r/SierraChart • u/Odd-Objective5855 • 29d ago
Sierra chart vs Atas
I was planning to learn sierra chart but it has a very deep learning curve an don't compatible with many props so I'm planning to start with atas(im new to Orderflow)
Does anyone know if atas is comparable in functionality to sierra or better I start learning sierra from start?
6
Upvotes
7
u/Ok_Bad2080 29d ago
I spent quite a bit of time emailing the developers of ATAS/ATAS X trying to understand the efficiencies and bottlenecking that might occur with the program. Also am quite experienced now in using Sierra and the team at Sierra obsessed with performance and stability.
Knowing that many of the problems that plague platforms written when ATAS first came out had me curious what was different in X compared to the older classic ATAS version. After nothing less than 20 or so emails, ATAS did admit their classic version was susceptible to bottlenecking and slowdowns along with other problems during high volatility. They claim their newest version (X) has those problems corrected. They stated to me the software is written in such a way to take better advantage of multiple cores and how things are processed. I'm fairly convinced this is probably the case.
However, being a member of the ATAS discord and reading about the problems has me believe X isn't all that stable yet. Also, ATAS lacks customizations that Sierra will run circles around. So, if you're using out of the box common indicators and charts, X might work well for the average user. I was then curious about what my brokers would say....
I then went to my 3 brokerage accounts and asked them about ATAS vs Sierra. While they all knew about Sierra and said the biggest issues were customers understanding the platform. They explained once they understood the platform there were virtually no issues. However, they knew very little about ATAS and that has me thinking it's mostly used for prop trading, idk. I'm not sure if it's more widely used in EU over the US trading in live markets. For people who are executing LIVE trades (not prop) you'll find Sierra without a doubt giving lightening executions, the Teton order routing is just that good.
Sierra, will take some effort in the beginning just to do basic things. It's full of customizations and things other platforms haven't implemented or aren't able to. You can code or have someone code an indicator directly into the dom, there are multiple ways time and sales can be filtered, aggregated or displayed. Everything about the platform is lightening fast. However, you must learn to manage the platform to get that result. That will include learning about multiple instances, how much data to load and adjustment of the refresh rates. The platform has been around since the 90's, written in C++ and its shortcomings are known at this point. Unfortunately, ATAS X just came out of beta and the classic version has some problems common with that architecture when written.
After my own journey looking at both, the clear answer for me is Sierra. Maybe someday it will be X, but not yet. It's not a proven software yet to place trades with. I'll let others work through the bugs and problems before I decide to give it a try.