The Receiver Application

The Receiver is a custom Sierra Chart study that acts as the execution endpoint in the ST Hotkey Trader™ system. It is placed on a chart or trading DOM within Sierra Chart and is responsible for receiving, interpreting, and executing trading commands routed through the Connection Manager. An unlimited number of Receiver studies can be used at the same time in Sierra Chart, on different charts. 

Function and Role

Each Receiver instance connects to the Connection Manager and listens for incoming commands. These commands originate from one or more Sender applications and include actions such as placing market, limit, or stop orders, modifying stops and targets, flattening positions, canceling orders, and executing custom spread or basket orders.

The Receiver can be applied to any chart of a symbol the user wishes to trade. This includes both standard time-based charts and the Sierra Chart trading DOM. Once placed, the Receiver operates independently and does not require the chart window to be in focus for order execution to occur.

Custom Behavior and Configuration

Each Receiver instance supports user-defined configuration parameters through its study settings. These settings can be used to filter, modify, or restrict incoming commands based on symbol, command type, or other logic. This allows for fine-grained control over how and when trading actions are executed on a per-chart basis.

Additionally, the Receiver can transmit feedback to the Sender Application — such as acknowledgment of execution or error conditions — via the Connection Manager, enabling a two-way communication loop within the system architecture.

Performance and Advantages

The ST Hotkey Trader™ infrastructure allows orders to be transmitted and executed in Sierra Chart within milliseconds. Because Receivers operate independently of Sierra Chart’s native hotkey system, there is no need for the user to switch focus between chart windows or manually interact with the platform using a mouse.

This structure offers several advantages over Sierra Chart’s built-in hotkey functionality:

• Multi-symbol execution — multiple Receiver instances can run simultaneously, each managing a different instrument.
• True parallel trading — orders can be executed on several markets at once without changing window focus or using multiple monitors.
• No UI dependency — trades can be triggered without any Sierra Chart window being visible, though it remains good practice to monitor active positions visually.
• High-speed input response — execution speed is suitable for latency-sensitive strategies such as news trading, order flow scalping, or spread trading.

Without ST Hotkey Trader™, Sierra Chart limits hotkey functionality to a single active chart and a narrow range of commands. This constraint prevents traders from executing multi-market strategies efficiently via the keyboard. The Receiver component overcomes these limitations, making simultaneous trading across instruments practical and reliable.

Trade replication and copy trading

The Sender–Connection Manager–Receiver architecture also supports basic copy trading functionality, which can be useful for both retail and institutional users. For retail traders, this allows trades to be mirrored across multiple Sierra Chart instances or accounts — for example, executing the same order in both a live and demo account, or across multiple instruments using the same strategy. For institutional users, the same setup can be used to replicate trades across desks, synchronize execution across multiple operators, or distribute commands from a central risk or strategy controller to multiple endpoints in real time, without relying on third-party copy trading platforms.