SierraChart Platform and Software
Today’s interview is with Anthony, the creator and the brainchild behind SierraChart. Optimus has always been fascinated with how a software company that put no effort into sales and marketing has accumulated such a strong following, providing one of the most solid infrastructures among futures trading platforms. If you wish to test the Sierra Chart trading software and see its benefits for yourself, please CLICK HERE for a FREE 30 Day Demo. View Here SierraChart Video Library Tutorial
Can you tell us a bit about your technical background?
SC: My technical background includes software engineering and programming, electronics and telecommunications.
What led you to trading?
SC: I got involved in trading in the 1990s following and trading the US stock market.
Did you initially create Sierra Chart just for your own use?
SC: Sierra Chart was not created for my own use.
What did you feel was missing in the world of platforms and how was Sierra Chart able to bridge that gap?
SC: Sierra Chart was created to solve a clear need for charting software which would work with data delivered over the Internet, had an orderly design to it, and have the flexibility to do things that existing programs at the time could not do. Some of these things related to lower-level things like data management. I also wanted to create a program that was reliable, would not crash, is fast and efficient.
What advantage, in your opinion, does Sierra Chart offer in terms of functionality and features?
SC: The great advantage of Sierra Chart is that it has a wide array of features to cover the needs of most users. Too many to cover here. For example, it has TPO Profile charts, it has chart bars which show detailed volume data at each price level within a chart bar, it supports volume profiles and it has a large array of drawing tools. Sierra Chart also offers advanced trading functionality which has developed into a very solid and reliable trading platform. A trading platform that users can trust.
You have a very strong belief system that software should be built with certain standards. Can you share that with us?
SC: In all of my experience most software is not very well written. Only a small percentage of software out there is really considered high quality. This includes software that has a clear and reasonably designed user interface, is stable and fast.
All aspects of a computer program need to be well-designed for the particular function that they will do. And it needs to be fast and reliable. There is no room for error in computer programming.
The most common problem that traders experience is having reliable market data and trading functionality. What we see in this industry really is a complete mess with that. It is so disorganized. This problem goes up to the very highest places at the exchanges. Not that exchanges own systems are a mess, but their policies interfere with traders having access to reliable market data. I do not think the exchanges really realize the consequences their policies have and how it actually hurts competition and reliable market data delivery. This is something which is so apparent to me.
One solution Sierra Chart has implemented to solve this problem, at least in part, is providing our own market data feed with data from various futures and stock exchanges. It is provided at an economical price. It is essential that the communication between the front-end charting and trading program, and the market data and trading server uses well-designed protocols that each side writes to themselves. In this way market data delivery and trading communication is reliable, orderly and handles faults gracefully.
This is why we have started the DTCProtocol.org initiative which is meant to solve this. We are working hard to establish a well-designed and common communication protocol standard that everyone uses. This is nothing unusual. Standards are used for a lot of things including communication networks and computer hardware.
What are your plans for Sierra Chart in the future? What can traders expect?
SC: Adding full DTC Protocol Server support.
Continuing with enhancements to our Trade Window.
There will be enhancements we expect to the TPO Profile Chart study
There will be enhancements to our Advanced Custom Study Interface and Language.
There will be support for other operating systems.
And numerous other things. The development list is quite long.
Given the thousands of users trading on Sierra Chart, what features do you think your successful traders use? In other words, what do they appreciate the most?
(Click on Images to Enlarge)
SC:
Volume Profiles
Numbers Bars
Drawing Tools
TPO Profile Charts
Trading DOM
+Spreadsheets
Advanced Custom Study Interface and Language
Anthony, any final words? We really appreciate working with you. Your software, your staff and your support has been instrumental to building a good clientele.
SC: We appreciate having Optimus Futures offering Sierra Chart to their customers. We know that they look for the very best and we are happy they offer a quality program like SierraChart
There is a risk of loss in futures trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
