column is single column of data in the chart. A column consists of the main price graph bar and any study graph elements in that same column. For instructions to quickly change the bar period see the Keyboard Commands documentation page.

Days - Minutes - Seconds (Time Specific Bar Chart)

This setting is for intraday charts only. Sets the number of days, minutes and seconds per bar/column in the chart. A bar occupies one column in the chart. There are 3 ways bar periods can be entered:

Seconds Charts: If you specify a setting of less than one minute, then the time period of a bar may exceed your setting if it is not a multiple of the time period of the records in the data file or the time period of the data records exceed your setting. For example if your data service provides historical data records in one minute units, then the bars in the chart built from historical data will not have a period less than a minute. To ensure your data records are in the smallest possible unit, select Global Settings >> Data Trade Service Settings. If there is a setting for your service specifying the period of historical Intraday data to download, make sure it is on the smallest time frame. You must also set the Intraday Data Storage Unit to the smallest time frame.

Weekly Charts: If you want to create a weekly chart, then use 7-0-0. This is unlike historical charts, which would use a setting of Weekly or 5 Days.

Number of Ticks/Trades (Tick Chart)

This setting is for intraday charts only. This sets the number of Ticks per bar. A Tick is a trade. Each bar will be based on the specified number of Ticks/trades instead of a time specific period. Select this option and enter the number of Ticks/trades you want per bar. For instructions to ensure you always get the number of ticks per bar that matches your setting, see help topic 47.

Volume Per Bar (Volume Chart)

This setting is only for intraday charts. To create a Volume chart, enable this option and enter the Volume per bar that you want each bar to be based on. Do not use commas or any delimiters in the number. With a setting of 100000, each bar will be equal to or greater than 100000 shares/contracts of trading. For instructions to ensure you always get a volume per bar that matches your setting, see help topic 47.

Range Bar Value (Range Chart)

This setting is only for intraday charts. To create a Range bar chart, enable this option and enter the range you want each bar to be. For example, if you want the range of each bar to be 0.5, then enter 0.5. It is important that the Price Display Format setting, also on the Chart Settings window, is set correctly for the symbol when using this setting. For instructions to ensure you always get a range per bar that matches your setting, see help topic 47. Note: This setting is an actual value and not the number of Ticks per range bar, unlike some other programs.

Normally in the case of Range bar charts, it is considered a standard to adjust the Last trade price for the bar to either the High or Low of the bar, even though that was not the actual last trade price. Whether this is logical or not, is beside the point for this discussion. Sierra Chart does use a special algorithm to determine whether it should move the Last trade price to the High or Low. However, there are two exceptions when it will not. If there was a gap in prices and the High or Low of a Range bar was expanded, then the Last price will not be adjusted and left alone. Or if the Last price cannot logically be determined whether it should be adjusted to the High or Low, then it is also left alone.

Range Bar Type 2 (Range Chart)

If this option is enabled, a new bar is created when the range has met the Range Bar Value setting whether or not trading continues within the range. Otherwise, a new bar is only formed when trading moves beyond your specified range.

Days - (Historical Charts)

Sets the number of days for a bar/column. Enter the number of days in the box to the right of this option. If you use a setting of 5, then this is equivalent to a weekly chart, assuming there are 5 trading days per week. You would not use 7 days for a weekly chart. The preferred method to create a weekly chart is to use the Weekly option because it creates a bar that begins on Monday and ends on Friday.

Weekly - (Historical Charts)

Sets the Historical Chart's period to weekly. If you want to create a weekly chart with an Intraday Chart, Set the Days - Minutes - Seconds control to 7-0-0.

Monthly - (Historical Charts)

Sets the Historical Chart's period to monthly.

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Session Times (Chart >> Chart Settings)

Start Time

This setting applies only to intraday charts. Sets the starting time of data within each day to include in the chart. The time needs to be entered in 24 hour format. Example: 09:30:00. It is possible to reverse the times. For example, you can use a start time of 17:00:00 and an end time of 16:00:00. All data will be included, except for the time period from 16:00:01 to 16:59:59. When you reverse the times, the start time is considered to be in the prior day.

End Time

This setting applies only to intraday charts. Sets the end time of data within each trading day to include in the chart. The time needs to be entered in 24 hour format. Data up to and including this time is used. Example: 23:59:59. You can enter 24 and this will be automatically translated to 23:59:59. It is just a shorthand way to enter this.

A note about displayed times on the chart: The time displayed in the Time Scale area, the Chart Values window, and in the status bar for a column in the chart is the column's starting time.

Use Evening Session Times

When this option is enabled, you are able to specify a second time range of data to include in the chart. This is normally going to be evening session data. If you want to include all 24 hours of data in the chart, then there is no need to enable this option. Just use the Start Time and End Time controls and set them to "0" and "23:59:59" respectively. If you want to include data that covers a specific period of time without interruption, then also use just the Start Time and End Time controls only. An example of this would be just showing the day session or showing the day session and some of the evening session.

Here is an example: If a market has a day session from 9:30 to 16:14:59 and an evening session from 16:30 to 9:19:59 the next day, then these day session times would be entered in the Start Time and End Time boxes and these evening session times would be entered into the Evening Start Time and End Time boxes. How is this different, than using just the regular Start Time and End Time boxes set to 0 and 23:59:59 respectively? There are 3 reasons. First, you can exclude more than one area of time where there is no trading to filter out data that should not be displayed on the chart. Second, if you were to set the period per bar to one day, then the starting time of that bar would begin at the Evening Start Time and run all the way up to and include the day session End Time. Third, you can use the Use Evening Session Times command on the Chart menu to quickly switch from regular trading hours to the full session. There is a keyboard shortcut key combination that can be used to enable and disable the Use Evening Session Times option. It is shown beside the menu command. And there is a toolbar button to enable and disable this option as well.

Evening Start Time

This setting applies only to intraday charts. Sets the evening session Start time of data to include in the chart.

Evening End Time

This setting only applies to intraday charts. Sets the evening session End time of data to include on the chart. Data up to and including this time is used. This time can either be greater or less than the Evening Start Time. If it is greater, then it is the End Time of data to include for the very same day. If it is less, then it is the End Time of data to include from the next day of data.

Quick Switching between the Full Session and Day Session

To quickly switch from the Full Session and the Day Session you first need to setup evening session times using the controls explained above. To perform the switch select Chart >> Use Evening Session Times. With the keyboard you can use the Ctrl+G shortcut key. With the Toolbar there is a corresponding button available, select Global Settings >> Customize Toolbar.

Load Weekend Data

When this option is disabled, weekend data is not loaded. This also applies to real-time chart updating. Therefore, if the option is disabled, Sunday night trading is blocked from the chart.

Weekend means all of Saturday and Sunday. This includes trading from 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 on those days. These times are based on your Time Zone setting in Sierra Chart.

New Bar at Session Start

When this option is enabled and the period of a bar crosses into the start of the next trading day, it will be cut and a new bar will be started. This option applies to all types of bar periods whether based upon a fixed time, number of ticks, specified volume, or a specified range. If a bar is based upon a fixed time, this option only applies if the bar period is less than 1 day. The next trading day begins at the specified Start Time, if no evening session times are used. Or if evening session times are used, then it is the Evening Start Time.

Graph Draw Type

Sets the graph draw type to use for the main chart graph. See the Graph Draw Type documentation page.

Include Columns With No Data

Includes columns/bars for periods in the price graph where there is no data available. Like holidays for daily charts and periods of no trading for intraday charts. The open, high, low and close for a bar included where there is no data available, are set to the previous bar closing value. This option is ignored on tick charts. If the time period per bar is set to a short period like 2 seconds and you are using this option, then it can take a long time to allocate and fill in the memory. In this case when you press the OK button, the program will freeze while it is performing the function.

Alternate Real-Time Update Symbol (text box)

This setting has two purposes described in the paragraphs below.

Symbols for historical charts may be different compared with the symbols used by the real-time data service Sierra Chart is connected to. This would be the case if you have a different source for historical daily data. Since historical charts are updated with the continuously updating data feed, you need to enter the symbol from the service Sierra Chart is connected to for real-time data that corresponds to the symbol of the chart. Example: If the historical chart symbol is GC#, then enter the symbol GCZ8 (corresponding symbol at the time this was written) in this text box. If the symbols are the same, then leave this blank.

If the symbol used for trading is different than the symbol of the data file, then enter this trading symbol in this box. This allows you to trade from the chart and to receive market depth data, bid and ask data, and the data for the Current Quote Window using the Real-time data feed that you are connected to in the copy of Sierra Chart where you are entering this symbol.

If the data file is updated by another installed copy of Sierra Chart connected to a different data feed, then be sure to have the option Disable Data file Updating enabled.

Value per Point

This value is used to give correct angle readings when using a tool . Determining what value to enter is very well explained in the Drawing a Line with a Specific Angle or Slope section.

Scale

Displays the scale window. Please see the Scale Window section on this page for a complete description.

Set As Default

Press this button to set the current chart settings in this window as the default for new charts that are opened. Not all of the settings are saved as the default, only the relevant ones.

Disable Data File Updating (Disable Historical Data Download)

Disables the data file updating from the current instance of Sierra Chart.

Chart Linking

Link Number: Set this to a nonzero number and Sierra Chart will use this number to link this chart to all other charts that have the same Link Number in the same chartbook. Enable one or more of the options below to select the type of linking that you want. For example, if you have enabled Link Symbol and Link Bar Period and you change the symbol of a chart or the bar period, all other charts with the same Link Number in the chartbook will be changed to match. The link number will be shown in the title bar of the chart window. Example: L5.

• Link Symbol
• Link Bar Period
• Link Scroll Position
• Link Session Times

Vertical Grid Lines At Every

When this option is checked, it will draw vertical lines at every interval on the chart specified by the interval settings. For a weekly grid choose 7 Days. In this case, the lines will always start just before Sunday or Monday.

Title Bar Name

The text you enter in this box will be shown on the title bar of the chart window. This helps you identify its more uniquely.

Tick Size

The Tick Size setting for a chart is the minimum value that a symbol moves by. For example, the mini S&P typically has a tick size of .25. Although this ultimately depends upon how the data feed quotes prices. US stocks typically have a tick size of .01. Set this to the tick size for your symbol. This setting is used for the trading functions, by some studies, scaling, and various charting related features. This is considered a critical setting that needs to be correct.

Automatically Set Tick Size

When this option is checked, the Tick Size setting will be automatically set when you are connected to the data feed (File >> Connect to Data Feed), if the Tick Size is available from your connected data or trading service. Not all data and trading services will support this, in which case this setting will not cause it to be automatically set. When you open a new chart and there are Global Symbol Settings defined for the symbol of the chart or there is a symbol pattern which matches the symbol of the chart, then the Tick Size will be automatically set from the global symbol settings and this option will be disabled. This option will also be disabled when using the Apply Global Symbol Settings button on the Chart Settings window and there are global symbol settings defined for the symbol.

Alert Condition

In this text box you can enter alert condition that is based on the main price graph data. For more information see Alerts and Scanning.

Alert Number

If you have specified an alert condition in the Alert Condition box, then use this list to select which alert sound number you want to play. If you select No Alert you will not get an audible indication when your condition is true. However, you will still get a graphical and text indication when your condition is true. For more information see Alert Sound Settings.

Copy Chart Drawings from Chart #'s

To access this setting, select Chart >> Chart Settings. If you wish to copy Chart Drawings (drawings created with Tools) from one or more charts to the chart that the Chart Settings window is opened for, enter the number or numbers of the chart or charts you wish to copy the drawings from. If there are multiple chart numbers, separate them with a ',' (comma). Example: 1, 2, 3. Each chart has a number that is shown after the # sign on it's title bar, or the Region Data Line at the top of the chart. After you draw a Chart Drawing on a source chart, they will instantly appear on the destination chart. Chart Drawings are drawings that are created with any of the tools on the Tools menu.

When you erase/delete a drawing from a source chart, it will be removed from the the chart where it has been copied to, unless you had previously removed the source Chart Number from the Copy Chart Drawings from Chart #'s box.

If you are copying chart drawing from a chart with a different symbol, then you must also enable Show Chart Drawings For Different Symbols.

For an understanding of how chart drawings are mapped from one chart to another, refer to How Chart Drawings Are Mapped Between Bars with Different Starting Date Times.

Start Market Depth Updates

When this option is checked, market depth data updates from the data feed will be started. Many services consider this a bandwidth intensive feature and will limit you to a certain number of symbols you can start market depth updates on. If you go over this limit, you will get an error from your data service. For some services, market depth updates are automatically started even if this option is unchecked.

Show Chart Drawings For Different Symbols

If this option is enabled, then chart drawings drawn for a different symbol that was used on the chart, will be visible for the current symbol. For example if you drew a trendline for a September futures contract and then changed your chart to the December contract, you will see the trendline drawn for the September contract symbol. Assuming, when you change the symbol to the December contract you included the September data.

Display Main Chart Graph On Top Of Studies

When this option is enabled, all studies will be displayed below the main chart graph. The main chart graph is the graph for the symbol of the chart.

Display Chart Drawings Underneath Main Graph And Studies

When this option is enabled, all chart drawings, such as trendlines, will be drawn on under the main graph and study graphs on the chart.

Split Data Records (applies to tick, volume and range charts)

When this option is enabled, data records from the chart data file are split to create 100% constant tick, volume or range charts. If you want your tick, volume or range chart bars to be based precisely on your settings, then be sure this option is enabled.

In the case of tick and volume charts, if a data record is other than one tick, then the OHLC of the data record is not split. Only the Volume and Number of Trades fields are split and distributed among the bars to match your setting. What this means is that if the high of the data record is 105 and the low is 100, and it is split 5 times, then you would see 5 bars in the chart with that range even if your setting is 1 tick. Therefore, with these types of charts, you always want to ensure your data records are of the shortest timeframe possible. This is discussed in more detail here. In the case of range bar charts, the OHLC, Volume and Number of Trades of the data records are split to create bars that match your range bar setting.

Highlight Timescale Dates, Months and Years

When this option is enabled, then on intraday charts, Dates shown on the time scale will be highlighted. On historical charts, Months and Years on the time scale will be highlighted.

Adjust Tool Values to Tick Size

When this Chart Settings option is enabled, it will cause the values of Chart Drawings drawn when using Tools to be rounded to the nearest tick. This will cause the chart drawings as you are drawing them with a Drawing Tool to actually move from tick to tick. For example, if the tick size is .25, then a trendline will move from .25 to .25 increments. The same with the Chart Values tool and other tools. In order for this to work correctly, be certain that the Tick Size setting on the Chart Settings window is set correctly. Otherwise, this feature cannot work properly.

If Sierra Chart detects that there is a large jump in pixels between ticks, then this feature will not work. This is to prevent Tools from working improperly in case the Tick Size is not set correctly. For example, if the tick size should be .0001, but instead it is set at .01 (the default if it cannot be determined from the data service), then usually this increment on a chart with a much smaller Tick Size, will have a large number of pixels between each of these increments. In this case, this feature disables itself.

Use Left Side Scale

When this option is enabled, a scale displaying the range of values for each Chart Region will be displayed on the left side of the chart. The remaining paragraphs explain how this left side Values Scale is determined.

The left side scale range and Value Format, for a Chart Region, comes from the first encountered study in the Chart Region that has an Independent, Constant Range or User Defined Scale Range type. If there is no study in the Chart Region that has one of these Scale Range types, then the scale is controlled by the scale settings of the first encountered study in the Chart Region. In the case of Chart Region 1, the scale is controlled by the main price graph unless there is a study in that region with an Independent, Constant Range or User Defined Scale Range type.

However, if the first study in a Chart Region has an Independent, Constant Range or User Defined Scale Range type, it controls the scale on the right side of the chart and the left side scale will be controlled by the next found study with an Automatic Scale Range type if there is one. In this case, if there is no other study in the Chart Region with an Automatic Scale Range type, the scale of the first study in the Chart Region will control the left side scale.

The order of studies listed in the Studies to Graph list in the Chart Studies window can be controlled with the Up and Down buttons on the Chart Studies window.

Region Data Lines

This section allows you to choose how the data line for a region is displayed. The default setting is Visible, which will show the data line, and make sure that it does not overlap with any graphs in that region. The Hidden option will cause the data line to not be shown at all. The Overlapped option will set the data line to overlap the graphs that are contained in that region. It will not allow you to change the information that is displayed in the data lines.

Scale Border Color

This color control sets the color of the Scale Border lines.

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Creating Daily Bars with Custom Session Times

Creating Day Session Only Bars

If the bars in your historical daily chart contain evening session data and you want to create a daily chart, from intraday data (File >> New/Open Intraday Chart), with bars that show the day session trading only, then set the Days-Minutes-Seconds control under Chart >> Chart Settings to 1-0-0. Set the Start Time and the End Time controls in this window to the day session times.

Creating Daily Bars with Custom Start and End Times

If you want to create daily bars that have a specific start and end time, then open an Intraday chart by selecting File >> New/Open Intraday Chart. Select Chart >> Chart Settings. Set the Days-Minutes-Seconds control to 1-0-0. Set the Session Times controls to what you require.

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