“Sierra Charts for me has been a very easy charting platform. I have had a few glitches but over all I have liked it's straight forward set up provisions. I use the paid for version. I don't know how it compares to the free version through AMP or even if that is still available. I had used Multi Charts free version through AMP before and liked it but thought I wanted to try Sierra Charts. I have been trying to decide wether or not to go back to a free Multi Charts or some other charting platform just to compare since it has been a few years. I don't know what other charting Platform would be comparable to Sierra Charts.”
“Sierra Chart is one of the most powerful trading platforms available for serious traders. The charting is extremely fast, stable, and highly customizable. The platform has a learning curve, but once configured, it provides exceptional performance and reliability. customization is far beyond many mainstream trading platforms. Customer support and documentation are detailed, and the software is continuously improved with regular updates.”
“THE GOOD
Very fast, applaudable execution time with miniscule data delay (near zero lag).
UI is not modern but having an IT background, understand that transforms into elevated speeds, spectacular execution times, and stellar performance and it shows! That said, once your charts/chartbooks are created, the UI is very intuitive -- granted some learning curve.
System is very stable.
As for my rig:
Device name MSI
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D 16-Core Processor (2.50 GHz)
Installed RAM 96.0 GB (93.6 GB usable)
Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU (16 GB)
AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics (2 GB)
SSD 2 TB
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
You don't need a top tier machine but I would suggest having a solid setup. With a top tier machine, you system will run with lot's of breathing room, no lag, and system capacity to spare.
Invest in a solid machine.
SC's support is quite good and responsive albeit only accessible via support ticket through their website. It sucks not being able to call someone, but you'll come to an understanding that translates, I suppose, into saving by keeping costs down. That siad, they are very responsive, attentive, and knowledgeable via their website support via ticket linked to your email.
Estimated position (EP) available in SIM mode. So, SIM while no where near trading real time with slippage and all the gut punches, gets as near to emamulating real-time trading you'll find.
Robust, intuitive backtesting.
Robust trading metrics avaiable on their Activity Log.
THE BAD
If you are using Footprint charts and Heat Maps, understand that they are tedious to set up, as there are a plethora of micro settings. One could say too many settings but ... as you'll come to understand, they provide deep exhaustive tools for even the most micro OCD customizations.
Handling Custom vs Global Graphics could be more intuitive.
Fitting a candlestick on a 2 column footprint chart where one is displaying Bid Vol x Ask Vol and the other actual volume can use improvement, as you have to keep your font really small else it could get truncated the more you zoom out.
You have to check for new versions manually.
Search on their website can be annoying. With SC, reading is fundatmental ... lol. You can't avoid setting the time to pause and read. They can use an AI injection for their search, as its documentation is huge but robuts. However, use it in tandem with yout AI chat tool of choice (gemini, deepseek, Lumo)
You can't trade on SIM in realtime using Trial verison: Only if you have an account. But I'm not sure that is a SC 'bad' - I believe that may be a regulatory mandate. 10 minute delay can suffice.
Recommend - YES.
Just ensure you have a good technical setup.
Data can lag if you are not on s solid and stable if not juiced up machine.
If you are not, or even if you are, KEEP THIS Chart Title Bar field TOP, FRONT, AND CENTER ... DD, which stands for 'Data Delay'. It is your visual to lag in what you are seeing and order execution to the exchange. On a good rig, you'll rarely see this exceed 300 milliseconds even with high volume.
That said, good rule of thumb, Prettier UI, higher lag -- as they have a lot of code to shoot off to get that pretty UI doing its thing. You don't need a pretty UI.
AND PLEASE don't trade on WiFi. Ensure machine is hard wired to the internet via an ethernet cable!
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Hope this helps.”
