Static data
A Static data connection holds price bars you import from files, such as CSV or Parquet exports from a data vendor, your own research output or another platform. Charts, the Backtester and the Optimizer use them like any connection's history; the connection itself has no live prices and takes no orders.
You can add as many as you like and name each one, for example one per data vendor: "Static provider 1", "Static provider 2". Each keeps its own instruments and its own bars; two Static data connections never mix their bars, even for the same symbol.
Add one
Add it in Connections > Configure... as described in Setting up a connection: choose Static data under Available connections. A new one is named "Static data", then "Static data 2". Its only settings are Data provider and Name; the usual rules for names apply, so a name cannot be empty or taken. It is ready as soon as you choose OK.
You can also add one while importing: in Tools > Import data..., the Connection list ends with New connection.... See Importing data.
Always ready
A Static data connection is on from the moment AlgoDesk starts, and you cannot turn it off. In the toolbar's Connections menu it shows "always ready" instead of a switch, and it never makes the connection icon green: the icon speaks only for connections that connect to something. See Connection status and reconnecting.
It has no accounts, so Chart Trader, the Book Trader and live strategies have nothing to trade on it.
When you open a chart, AlgoDesk starts it on a connection that connects to something if one is connected, and on a Static data connection only when none is. See Opening a chart.
Instruments
A Static data connection has no list to search. Its instruments are created when you import a file, and step 3 of the import only offers that connection's instruments. The types are STOCK, ETF, FUTURE, INDEX, FOREX and CRYPTO.
In Tools > Instruments, choose the connection to see them, to change an instrument's Price increments (the tick size) or Multiplier (the point value), or to remove one. See Finding and adding instruments.
Bar sizes
Only the bar sizes you import exist: 1 second; 1, 3, 5, 15 or 30 minutes; 1 hour; 1 day. AlgoDesk does not build one size from another. A 15-minute chart of a symbol you imported at 1 minute says "No 15-minute bars stored for MES on Static provider 1. Import them with Tools > Import data."
A chart counts back from today, as every chart does. If none of your bars fall in the dates the chart loads, it says which dates are stored. For example, a 1-minute chart of MES whose bars end in June 2025 says "No bars in this period. MES at 1 minute on Static provider 1 holds 2 Jan 2025 to 30 Jun 2025." Change the chart's dates in the Data series window: set End Date to a day inside those dates, or choose Custom Range under Load data based on and set Start Date and End Date. See Opening a chart.
Where the bars are kept
Each Static data connection's bars are in Documents\AlgoDesk\DB\HistoricalData\StaticData, in a folder of its own. The folder is named with the connection's number, not its name, so renaming the connection moves nothing. Tools > Options > Historical Data shows a branch for each Static data connection that has bars, such as "Static data · Static provider 1"; there is no Add on it.
Delete bars there, not by hand in the folder: AlgoDesk keeps a record of which days are stored. See Historical data.
AlgoDesk never deletes a Static data file by itself. If a day's file is damaged, it is renamed with .corrupt at the end and kept in the same folder, the chart shows no bars for that day, and the Log tab names the file: import that period again. See Progress messages. A damaged 1-day file holds a whole year, so it is not renamed: it stays where it is, and the chart or the Backtester reports an error that names it. Delete that bar size under Options > Historical Data and import it again; until you do, an import of 1-day bars into that symbol stops if it reaches into the damaged year.
Remove a connection
Removing a Static data connection deletes its instruments and lists, as for any connection, and keeps its bars. They show in Tools > Options > Historical Data as "Static data (removed connection 4)" until you remove them there. A new Static data connection does not take them over, even under the same name. See Historical data.
A chart in a workspace, or a preset, saved on a Static data connection that no longer exists does not move to another Static data connection, even one that holds the same symbol: it opens with no symbol. Other connection types move to another connection of the same type; Static data does not, because each Static data connection holds bars of its own.