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You will find that they have so much functionality built in, that you will save yourself a ton of money because you will not need to buy 3rd party indicators. It's stable and works well.
Our customers that we have placed on it have been pretty much saying the same thing, it takes a bit of time to learn all the functionalists but once you do, it's very hard to switch away from. Best of luck!
Matt
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
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After trading futures for a couple of years, I think SC is probably the best all around platform, especially if you are only going to have 1 platform and not multiple bits of software. Reason being that it can be made to do just about anything a trader could want, and usually there are multiple ways of doing it. I keep finding new ways to display information that my other platforms can't do, or do well. The DOM has become very customizable and easy to work with, although more complex multi layered order types take some time to work out, but are easy to use thereafter.
1) How long have you been using Sierra Chart?
1 year
2) What are your favorite features of Sierra Chart? TPO charts, Numbers Bars, Cumulative Delta bars, very reliable and fast with low system useage, doesn't slow computer down. SC runs many more charts than my Multicharts.net or Interactive Brokers, Ninja etc with far less CPU and RAM useage.
3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in Sierra Chart that you could not do without?
I dont think it has 1 thing, but rather combines the must have features of a lot of platforms
4) Do you use Sierra Chart in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
Live
5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does Sierra Chart help you with this?
Discretionary. They have a lot of indicators that other platforms don't have, in terms of the way you use them. Ex. using the difference study to compare 2 charts or 2 indicators, so you can spot divergences, referring studies to other studies or readings on another chart etc.
6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use Sierra Chart?
Sierra Chart is not really set up for learning in 5 minutes, its something that goes on and on and takes a while to understand what they were thinking when they made it. Once you get into it though, you realise the simple genius of a lot of little things they have done
7) How do you rate Sierra Chart's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
This is potentially a problem for some beginner traders. My feeling is that the SC team are software developers, engineers really, and they think like engineers do. Imagine if the engineering department of a large auto company were also to do the sales and marketing, customer service etc. It isn't their forte and it shows. Their responses are short, to the point and often with minimal explanation. Better support in terms of how to's and videos are made by a few brokers rather than SC itself. If you expect someone to go online and set up everything for you then forget it, this is a blank canvas DIY platform, but a great one in the end.
8) Do you believe Sierra Chart is competitively priced?
Yes, very
9) How do you rate the community support that exists for Sierra Chart?
is there one? It's nothing like that of Ninja or some of the others.
I've been a lurker for 1000 days so it's time I contribute!
1) How long have you been using Sierra Chart?
About a month. I used NinjaTrader for a few years before switching. 2) What are your favorite features of Sierra Chart?
-Customization features. I knew what I wanted going in and was able to get my trading screens set up exactly how I wanted. I actually started by making them look exactly the same as my NinjaTrader setup, then added some features that only Sierra has to make it better.
-Plentiful volume-based indicators. I used to trade with silly indicators like RSI/Stochastics which are just derivatives of price. Then a few years ago I realized that volume is a completely separate dimension of current market participation. Sierra Chart offers the tools you need (built-in indicators that you can customize the heck out of) to build the volume-based tool that will give you the information you want. You can color-code everything. You can overlay multiple VbP indicators using varying levels of transparency. I was attracted to NinjaTrader a while back because I could program my own indicators in NinjaScript, but with Sierra Chart it's like they have already built everything you (or at least I) want. But, you can still program your own if you want to.
-You can tell it's built to be a great product, not so that they can make more money. In NinjaTrader they give you a DOM that moves all over the place unless you buy a pricey license. Sierra is always adding new features and making updates, instead of bigger platforms which have to have official releases once every 18 months.
-It runs lean. NinjaTrader seems very bulky and slow-loading in comparison. Fewer resources = more stability and faster execution. 3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in Sierra Chart that you could not do without?
-Ability to make clean, simple, charts with no-hassle order execution
-Volume indicators (bid/ask difference, etc)
-Server-side OCO. Seriously, I can't imagine trading where my stop loss is only sitting on my computer. If Comcast goes out in the middle of a trade, you're hosed. With Sierra Chart you can set up automatic stops/targets for as soon as you get filled, and then it doesn't matter if the power goes out. If your platform/broker doesn't support OCO then even if you have server-side orders, what happens if the power goes out and your stop gets hit, then price reverses and your target is still sitting there? Server-side OCO isn't necessarily unique to Sierra but with Optimus (and some others) it is a standard feature. 4) Do you use Sierra Chart in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
I did their 15 day demo to get things set up but now I trade live (CL/6E). 5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does Sierra Chart help you with this?
Discretionary. I am a scalper so Sierra allows me to read order flow, market participation, trapped traders, the short-term trend, panic, exhaustion, etc, to a degree that vastly exceeds any other trading platform I've used (maybe 6 or 7 others). 6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use Sierra Chart?
Pretty easy but I am familiar with setups and interfaces. But for the things I wasn't familiar with the online documentation has so far answered all of my questions. It did seem a little intimidating at first, coming from other platforms where everything is pre-packaged, but if you play around with it a little it's pretty straightforward. 7) How do you rate Sierra Chart's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
Great, they had fast response on the few emails I had regarding initial setup. 8) Do you believe Sierra Chart is competitively priced?
Yes, but I am also getting the discount through Optimus. However, even at full price it is less than a lot of other "premium" platforms. 9) How do you rate the community support that exists for Sierra Chart?
It is one of the best features. Try submitting a request to NinjaTrader and see how far you get. I remember a whole crowd of people including me asking for features in NT and it was always yeah we'll see or we might get to it next year. On the other hand I have seen Sierra say "hey that is a good idea, look for it in the release next week." When you get instant response from the developers rather than a guy who is paid to get people to wait until next year, it encourages a healthy community.
Guess I wrote a novel but I figure I'd do what I can to give a complete review of my first impressions of Sierra Chart because it is strange to me that more people aren't using it when it is superior in so many ways. If you know what you want in a trading platform and find yourself saying "if only it could do this" (like having a colored gradient on your moving average ) then give the demo a shot and see if you have the same experience.
1) How long have you been using Sierra Chart?
1 years switched from nt. 2) What are your favorite features of Sierra Chart? DOM with many settings available, (i would like also try jigsaw) but i wait the compatibility on sierra, volume profile, data feed 3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in Sierra Chart that you could not do without?
volumes indicators. 4) Do you use Sierra Chart in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
Both. 5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does Sierra Chart help you with this?
I'm a discretionary trader, sierra is stable and fast and i can use order low tools for trade that's enough for me. 6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use Sierra Chart?
Easy. 7) How do you rate Sierra Chart's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
Never use 8) Do you believe Sierra Chart is competitively priced?
yes the price is low compared to another platform with the same things, her data feed also very good price for the quality i think. 9) How do you rate the community support that exists for Sierra Chart?
Excellent there are many topics with a big community of programmers and customers.
SC much better and faster to work with historical and real data than NT
* If investing gets too difficult for a seventh grader to understand, the system is needlessly complex
* Markets produce an enormous volume of information, much of which is redundant
* In every game and con there's always an opponent, and there's always a victim. The trick is to know when you're the latter, so you can become the former
Sierra Chart surprises me everytime.
Hope this one is helpful for everyone.
I'm trading through the DOM and my all-time question was, how it is possible to decrease the refresh rate of the DOM so the prints will show faster.
Open the DOM -> Chart -> Chart Settings -> Advanced Settings 1 or 2 -> right corner -> Update Interval (0=Default) -> Set it to 100ms or something similar. You see the prints coming in much faster.
Maybe someone can use this feature. For me, it was very helpful. I had to share it.
1) How long have you been using Sierra Chart?
1 year
2) What are your favorite features of Sierra Chart?
That it is easy to customize after your own ideas and that I can conect to several datafeeds.
3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in Sierra Chart that you could not do without?
I must have the footprint
4) Do you use Sierra Chart in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
I place my trades via my brookers DOM.
5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does Sierra Chart help you with this?
Discreationary
6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use Sierra Chart?
It was actually rather confusing in the beginning. Not easy to understand but if you sat down and read and searched the support forum I always found out. Before I used Sierra I used Market Delta charts and I actually got more software problems with them. The most annoying thing in the beginning using sierra was to learn zooming out and in -I missed that from Market Delta.
7) How do you rate Sierra Chart's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
They are very good "computer guys" but maybe not allways so serviceminded...
8) Do you believe Sierra Chart is competitively priced?
Yes, thats the reason I changed from Market Delta
9) How do you rate the community support that exists for Sierra Chart?
Good
1) How long have you been using Sierra Chart?
SINCE 2008
2) What are your favorite features of Sierra Chart?
LOW CPU, EASE OF USE, COOL CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in Sierra Chart that you could not do without?
I WOULD HAVE TO SAY THE SUPPORT RESOURCE SECTION. I FIND IF I HAVE AN INQUIRY I CAN JUST GOOGLE
IT WITH A SIERRA CHART ASSOCIATION AND I AM INSTANTLY TRANSPORTED TO FOLKS INQUIRING ABOUT THE
SAME SITUATION.
4) Do you use Sierra Chart in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
LIVE TRADING UNLESS I AM TESTING A THEORY, THEN SIM.
5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader?
I USE ALGORITHMS TO ASSESS THE DAY'S TRADE TO DETERMINE MY DISCRETIONARY TRADE ENTRY.
How does Sierra Chart help you with this?
SIERRA IS VERY EXCEL SPREADSHEET USER FRIENDLY.
6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use Sierra Chart?
IT TOOK ABOUT 6 MONTHS TO BECOME FAMILIAR WITH ALL THAT THE CHARTING PROGRAM CAN/CAN NOT DO,
BUT AFTER THAT IT BECAME SECOND NATURE.
7) How do you rate Sierra Chart's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
ON OCCASION I DID CALL UPON THE CUSTOMER SUPPORT AND EVERY SINGLE TIME THEY RESPONDED IMMEDIATELY.
8) Do you believe Sierra Chart is competitively priced?
FOR WHAT THEY OFFER, MOST DEFINITELY!
9) How do you rate the community support that exists for Sierra Chart?
SIERRA'S COMMUNITY SUPPORT IS TOP NOTCH. THEY ARE LIKE A SECOND FAMILY TO ME.
) then give the demo a shot and see if you have the same experience.
