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Starting from the very beginning with Sierra Chart
Thanks Trembling, I see you're too modest to link to your very useful threads on ACSIL here on FIO, but I will be studying those carefully if I do go down that route. It doesn't look that challenging (famous last words?) but I do like the exploratory nature of a spreadsheet.
The whole code/compile/test cycle can feel a bit laborious if you're used to interpreted languages. Question of weighing the pros and cons...
I pretty much agree with @Trembling Hand, if we're talking about using the built-in SC spreadsheet interface to create studies. Note that SC can dump data out into an external spreadsheet for you to slice and dice, and it also has it own "spreadsheet" functionality where you use a spreadsheet-like interface to set up commands that execute on the platform's charts or enter trades, a way to do coding without doing code, basically. You can create indicators and automated trading studies this way, instead of using ACSIL.
I never used this because it looked too hard (but I think programming is easy, so what do I know? ) SC also warns that a study created this way will be significantly slower to execute and will take more resources.
As @steve2222 mentioned, @tomgilb has posted extensively on this type of "spreadsheet."
I just wanted to clarify the difference. I get the impression that you are interested in dumping data to an external spreadsheet like Excel, a different proposition, although I imagine there are ways to do that through the spreadsheet command interface (I'm sure you can do it with ACSIL code as well.)
As to the difficulty of ACSIL, it's like anything else -- it's hard until you learn it, then it's easy. They do have a basic study structure they want study code to follow, and understanding that is the key to everything else.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
Thanks for clarifying that, Bob. I wasn't envisaging using an external application. There are two things I'm interested in at this point.
The first is having a little panel in an intraday chart that shows information from different timeframes. I can't see any way to get this without resorting to ACSIL (maybe there is?) except perhaps by automated text object creation, and that could get cluttered. An SC spreadsheet might be a flexible way to do this for ad hoc info, a bit like a scratch pad.
The second is a study that automatically draws lines around two existing lines. For example, you define a channel, and it automatically adds levels above or below the channel, sort of like an automated version of the Horizontal Lines study. You define the top and bottom of the channel, and it slaps something like 23.6%, 38.2%, 61.8%, and 78.6% above and below (just using the Fib as an example). It would be a convenience for some things, and perhaps a nice way to start to get to know ACSIL.
You could use the Study/Price Overlay study on the intraday chart to overlay a study from a different timeframe. This allows you to use a formula on data from other timeframes, using either the Spreadsheet Formula study, or one of the spreadsheet studies.
Note: The Spreadsheet Formula study uses Simple Alert syntax; the spreadsheet studies use spreadsheet syntax.
If you don't need to use a formula on data from other timeframes, you could use the Text Display for Study From Chart study to put the current value of another timeframe on the chart. Use multiple instances as needed.
You could use multiple instances of one of the arithmetic studies, (e.g. Study Subgraph Multiply study), or a single instance of the Spreadsheet Study study.
With my day job busy over the past few weeks I have been dragging myself closer to the game like a turtle heading down the beach to the water. Progress isn't rapid, or elegant, but it takes as much time it takes.
I've set up a trading simulator account. Had a nasty moment or two when I thought I might have to ask SC tech support for help, but I went back through the "help" files carefully - an experience a bit like being yelled at by the huge and slightly crazy gym teacher you had at high school - and managed to work out how to do it in the end. If you take your time, nearly (?) everything is there.
Next stop: trading on a real, live, uh... simulator. Is it wrong that I actually feel pretty nervous about opening positions even with paper money? Situation wasn't helped by my lack of familiarity with the trade window. It took me a while to work out how to set a stop and target at an absolute price, not helped by my deleting the initial settings from the Simple Bracket default order, so I had to add them later using Send Attached. I'm not scalping, so a tick here or there shouldn't have a huge effect on the outcome, and hopefully the simulator will offer a realistic experience.
As for my "strategy", there isn't one as such. I plan to spend a few months getting comfortable with the ins and outs of futures (I come from a stock market background), familiarising myself with the platform, and learning a bit about price action. Al Brooks' stuff has its detractors, but it looks like it might be a good place to start.
To my way of thinking, the exact approach I take isn't that important at this stage. I reckon that there's usually so much in a discretionary system that is not stated in the rules that you could give an "entire" winning system to a person and still watch them lose money. I believe that you have to internalise a system for yourself, through practise, so what I need/want is a vehicle for learning.
For that reason I'm playing with a simple channel system using 30 or 60 minute bars on the EURUSD (6E - can't seem to get the minis in the "Advanced" SC package, even on the delayed service), looking for price breaking above or below channel lines by a certain amount. Put a stop on the channel on opposite side to the position, plonk a target price down at a level equivalent to about 3-4x the width of the channel.
Win in 1 in 3, perhaps? I have no self-imposed rules about how often I trade, or how many pips I want a day. What's important is that I put trades in and see how they pan out, and whether that changes over time (hopefully for the better).
Obviously channel breakout approaches are two a penny. A naive system isn't going to make wheelbarrows full of money, so I won't call the local Aston Martin dealer just yet. But maybe over time I can learn and incorporate enough about what is or isn't a valid channel, about price action, timeframe congruence, volume profiles and the like to make something of it, or to find something better. If at the end I can't make it work, well <shrug> move on, move up, right?
Yesterday I put $25,000 in the sim account and opened a short position at 1.20925. Let's see what happens.
Having a few problems trying to work out which orders are client-based and which are on the server when it come stops and target prices. Is it OK to shut down SC?
Pretty much nothing, as it turns out. The position has spent half the time in the green (I think it touched 22 pips at one point) and the remainder in the red, up to around 11 pips. There doesn't look to be any larger momentum here, though I guess there has been room for scalpers to play. Congestion, trading sideways, whatever. Maybe that will change. I will let it play out, but maybe it would be sensible to have a time-based stop (perhaps discretionary?) as well as a price-based stop. "Close if the TP isn't hit in 48 hours" sort of thing. I wonder if SC can do that?
SC is displaying my fill, stop and target price on the chart. The lines are useful but I wanted to change the colours and widths. I find googling site:sierrachart.com with a keyword or two usually pulls up something useful, e.g.
site:sierrachart.com "show orders and position" color
So far there isn't anything that I have found SC can't do, but then I'm not a demanding trader. I do find it very "quiet" as an application. It seems to consume very few resources, just sits there and behaves itself. Which is nice. When I'm working at the day job, I don't want my trading platform grabbing the focus at odd intervals. If all goes well, longer term I would use a laptop PC and run SC on that, separately from my day job PC, and use Remote Desktop Connection to check in.
Funny how life works. In a separate thread I saw "Phantom of the Pits" mentioned. It's a free book published online. Chapter 5 starts with this comment from the Phantom.
(Bold is my emphasis.) Turns out that yesterday was that kind of surprising day for me. From my perspective it had been a boring, range-bound session. In between working my day job I was exploring charts in SC and monitoring the market. I could see some volatility at smaller time frames then suddenly BOOM! A spike on the 60M, that green bar at the center left of the screenshot below, took the share price well and truly above my fill (the dotted white line).
This looked to me like a clear change of market tone, so my first instinct was to wait and watch for a pullback then get out. I don't like averaging down. The price did pull back and I was within a pip or two of my entry price. I got ready to go flat.
Then I thought "Hang on, this is about learning about how to feels to lose as well as win, and becoming inured to that feeling of taking a loss, right?" I also want to see how this channel breakout approach works, and I can't do that unless I trade it. So I took my hands back off the keyboard and grimly decided to ride it out.
It's a sim account. I had a stop in place. I was in no financial danger - in fact I had literally nothing to lose. But the important point is that at a visceral level I disliked it. Why? Wounded pride? Intellectual vanity? A good fraction of my trades are going to be losers. If I can't take losses with a shrug and a wry smile, I'm not going to be able to trade successfully.
Anyway, three hours later my stop (the solid red line) was triggered and I was out at 1.21215, a loss of 29 pips. SC is showing a cute little flag on that bar. Once commissions are taken into account I'm down $370.75. This is for a full contract. Suddenly I can see that if I were using real money it would make sense to trade the minis, or even micros as recommended by Big Mike.
So, I have the first trade under my belt, but I'm not finding SC's trade logs very useful. The Trade Account Monitor window shows me where I am, but the Trade Activity Log doesn't show me the activity over the past few days. I guess there is some kind of filter in operation; will have to look into that. What I want is a list of entry and exit prices and commission paid, but I haven't found that yet.
No real chance to play with SC today as I was travelling. I want to look at ACSIL to put together some little convenience functions but I'm really busy at work for the next few weeks, so that may have to wait.
) SC also warns that a study created this way will be significantly slower to execute and will take more resources.
