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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.

  • 1309 Release Date: 2015-10-13

    • Corrected a problem with the Volume by Price study involving update calculations which may not have caused a full recalculation for some types of Volume Profiles when there should have been.
    • TransAct bridge program has been updated.
    • Corrected a problem arising from a recent release with the TD Ameritrade service where the current day historical Intraday data was not being received from the TD Ameritrade server.
    • Full trading support has been added to the DTC Protocol Server. However, this has not yet been tested and must not be used with a live trading account until testing is complete! By default, Trading support from the DTC Protocol server is disabled for all users.
    • Corrected some issues with the Zig Zag study when Reset Zig Zag at Start of Trading Day is set to Yes.
  • 1308 Release Date: 2015-10-10

    • Added cumulative/running sum calculation mode options to the Bid & Ask Depth Bars study.
    • Other low-level development and issues resolved.
  • 1307 Release Date: 2015-10-08

    • Corrected a problem arising in a version near 1296 where Spreadsheet >> Add Sheet was not adding a new sheet to the active Spreadsheet window.
    • When using Trade Window linking, changing the Trade Account on a Trade Window will update the Trade Windows for other charts.
    • Added an ACS Safe Mode option to the Login window. When this option is enabled during the Login process, Advanced Custom Study DLL files will not be downloaded, if your account is been set to download those files, and third-party Advanced Custom Studies other than User Contributed Studies, will not be loaded on the charts. Therefore, if an Advanced Custom Study is causing an abnormal problem in Sierra Chart, this is an easy way to remove the effects of those studies.
    • In the second revision of 1307, we corrected a problem that developed recently where a chart could continuously reload. This related to a changing Tick Size setting.
  • 1306 Release Date: 2015-10-06

    • Corrected a problem with the downloading of historical Daily data when using CQG which began in version 1301. The historical data requests were going to CQG when they should not have. This would result in a blank historical Daily charts or they would not update with recent bars. This is now corrected.
    • Updated the study Inputs for the Volume Weighted Average Price studies to use 4 separate Inputs for the Band Multipliers and Fixed offsets.
    • Spreadsheet Sort capability has been added for New Spreadsheets.
    • Continuing work on the DTC Protocol server in Sierra Chart.
  • 1303 Release Date: 2015-10-02

    • Use Separate Market Data Connection and Use Separate Historical Data Connection are now fully supported for the Global Settings >> Data/Trade Service Settings >> Service >> DTC Service.
    • Corrected a problem with the Volume Weighted Average Price calculation in the Volume by Price study.
    • Corrected a problem with the writing of negative numbers to Historical Daily data files. If you are using Historical charts and negative numbers are used, you will need to re-download data in the chart after updating, by selecting Edit >> Delete All Data and Download.
    • It is now supported to customize a ToolBar/Control Bar button caption, description, color and image. This can be done by selecting the button through Global Settings >> Customize Toolbars >> ToolBar # >> [select button in Selected ToolBar Commands] >> Properties.
  • 1301 Release Date: 2015-09-30

    • Added support for downloading historical price data from the CQG FIX Trading and CQG Web API services for symbols that Sierra Chart does not have historical price data support for. This would include less common futures markets and spread symbols.
    • Corrected a problem from a recent release with the table view in the Chart Values Windows where the columns would be too wide.
    • Added Volume Weighted Average Price support in the Volume by Price study. This is a new Subgraph which can be optionally displayed.
  • 1299 Release Date: 2015-09-24

    • The Chart Drawing type DRAWING_GANNGRID is now supported with the ACSIL sc.UseTool function. Also, there is a new example study showing the use of the Gann Grid: "UseTool Example: GannGrid" which is in scsf_UseToolExampleGannGrid function in the /ACS_Source/studies.cpp file.
    • It is now supported to select Chart Drawings with different symbols when using the Adjust command in the Manage Chart Drawings Window. All selected drawings will be adjusted by the same amount.
    • New options for the Chart Values tool in Global Settings >> Tool Settings >> Chart Values. The Chart Values Tool Settings documentation will be updated shortly.
    • The Chart Replay functionality now supports accurate stepping through chart bars. Refer to Stepping through Chart Bars One by One.
    • Added new draw style named Line at Last Bar to Edge for Study Subgraphs. Description: The Line at Last Bar to Edge Draw Style draws a horizontal line from the last displayed chart column to the left edge of the right side Values Scale. The purpose of this particular Draw Style is to draw only the current value of a study Subgraph. You can optionally enable the Subgraph Name and Value Labels if you require.
    • Resolved some issues with the recent changes with the Trade Window to support linking of Trade Windows. One issue was that a negative number could not be used for the Breakeven (BE) Level Offset setting.
  • 1296 Release Date: 2015-09-13

    • Due to recent changes with historical data downloading, and the new HTTP functionality, 3 different historical data downloading issues have arisen. These have all now been solved. Under usual cases, users will not have encountered these issues. They were less common scenarios. One issue was when using IQ Feed and TeleTrader, another issue involved invalid symbols when downloading from the Barchart historical data server, and another issue was when a download had to be retried, it did not occur. One of the issues was serious which could cause Sierra Chart to freeze.
  • 1293 Release Date: 2015-09-08

    • Corrected a problem with the Intraday Data File Management function which compresses Intraday files. For single tick records, which contain bid and ask data, these were not being properly recognized and the bid and ask data was included in the compression and the record Open value remained at 0. This problem is now solved. However, if you have used this feature in the past, we recommend re-downloading the historical Intraday data in your Intraday charts because the data is not 100% technically correct after the compression.
    • Corrected a problem where the Display Study Documentation in the Analysis >> Studies >> Add Custom Study window was not working properly and was causing an exception.
    • Added various new studies to the User Contributed Studies file.
    • Corrected some issues related to support for futures spreads from the Sierra Chart Exchange Data Feed.
  • 1292 Release Date: 2015-09-05

    • Corrected a problem from version 1291 where the market depth quantities were not properly aligned to the prices that they are for.
    • Continued development of the DTC Protocol Server. Market data is fully supported now. The server can be enabled through Global Settings >> Data/Trade Service Settings >> SC Server Settings >> DTC Protocol Server.
    • Implemented Quote Line fields in Quote Spreadsheets which were not previously implemented.
    • Window >> Cascade, Tile Horizontally, Tile Vertically now arrange MDI child windows in the same order as they appear in the Windows and Chartbooks window, which is also the same order as the tabs on the Chartbook.
    • Removed the use of the Microsoft Windows HTTP functions. All HTTP communication now uses Sierra Chart developed HTTP functionality.
    • Corrected a problem from a recent release where there would be continuous messages added to the Message Log related to SSL and HTTP.
    • Corrected a problem from a recent release where a freeze would occur when there is a login error at the main Sierra Chart login window.
    • Various other undocumented small development and issues resolved.
  • 1288 Release Date: 2015-08-27

    • The Vertical Line Tool has new option called Vertical Text. From ACSIL, the s_UseTool struct also has a new member called VerticalText, which applies to Vertical Line drawings.
  • 1287 Release Date: 2015-08-24

    • Added Google Protocol Buffer encoding support in the DTC Protocol.
    • Reorganized and added new Chart Values tool options. These are in Global Settings >> Tool Settings >> Chart Values.
    • Significant performance improvements with the Volume by Price study have been made when using single Volume Profiles like manually drawn profiles.
    • A separate font setting for the Compact Tool Values window in Global Settings >> Graphics Settings >> Fonts has been added.
    • Notice: The Sierra Chart Relay Server now uses DTC protocol version 7. With the removal of the Fundamental Data messages from the DTC Protocol, there is now a breaking structure change to the s_SecurityDefinitionResponse data structure. This will require changes to any code that uses the relay server. For the current structure, refer to the /DTC/DTCProtocol.h file.
  • 1285 Release Date: 2015-08-18

    • Added support to access SC Forex Data when using any of the other supported Data and Trading services. The symbols are listed in File >> Find Symbol under the categories CFD and Forex. This symbol listings may not be up-to-date until the end of the day on 2015-08-18.
    • Corrected a problem with the new Control Bar with setting the focus to the last active window. The timing of this has been changed. Previously when pressing the TOP Control Bar button to open the Trade Orders and Positions window, it would not become visible. This is now solved.
    • Implementing a new DTC Protocol Server in Sierra Chart.
    • Continued Control Bar improvements.
    • Improvements to the Trade Window. Trade Windows can now be linked between charts. This is set through Chart >> Chart Settings >> Linking >> Chart Linking.
  • 1282 Release Date: 2015-08-08

    • Continued improvements and development with the new Control Bar. For complete details about this and alternatives to the old Status Bar, refer to this Support Board thread. Refer to this Support Board post for complete instructions to set up the Compact Tool Values window to be equivalent to the old Status Bar.
    • Renamed the ACSIL function sc.GetOrderFillSize to sc.GetOrderFillArraySize.
  • 1281 Release Date: 2015-08-05

    • Corrected a problem where when using a data recording suffix like -BID with an Intraday chart, historical Intraday data would be continuously downloaded over and over again. This is a critical update if you are using these data recording suffixes.
    • Added new order line color settings for child orders. These are set through Global Settings >> Graphics Settings.
    • Corrected another problem with the positioning of the Compact Tool Values Window when it is saved for each individual chart, when a chart is moved and when using the option to automatically hide the title bar and scrollbar for charts.
    • For the Trading Loss Management feature in Trade >> Global Profit/Loss Management , the Loss Trigger Value now needs to be a negative number. A zero or positive number will disable this feature.
  • 1280 Release Date: 2015-08-01

    • Added support to track Positions using the internal Trade Position data for OEC exchange traded spread/strategy symbols. OEC only reports the Positions for the individual parts of the spread/strategy but not the spread/strategy symbol itself. With this new feature you will see the Trade Position reported for the spread/strategy symbol, on the Trade Window for the chart.
    • Corrected a problem with the positioning of the Compact Tool Values Window when it is saved for each individual chart, when a chart is moved.
    • Added a new feature in Trade >> Global Profit/Loss Management to flatten all current Trade Positions when a certain Daily Loss is reached among the open charts and Trade DOMs. This only works for non-simulated trading.
    • Continued improvements with the new Control Bar.
  • 1276 Release Date: 2015-07-23

    • Completed the main development on the new Control Bar.
    • Corrected a problem with New Spreadsheets where a Reference (#REF!) error would be given under certain conditions related to an incorrect determination of a circular reference. This is now solved.
    • Enhancements to automated trade logging to precisely identify the source of order cancel and position flatten operations.
    • Various improvements to the new Control bar and fixed some issues related to it.
    • Corrected an issue with chart printing where the chart would be small and not occupy the entire page.
    • Corrected a problem with User Contributed studies which under some conditions would cause a freeze of Sierra Chart when pressing the Add Custom Study button in the Chart Studies window.
  • 1270 Release Date: 2015-07-10

    • On the QuoteBoard Alerts menu, there is a new command: Alert Num For New High/Low. This menu item is appended with either None or the Alert Number to be used. When this command is selected, an Alert Number can be entered. When there is a new High or Low for a symbol on the Quote Board and the Alert Number is nonzero, then an alert is triggered using this Alert Number.
    • Released support for the new Control Bar which contains ToolBar buttons, a Status Bar and a Watch List. This feature is still under active development and currently has some limitations. The old Status Bar has been removed. For complete details about this and alternatives to the old Status Bar, refer to this Support Board posting.
    • The DRAWING_REWARD_RISK now can be used from ACSIL. For an example function which demonstrates its use, refer to the scsf_UseToolExampleRewardRisk() function in the /ACS_Source/Studies.cpp file. The Reward/Risk drawing is a rather complex drawing to add due to the number of options. The example lays out all of the options and documents what they do. The example should be used to understand how to add a DRAWING_REWARD_RISK drawing.
    • Low-level improvements to the Continuous Futures Contract feature related to the recent improvements with this feature.
  • 1269 Release Date: 2015-07-10

    • Added support for out of order order fills when using the TransAct trading service. This ensures that when this condition occurs, that Attached Orders will have the same quantity as the parent order.
    • Corrected a condition where there could be continuous historical Intraday data downloading for a Continuous Futures Contract chart when insufficient data is returned from the server.
  • 1268 Release Date: 2015-07-07

    • Added the ability to configure keyboard shortcuts for TPO Chart commands through Global Settings >> Customize Keyboard Shortcuts. When keyboard shortcuts are configured, the TPO Profiles can be selected with the left click of the pointer on the TPO Profile. The TPO command invoked with the keyboard shortcut will then apply to the selected TPO Profile, if that command is profile specific.
    • Added a new input to the Trade Management by Study study named: Only Modify Stops In One Direction.
    • Added a new input to the Auto Retracement/Projection study named: Round to Nearest Tick Size.
    • Added new study: Adaptive RSI Moving Average With Smoothing.
    • Improvements to the Analysis >> Studies >> Add Custom Study function where an abnormal shutdown or freezing condition which could occur due to a faulty DLL file, has been eliminated in most cases.
    • For both of the Heikin-Ashi studies, when they are set to Display as Main Price Graph, the Ask/Bid Volume Difference Bars and all of the Cumulative Delta Bars studies can be used with the Heikin-Ashi studies.
  • 1267 Release Date: 2015-07-02

    • Added a new input to the Numbers Bars study named: Enable Diagonal Zero Bid/Ask Compares.
    • Added to the Alerts tab of the Study Settings window an option named: "Use Full Precision When Evaluating Alert Formula (can cause unexpected results)". When this option is enabled, all of the values referenced in the study Alert Condition Formula are not rounded off to the corresponding Value Format but used in their full precision.
    • Added the Forecast Oscillator study.
    • Corrected a problem from the prior release where the last study in a Study Collection was not being applied to a chart.
    • Low-level improvements to the Continuous Futures Contract feature where invalid price data in the historical Daily data files which Continuous Futures Contract charts rely on, is automatically detected and corrected. When re-downloading data in an Intraday Continuous Futures Contract chart, the historical Daily data is fully re-downloaded as well if it is relied upon.
    • Added the ability to the Time and Sales window to filter on Combined Records.
  • 1265 Release Date: 2015-06-25

    • Added the ability to set the Step Amount for the Triggered Step Trail Stop and Triggered Step Trail Stop Limit Attached Orders.
    • The number of regions available for studies and the base graph has been increased from 8 to 12.
    • Added new rollover methods to the Global Symbol Settings.
  • 1264 Release Date: 2015-06-19

    • Can now set the begin/end time for Rectangle Chart Drawings, and the begin time for Extending Rectangles through the Chart Drawing Configuration window. These settings are only valid when creating the Rectangles, and once created they can be modified as normal Rectangle drawings. When a Chart Drawing is created in this mode, the date from the initial Pointer left click is used along with the specified times. If the times are reversed, then an additional day is added to the ending anchor point (Example: draw from 18:00-03:00).
    • Added the ability to cut a Rectangle Chart Drawing. Previously could only cut Extending Rectangle drawings.
    • Made corrections to the code in the Random Walk Indicator study.
    • Added keyboard shortcuts for the Custom Text Drawing buttons which can be added to the control bar.
    • Enhancements to Attached Orders. The Move to Breakeven functionality for stops now supports 2 steps. There is also a Negative Offset in Ticks Triggered action type. This works similar to Offset in Ticks Triggered, except that a position which creates a loss will cause the stop to move towards breakeven.
    • Corrected a problem where the new control bar was displaying on detached charts. This has been disabled for now.
    • In an earlier release the Select Drawn Volume Profile By Outline Only option has been added to Global Settings >> Tool Settings.
    • Added the Bollinger Bands - StandardDeviationOfAverage study to the Analysis >> Studies >> Add Custom Study list.
    • Various small issues resolved.
  • 1261 Release Date: 2015-06-04

    • Added a Moving Average - Simple Skip Zeros study.
    • Corrected a problem when using the CQG Trading service where during times when the market is closed, there could be price bars created when there is no actual trading activity.
    • Changes to Market Depth data handling for the CQG Trading service.
    • Enabling Limit Chase orders is now done through the Trade Window Menu/M button. The command is Use Limit Chase Orders.
    • Added sc.CloseChart(int ChartNumber) and SC.CloseChartbook(const SCString& ChartbookFileName) ACSIL functions.
    • Corrected a problem the CQG FIX Trading service account balance processing and added support for a new FIX report through CQG FIX to access account balance data through this report. However, feedback indicates that this report needs to be enabled on the server side. Update (2015-06-05): According to CQG, account balance support has now been added and now should work properly.
    • Added the Relative Volume study.
    • Added new ACSIL SC_BID_PRICE and SC_ASK_PRICE arrays for sc.BasedDataIn[] and added the Bid and Ask Prices study.
    • Various other small issues resolved.
  • 1257 Release Date: 2015-05-23

    • The Fix Row and Fix Column functionality has been added to New Spreadsheets.
    • Added formula function WEEKNUM to New Spreadsheets.
    • In the formula details window on the New Spreadsheets, double-clicking or pressing the Enter/Return key on an item that is either a reference or returns a reference will now immediately jump to the referenced cell.
    • Corrected a problem from a recent release where Trailing Stop orders, including Move to Breakeven Stops, were not functioning when using server side bracket orders with Interactive Brokers.
    • Continuing improvements with New Spreadsheets.
  • 1256 Release Date: 2015-05-19

    • Improved the Move to Breakeven (BE) button on the Trade Window. An offset can now be specified controlling a positive or negative offset to the parent order fill price that the Stop Attached Order is moved to. This offset is set through Trade >> Open Trade Window for Chart >> Set >> Move to BE Offset (Ticks).
    • Corrected some issues from recent releases causing an abnormal shutdown when using complex formulas in spreadsheets.
  • 1255 Release Date: 2015-05-14

    • The Trade Service Average Price is always used for the Position Average Price displayed on a chart or Trade DOM when using Interactive Brokers.
    • Added the "Minimum Width For Volume Profile in Bars" Input to the TPO Profile Chart study. This controls the minimum number of bars that a Volume Profile for a TPO Profile will occupy in the chart.
    • Added a Move to Breakeven (BE) button to the Trade Window. This will move the nearest Stop Attached Order to the fill price of its parent order. Additional enhancements will be added later on.
  • 1253 Release Date: 2015-05-09

    • Effective with this version, there is no longer support to connect to Ninja Trader Brokerage using Rithmic on or after June 1, 2015.
    • When using the Days to Load Chart Linking option, this now also includes loading data based on date range. So those date range settings are applied across linked charts as well.
    • Corrected a small problem when there are repeating timestamps in the chart and when using the Volume by Price study where volume profiles are based on a specified number of bars, the number of bars the profiles cover may not always be correct.
    • In the case of when server side bracket orders are supported with a Trading service, Sierra Chart will not attempt to modify the prices of the Attached Orders on a parent order fill to maintain the offsets the Attached Orders originally had to the parent order based upon the fill price of the parent order. In the past this would occur if Global Settings >> General Trade Settings >> Adjust Attached Orders to Maintain Same Offset on Parent Fill.
    • Changes to the Value Area calculation method when counting 2 levels at a time, to make the calculation method similar to other programs.
  • 1252 Release Date: 2015-05-02

    • Added a new input to the TPO Profile chart study named Highlight Sub Period Midpoint Letter/Block , and a subgraph for the color and line width named Sub Period Midpoint Letter/Block Highlight.
    • Corrected a problem where an unsupported order type for some trading services was being set as a market order type rather than being internally rejected.
  • 1251 Release Date: 2015-04-28

    • Added a Hollow attribute for non-line based Marker drawing tool types.
    • Corrected small problem when compiling ACSIL source code which would generate compiler errors.
    • Corrected a problem when using the Draw Volume Profile tool, where the Volume by Price profile does not appear immediately.

*Last modified Sunday, 25th February, 2024.