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Hi,
I am considering moving from MarketDelta Chart to Sierra Chart and am interested in your opinions.
I use MD and find it good, mainly because :
* Volume Profile: easy to use, powerful
* Footprints: works great in real time and the replay can be very useful for learning
* User variables: makes it comfortable to share values between charts.
I am interested in SC, mainly because it seems to have :
* Better stability: my MD hangs 1/2 times a week, and charts hang regularly on my powerful machine when there is a big data burst (news/FOMC/...).
* Better windows management for multiple monitors : IRT/MD floating charts are not comfortable IMO
* Better replay functionality (IRT/MD is very frustrating, start/restart is very very slow ..)
* Price ? (I am not sure this is an issue but how come there is such a big difference ?)
Secondary interest in Sierra Chart :
* More coding capabilities (C++ vs RTL), especially for strategies.
I am not considering SC for DOM/Trading.
Hope you can help...
W.
-- The rest is silence
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Have you demoed SC? One of the big draws is DOM/trading, but if you don't need that functionality then I guess it's a moot point.
SC has good market profile and volume profile capabilities, though honestly I do not think they are quite as seamless and easy to use as in IRT/MD; however, it's been quite some time since I last used IRT so I don't have a recent comparison reference.
SC also has a pretty good footprint, though again it's probably not quite as robust as MD but I am not sure about that.
The user variables and RTL are quite nice features in IRT/MD. It was one reason I really like IRT; it made it very easy to do custom indicators quickly for quick and dirty jobs. SC has great built-in studies that make sharing indicator data from one chart to another very easy, and their spreadsheet study, once you learn how to use it, opens many new doors that other software just does not have built in. And as you note, SC has a very easy to program C++ interface that, once you learn the basics for, makes it pretty easy to write more advanced code if that's important to you.
The price is certainly better for SC, so that's a plus.
I recall only minimal stability issues with IRT, and I have only minor ones with SC as well (it never crashes during normal use; only when I have tried some off-the-wall things has it crashed on me).
As for speed, SC is absolutely fast, and IRT is pretty fast if I recall. Your issues with data bursts may actually be related more to the data feed itself, believe it or not, though the software is also a possibility. Doing a side-by-side comparison might make the culprit more clear.
I would recommend doing a trial of SC if you think you want to try it, and even after the trial is over you may consider just buying it for a month (package 5 is only $45 or so), and give yourself some time to learn the ins and outs of it, and then you can compare apples to apples. When I first tried SC, I hated it, because I could not relate to it coming from NT. However, once trying it again and seeing how awesome it was and learning how to actually use it, it was a no-brainer for me.
The good thing is that both software programs are excellent, so you can't go wrong either way! It will simply come down to which one better suits your requirements.
I started the demo yesterday and actually rebuilding my charts under SC. I can already see the logic is a little different than MD, but this software seems much faster and lighter than MD. I will continue evaluating it and will make an update.
Here is my overall feeling about SC after 4 days in demo mode.
Overall :
I find SC to be easy to use, fast and powerful. Like MD, I feel SC is one of the best platforms out there.
In detail :
I tried many time frames, time based, price based, and they all seem to work very well. Changing time frames is fast and the general look is great. So .. SC=MD.
Studies: Many available. Found all I needed. Though I don't use indicators, I saw all the indicators most traders use, and much more. So .. SC=MD.
Tools or drawing tools: I find SC tools easier to use and change. Amazingly, this is something I really don't like in MD (selecting/changing a trend line..). SC>MD.
Study/Tools customization: Multiple customizations available for both MD and SC. But MD makes it possible to make buttons to make quick predefined studies, show them or hide them. I find this very useful. MD>SC.
Market Profile : I find the integration of TPO to be great in SC. SC TPO is a study, so you can add/change a chart. In MD it is a specific chart than I don't like. SC>MD. Volume Profile : This is where MD is very good. The SC volume profiles are much harder to select/adjust on the screen than MD. MD>SC.
Numbers bars/Footprints: MD footprints seem more mature, and I prefer their look. I think MD footprints lag a little compared to SC (I can make a video), and like the SC possibility to use small fonts. Overall SC=MD.
Multiple windows management: I don't like the way floating windows in MD work. They are related to the main window position and size. This gives me a headache every day. SC Windows management is perfect. SC>>MD.
I will update this post during the next days and hope some reaction of SC users.
W.
The "region data line" in SC is the top of the chart showing data like the date, etc., which of course you can customize or even hide on a per-chart basis. When this is showing (make sure Chart->Settings->Adv2->Region #1 is Visible), you can right-click it and there is a show/hide/remove menu to quickly remove or hide/show studies.
Also, in Analysis->Studies you can save a single study or a collection of them that you can then quickly apply via the Analysis menu (I recommend saving the study or collection with "Prompt to Remove" enabled so you don't accidentally wipe other studies off a chart accidentally). It's not quite as fast as the buttons in MD/IRT but I can hide/show and add things very quickly--I very rarely have to add studies via the study menu anymore because I have my collections saved the way I want them and I can add them very quickly using these methods (and also I usually just hide studies I don't want to see right now and use the Show menu to show them again later).
Here is my overall feeling about SC after 7 days in demo mode.
Overall :
I find SC to be easy to use, fast and powerful. Like MD, I feel SC is one of the best platforms out there.
In detail :
Bar types: Bodh SC and MD are great. Many types, all seem to work very well, switching from one to another is fast. So .. SC=MD.
Studies: Both SC and MD are great. Many studies available. I saw all the indicators indicators traders use, and much more. So .. SC=MD.
Tools or drawing tools: I find SC tools easier to use and change. This is something I really don't like in MD (selecting/changing a trend line..). SC>MD.
Study/Tools customization: Multiple customizations available for both MD and SC. But MD makes it possible to make buttons to make quick predefined studies, show them or hide them. I find this very useful. MD>SC.
Market Profile : I find the integration of TPO to be great in SC. SC TPO is a study, so you can add/change a chart. In MD it is a specific chart than I don't like. SC>MD. Volume Profile : This is where MD is very good. The SC volume profiles are much harder to select/adjust on the screen than MD. MD>SC.
Numbers bars/Footprints: MD footprints seem more mature, and I prefer their look. I think MD footprints lag a little compared to SC (I can make a video), and like the SC possibility to use small fonts. Overall SC=MD.
Multiple windows management: I don't like the way floating windows in MD work. They are related to the main window position and size. This gives me a headache every day. SC Windows management is perfect. SC>>MD.
Replay: There are less options in SC. But it is fast to launch, rewind, stop, pause. With MD this is very painful, restart takes minutes. SC>MD.
Programming : MD is easy but limited. SC powerful but harder if you are not a coder. Differents tools for differents needs. I prefer SC but cannot give it a better rating. SC=MD.
I will update this post during the next days and hope some reaction of SC users. At this point, I have already stopped my MD subscription and already started using SC during trading. I don't know how to share levels between charts but believe it is possible and not hard to do. Maybe with Spreadsheets.
W.
Chart->Settings->Adv2, "Copy Chart Drawings From Chart #'s"
Just enter the chart number (can be found in the title bar for example) that has the drawings, and if there are more than one, just separate with a comma (I think).
I wish it was possible to copy a single drawing from one chart and paste it to another, but it is not. It has been requested though so maybe it will find its way into a future version. The above method simply shows the drawings on the destination chart, and you cannot select or modify them in any way. And when you add a new drawing to the source chart, it will automatically appear on the destination chart, so it's all or nothing. In my opinion, a straightforward implementation and very sufficient.
SC is very configurable. You can hide the price/values scale, hide the time scale, use a left side values scale, show or hide day of the week, many different bar types, and just so many other things that other apps don't let you customize. This was one of the draws for me.
If you use a lot of volume profiling no doubt you have edited the menu that appears when you right-click a chart to include the "Draw Volume Profile" (available only in package 5) feature. In the last month or so, it has been added that can now select a profile as you would a normal chart drawing and resize it, just like you can in MD/IRT, which is quite handy if you use these a lot.
I need the levels to continue updating on all charts when I change them on one of the charts... I suppose a simple copy will not be enough. This is why I use user variables in IRT/MD and suppose I will need something like the spreadsheets in SC.
Am I wrong?
"Copy" is really the wrong word for SC to use, because the drawings are not copied, but rather are a reflection of the drawings on the other chart. So go to chart #2's settings, and put 1 in the box mentioned above. Now go to chart #1, draw a line, and it will appear on chart #2. Change the line in chart #1 (you can't change it in chart #2), and it will change in #2.
