Sierra Chart recommendations?

S

slb3

Was hoping others who are using Sierra Charts could chime in and tell me about the pros and cons of the product/service. My goal is to re-implement an existing trading strategy I have been using on a different platform and port it to Sierra. My biggest questions are how easy is it to integrate with data and trading services? How is the technical support? Documentation /Manuals, etc. Thanks for your reply.

-slb3
 
I literally just started using their free trial and I'm trying to implement my own algorithm there for use and backtesting.

It's very reasonably priced and seems like quite a comprehensive piece of software. I imagine anyone who does chart-based trading would like it. For algorithmic trading though their API is truly miserable. Trying to wrap C++ in a more "friendly" way for people who don't know C++ is a recipe for making those who *do* know what they are doing miserable.
 
Have you ever thought "reasonably priced" comes to giving you royal fits to get it to do what you want it to do? I used Ninja for years till got tired of symbols of 500 was too little and back testing flaws, finally made own made. I have heard Sierra good till it not good, gets fouled up sending orders or freeze, I suppose comes down to clear coding. I had looked into Sierra, but found it clunky years ago. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the replys. I too just downloaded the trial. Im not too worried about the C++ coding but am concerned about freezing orders/crashing, etc. Any other platform recommendations from anyone?

Handle123, can you elaborate anymore on where Sierra lacks?
 
Using it for a few years. Excellent software with the developers having their heads firmly up their asses.

It is rock solid. Fast. Comes with lightning quick backfill for historical data. If you trade discretionary with no need to automated trading, look no further. I use my broker for real time data, but if you need real time data as well, they have a reasonably priced service.

The automated trading framework is junk. You can make it work, but you need to go through hoops. Developing custom indicators is a bit of work, but not too bad. You gotta be able to code.

They are on a mission to refactor their code to make it independent of Microsoft's CLR runtime. In that process, they have ditched a perfectly good spreadsheet component and replaced it with a piece of buggy shit. Also, they will from time to time add completely unnecessary stuff which would actually cause minor problems and they will be very unreasonable about it if you want to ask them why. But, every charting software has issues. Overall, I continue to use them. Very good connectivity with multiple brokers is another big plus point.
 
There's something up with the attitude of the developers. Quite frankly I think they must be a bunch of bull-headed Russians or something because I find it impossible to get anything handled unless you can outright prove it 100% up front it's their problem. Anything else is pushed back on the end-user as a "user issue."

They do seem to be getting a little bit better but I think they need appropriate management, especially when it comes to PR and user relations.
 
@DarthSidious I think you may have confused me with someone else. I'm already using the trial, and I was looking for someone else's experiences to help me understand the shortcomings of the backtesting system.

The documentation is pretty solid for most of the program I agree, but for the algorithmic trading I find it quite poor. I think the problem again (for that section only) is they tried to make it easier for non-programmers to understand but in the process made it harder for programmers.
 
Surgo said:
@DarthSidious I think you may have confused me with someone else. I'm already using the trial, and I was looking for someone else's experiences to help me understand the shortcomings of the backtesting system.

The documentation is pretty solid for most of the program I agree, but for the algorithmic trading I find it quite poor. I think the problem again (for that section only) is they tried to make it easier for non-programmers to understand but in the process made it harder for programmers.
More...
Well, I thought you were asking this question to Handle, so...
Yes, I agree, they have made it harder for programmers. Tell you what, this is the only options I see in widely used retail level platforms:

1) TradeStation: Uses EasyLanguage
2) MultiCharts: Uses c# or EasyLanguage. AMP provides the c# version for free
3) Interactive Brokers
4) Ninja: I have used the other 3, but never this one. So no idea
 
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