SCS Trade Copier

Trade Copier is a real-time trade replication system for Sierra Chart that copies trading activity from a Source chart to a Follower chart: entries, exits, partial closes, scale-ins, reversals, bracket orders, and pending orders including Limit, Stop, Stop-Limit, and Triggered Limit orders. The Follower calculates its own position size independently, so you can run different account sizes, different risk levels, or supported mini → micro contract pairs (e.g., ES on Source, MES on Follower) with automatic quantity adjustment.

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How It Works

Trade Copier consists of two ACSIL studies that communicate through Windows shared memory:

	Instance 1 (Source)		Instance 2 (Follower)
Role	You trade here (manual or algo)	→	Trades replicated automatically
Study	SOURCE: monitors your position	Shared Memory	FOLLOWER: replicates with own sizing
Data sent	Position, brackets, pending orders	< 1ms latency	Receives and executes independently

The Source study runs on your main Sierra Chart instance. It does not place any orders. It only monitors your position, bracket orders, and pending orders, then writes the current state to shared memory every processing tick.

The Follower study runs on your second Sierra Chart instance. It reads the shared memory state and replicates every change using its own independent position sizing.

Communication uses Windows shared memory (memory-mapped files). There is no file I/O, no network traffic, and no serialization overhead. Latency is sub-millisecond.

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What Gets Copied

Action	Behavior
Market entry	Follower enters at market with independently calculated quantity
Limit/Stop entry	Pending order placed at the same price, modified or cancelled if Source changes it
Partial close	Follower closes the proportional number of contracts
Scale-in	Follower adds contracts with recalculated quantity
Reversal	Two-phase process: flatten first, confirm zero position, then enter new direction
Full flatten	Follower flattens immediately
Stop loss	Placed and updated in real time to match Source stop distance
Take profit	Placed and updated in real time to match Source target distance
Triggered Limit entry	Both limit price and trigger price are copied and modified using Sierra Chart's two-price order fields
Pending order modification	Price, trigger price when applicable, and quantity changes replicated automatically
Pending order cancellation	Cancelled on Follower when cancelled on Source

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Independent Position Sizing

The Follower never blindly copies the Source quantity. It calculates its own position size using one of four modes:

Multiplier Mode

The simplest mode. The Follower quantity equals the Source quantity multiplied by a configurable factor.

Source Qty	Multiplier	Follower Qty
2	1.0	2
2	0.5	1
3	2.0	6
1	5.0	5

Risk % Mode

The Follower calculates its own quantity from three values: its account balance, a risk percentage, and the stop distance from the Source's bracket order.

Calculation:

Risk Amount = Account Balance × Risk %
Tick Risk   = Stop Distance (ticks) × Tick Value
Quantity    = floor(Risk Amount / Tick Risk)

Example:

• Follower account balance: $50,000
• Risk %: 1%
• Source stop distance: 8 ticks on ES ($12.50/tick)
• Risk amount: $500
• Tick risk: 8 × $12.50 = $100
• Quantity: floor($500 / $100) = 5 contracts

This mode means the Source and Follower can have completely different account sizes and still risk the same percentage per trade.

Fixed $ Mode

The Follower risks a fixed dollar amount per trade, regardless of account size.

Calculation:

Quantity = floor(Fixed $ Amount / (Stop Distance × Tick Value))

Example:

• Fixed risk: $200
• Source stop distance: 4 ticks on NQ ($5.00/tick)
• Quantity: floor($200 / $20) = 10 contracts

Fixed Qty Mode

The Follower always targets a fixed number of contracts, regardless of the Source quantity. This is useful when the Source trades multiple contracts for scale-outs, but the Follower account should only trade a smaller constant size.

Source Qty	Fixed Qty	Follower Target
1	1	1
3	1	1
5	2	2

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Pending Order Controls

Trade Copier can mirror working entry orders before they fill. This includes regular Limit/Stop entries and Sierra Chart Triggered Limit orders.

Setting	Behavior
Copy Pending Orders	Replicates Source working entry orders on the Follower
Max Pending Parent Orders	Limits how many Source parent pending orders the Follower copies; 0 means unlimited up to the internal 8-order buffer
Attach Brackets to Pending Orders	Attaches the Source pending order's supported simple TP/SL to the Follower pending order

The bracket-on-pending mode is enabled by default so pending entries are submitted with their own attached target/stop when the Source parent has a supported bracket.

Supported pending attached brackets are simple limit targets plus stop or stop-limit stops. Trailing and step-trailing stops can still be observed after a position exists, but they are not automatically recreated as attached brackets on a pending entry.

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Copying Multiple Independent Orders

The Follower submits to the account you choose in its Account setting, and that choice also decides how orders are routed:

• Account = the chart's own Trade Window account (or left empty): the Follower copies your activity as a single net position. Sierra Chart manages the attached target/stop bracket groups for that position automatically. This covers the most common case, a single entry that scales out across several targets.
• Account = a different, unused account: the Follower replicates order by order to that separate account, so multiple independent pending or bracketed orders are each copied with their own target and stop.

Sierra Chart limitation to be aware of. Sierra Chart nets fills into one position per account/symbol and does not provide reliable per-entry bracket isolation for several independent attached-order parents on the same account. Because of this, several independent bracketed entries on the same account (for example a ladder of separate limit orders, each carrying its own targets and stop) cannot all be held independently: later attached-order parents can be rejected or merged into the existing net-position management. A single multi-target entry is not affected and works on any account.

To copy multiple independent bracketed or pending orders, run the Follower on a chart whose Trade Window account is a separate, unused account, typically a Sim account, different from the account you trade on manually. The Follower detects this automatically and routes each order individually to that account, so every order keeps its own brackets. This is the recommended setup for full independent multi-order replication.

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Automatic Micro/Mini Detection

When the Follower chart uses a supported micro contract while the Source uses the standard contract, Trade Copier automatically detects the mismatch and applies a ×10 multiplier to the quantity calculation.

Source Symbol	Follower Symbol	Auto-Multiplier
ES	MES	×10
NQ	MNQ	×10
CL	MCL	×10
GC	MGC	×10
YM	MYM	×10
RTY	M2K	×10
6E	M6E	×10
6B	M6B	×10

This means you can trade 1 ES on your main account and automatically have 10 MES on a smaller account. The supported automatic bridge is mini Source → micro Follower; if you run the reverse direction, use matching roots or configure sizing manually.

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Safety Features

Source Timeout

The Follower monitors a heartbeat timestamp written by the Source on every processing tick. If the heartbeat is not updated for more than a configurable number of seconds (default: 10), the Follower assumes the Source has crashed, disconnected, or lost its data feed, and immediately flattens the Follower position.

Auto-Flatten on Source Flat

When the Source position goes to zero, the Follower flattens immediately. This prevents orphaned positions caused by timing gaps (for example, if the Source exits via a bracket fill that the Follower hasn't received yet).

Max Position Cap

A hard limit on the maximum number of contracts the Follower can hold, regardless of what the sizing calculation produces. If the calculated quantity exceeds the cap, it is clamped to the cap value. This prevents runaway position sizes from misconfigured multipliers or unexpected conditions.

Circuit Breaker

If more than the configured maximum number of orders are sent within a one-minute window (default: 10), the Follower flattens all positions and temporarily blocks replication until the minute window resets. This protects against rapid-fire order loops caused by timing edge cases or data feed issues.

Two-Phase Reversals

When the Source reverses direction (e.g., from long to short), the Follower does not send a single double-quantity order. Instead, it executes a two-phase process:

1. Flatten the current position
2. Confirm the position is zero
3. Enter in the new direction

This prevents double positions that can occur if the flatten and entry orders are processed out of sequence.

Min Order Interval

A configurable cooldown period between consecutive orders (in milliseconds). If the Follower detects that another order would fire before the cooldown expires, it queues the action until the interval has elapsed. This prevents order bursts during rapid Source activity.

Sim/Live Auto-Detection

The Follower automatically detects whether the chart is connected to a simulation or live trading account and routes all orders to the correct account type. No manual configuration needed.

ACS Button Kill Switch

An optional ACS button on the chart toolbar can enable or disable the Follower. When disabled, the Follower stops reading shared memory and places no orders. Use this to temporarily pause replication without removing the study.

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Configuration

Follower Settings

Setting	Description	Default
Account	Account the Follower submits to. The chart's own account (or empty) copies as a single net position; a different, unused account copies order by order with independent brackets	Chart account
Sizing Mode	Multiplier, Risk %, Fixed $, or Fixed Qty	Multiplier
Multiplier	Quantity multiplier (Multiplier mode)	1.0
Risk Percent	Account risk percentage (Risk % mode)	1.0%
Account Balance	Manual balance for sim accounts (Risk % mode)	0 (auto from live)
Fixed Risk Amount	Dollar risk per trade (Fixed $ mode)	$500
Fixed Quantity	Constant Follower contract count (Fixed Qty mode)	1
Default Stop Ticks	Fallback stop distance for Risk % / Fixed $ sizing when no Source stop is visible	0 (disabled)
Max Position	Hard cap on Follower contracts; 0 means unlimited up to Sierra Chart's engine cap	0
Source Timeout (seconds)	Seconds before auto-flatten on lost heartbeat	10
Min Order Interval (ms)	Cooldown between consecutive orders	1000
Max Orders Per Minute	Circuit-breaker threshold in a 60-second window	10
Toggle Button (ACS#, 0=off)	Optional ACS button number for enable/disable	0
Max Pending Parent Orders	Maximum Source pending parent orders to copy (0 = unlimited up to 8; non-zero input range 1-4)	0
Attach Brackets to Pending Orders	Attach copied simple TP/SL to newly submitted pending entries	Yes
Verbose Diagnostic Logging	Extra troubleshooting logs for support cases	No

Source Settings

Setting	Description	Default
Copier Enabled	Master Source on/off switch	Yes
Toggle Button (ACS#, 0=off)	Optional ACS button number for enable/disable	0
Debug Logging	Throttled diagnostic logging for positions and working orders	No

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Requirements

• Two Sierra Chart instances running on the same machine, each with ACSIL custom study support
• Both Source and Follower must be the same Trade Copier build; incompatible shared-memory versions are rejected
• Windows only (shared memory uses Windows memory-mapped files)
• Compatible with both live and simulation accounts; Source and Follower can use different account types