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Auto Trade Setup

CAUTION: Auto Trading with live money is risky, and should NOT be enabled without supervision! There is no Holy Grail. It is not “Set it and forget it”. You are solely responsible for all trades taken manually or automatically. Plan on monitoring all Auto Trades. 

One strategy followed by many auto traders is to leave Auto Trading Disabled until you start seeing arrows forming, and then when you like where price action is going, enable Auto-Trading. After entering the trade, immediately disabling auto trading will allow you to exit the trade knowing it won’t jump in on the next candle that may not be one you want to enter on.

Auto Trading in Sierra can be done in Simulation Mode (local or server based) or with Live Money. There are several safety checks in place to make sure you really want to trade live money. You can see the Auto Trade signals (Arrows) at all times, only if all the Auto Trade switches have been enabled will it trade live money.

• Startup: Auto Trade is Disabled

Your Trade Menu should look like this when you start up Sierra Chart:

The only item checked is “Disable Auto Trading on Startup. This should stay checked. That way the next time you start Sierra, you won’t start Auto Trading unexpectedly.

 

• Enable Global Auto Trading

This is the Master Switch that turns on and off all (Global) Auto Trading. Note that turning it on the first time will not begin Auto-Trading, it is more like the Big Red Switch or EMO that shuts off any Auto Trading that is going on. For now, we will turn it on by doing Trade>>Auto Trading Enabled – Global.

Each Chart can also have Auto Trading Enabled or Disabled. The setting for the chart is Auto Trading Enabled – Chart. This setting is saved with the chartbook. The default is that it is disabled.

Your Trade menu should look like this:

Any chart that you are OK with Auto Trading from should have checkmarks for both Auto Trading Enabled – Global and Auto Trading Enabled – Chart.

 

• Disable Auto Trading from charts you don’t want to auto trade from

Any chart you don’t want to Auto Trade from should have “Auto Trading Enabled – Chart”  UNCHECKED.

Like this:

• Ready to Auto-Trade? Remember Auto Trading is not “set it and forget it”. Its main benefit is the timing of the entries as soon as the proper conditions are met. You should plan on monitoring all trades, and take control if it is not going as you think it should. Also watch for trades taken near the end of the trading day, as they may not exit automatically!

 

1. Live Trading (Real money or Simulation Server when available)

Trades are sent to the trade service, and if it is the Live Service, real money is at stake.

 

1. Uncheck Trade>Trade Simulation On

1. Studies: ID1 S3 V3 Auto Trade Settings
   • Send orders to Trade Service = Yes

 

• Confirm you have checked Trade>>Auto Trading Enabled – Global and Trade>Auto Trading Enabled – Chart
  

2. SIM (Local Sierra Simulation Server – use for Playback, Back-testing, and Forward Testing)

 

All trades are simulated on your machine, whether you are connected to the trade service or not.

 

1. Check Trade>Trade Simulation Mode On

1. Confirm trades are not being sent to the Trade Service.
   1. Edit Study: ID:1 S3 V3 Auto Trading System (or whichever Spreadsheet Study you are using)

• Confirm you have checked Trade> Auto Trading Enabled – Global and Trade>Auto Trading Enabled – Chart

 

1. Disable Live Trading:
   1. All Charts in All Chartbooks: Uncheck Trade>>Auto Trading Enabled – Global
   2. Just Specific Charts: Uncheck Trade>>Auto Trading Enabled – Chart.

Note that you can disable Auto Trade for specific charts by Unchecking Auto Trading Enabled – Chart for each chart you want disabled. The Global setting controls ALL Auto Trading.

 

 

 

Buttons for Auto-Trade Enable/Disable

 

To simplify the setting of the Auto Trade-Global and Auto Trade Chart, you may want to add a button for each to the control bar.

 

1. To do this click Global Settings>>Customize Control Bars>> Control Bar 1 (or whichever one you are using).
2. On the left scroll down to Trade and click the “+” sign to expand the list:

1. Scroll down to “Auto Trading On/Off – Global|ATG” and select it and click “Add->”
   
2. You will see the selected item move to the right side:
   
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for “Auto Trading On/Off | ATC” and click OK.
4. You should now have two buttons labeled ATG and ATC on your control bar.

Note the ATG is Enabled because it appears depressed, the ATC is not enabled.

The ATC button will change appearance as you go from one chart to another depending on whether that chart is enabled or not. This is a shortcut to visually check the setting and to change it quickly.

Forgiving Computers began developing trading systems for Sierra Chart, which has a very powerful user interface for creating and combining studies, alerts, and trading systems. At first, spreadsheet studies were used, due to their simplicity and ease of creating new tools. Spreadsheets, which automatically import price data and the values of the attached chart studies, allow new formulas to combine input data to create new outputs: lines, symbols, backgrounds, alerts, and trade entries and exits.

While flexible and relatively simple, the spreadsheet studies create a new set of complications.  For one, they cannot be shared between chart books. To do so would create a performance bottleneck on top of the overhead provided by the spreadsheet functionality. Another drawback is the performance penalty of using spreadsheets since the study is going through a layer of translation into and out of the spreadsheet.

The alternative to creating custom studies in spreadsheets is to write them in a high-level programming language and compiling them to plug-in efficiently to the Sierra Chart platform. Sierra provides an Application Programming Interface (API) called ACSIL, or Advanced Custom Study/System Interface and Language. This allows new studies to be written in C++,  the same open source programming language that not only Sierra Chart is written in, but C++ and its older relative C, are the “languages of choice” when performance is important (think operating systems, drivers, games, browsers, etc.). By writing custom studies and trading systems in C++ we get the benefits of a rich programming interface, which means we can get “under the hood” and do things that the spreadsheet studies cannot do. For example, order flow data (i.e. Number Bars in Sierra) is available in ACSIL but not in spreadsheets. Will C++ DLL studies, Trade Order Quantity does not have to be set in two places, the study has its own inputs, without relying on another study for Inputs. The potential for more and better advanced systems is far higher with hard coded, C++, studies.

The S3, T3, and W3 trading systems have all been rewritten in C++, and they are now available as DLL files, as all studies included in Sierra Chart are. There is no issue with sharing DLL files across chartbooks, as each chart gets its own copy of the study without being shared. Their compact size means improved performance. Also, they can be made available to customers on a time limited trial basis, allowing you to test drive them before buying. Besides being smaller and faster, the DLL’s are automatically installed in your data folder (even if you have more than one instance) and are automatically updated.

From this point on there will no longer be system development or updates for spreadsheet systems. They will continue to function, but support for them will end sometime this summer. You are encouraged to give the tools a try and compare it side by side with the spreadsheet system. Owners of the Version 1 and 2 systems will receive a discount off the lifetime subscription equal to the price they paid for the spreadsheet system(s).

With remote control software, we can share screens and I can provide one on one training in the Sierra Chart application. Maybe you need some time getting to learn all the details, or just want to know how to do a specific task. I am an experienced IT Professional, Software Developer, and Trainer.  Want to learn how to use trailing stops? How about alerts? Wondered how spread sheets work with Sierra? Wonder no more, as we can work together to make your trading platform more familiar.  This was the thinking behind the name Forgiving Computers. We make computers less challenging and more useful.

My name is Brad Houser. I have been using Sierra Chart for over 2 years, after having used TradeStation and ThinkorSwim. I find it very flexible, lightweight, and powerful. It takes a little getting used to, and its UI is sort of reminiscent of Windows NT. However, since it is written in C++, it uses much less memory than the other platforms, and it performs much faster.

I started creating Studies with Spreadsheets and have found them to be very versatile and straightforward. I gradually got some auto trading studies working, and wanted to share them with other Sierra Chart users who are interested in exploring them. Auto-trading can be helpful if you have a trading plan that follows a set of mechanical rules for getting into and exiting a trade. It is not a good idea to let them run without supervision, as you may need to use some discretion if market conditions are not according to your plan. I have created auto trading chartbooks for futures that are configurable for various scenarios. They also help you stick to your plan by setting Daily Maximum profit and loss limits that will shut off auto trading when met. Even if you don’t use the signal for automatic trading, these trading systems can help you decide if you want to manually enter a trade or not.

If there is a system you would like me to develop, I can let you know if I can code it for you. I charge different amounts if it is only to be for you, or if I can resell it to others. Let me know in the Contact Us form.