Developing a Trading System Step by Step

Discussion in 'Strategy Building' started by Murray Ruggiero, Jan 16, 2006.

Do you trade mechanical systems

  1. Yes, I buy and trade commerical systems.

    24 vote(s)
    4.7%
  2. I develop and trade my own systems.

    350 vote(s)
    69.2%
  3. I trade both commerical and systems I develop.

    44 vote(s)
    8.7%
  4. I don't believe in mechanical trading systems.

    88 vote(s)
    17.4%
  1. cnms2

    cnms2

    Take care!
     
    #91     Feb 15, 2006
  2. Murray Ruggiero

    Murray Ruggiero Sponsor

    TradersStudio 2.0 will let you set slippage and commissions on a bar by bar and market by market basis. This means you could use a slippage of .20*Average(Range,10) for example. This way slippage adjusts for volatility
     
    #92     Feb 15, 2006
  3. swingman

    swingman

    Okay, but have you known very successful traders/managers who scalp very short timeframes?
     
    #93     Feb 16, 2006
  4. BENG

    BENG

    I use the daily spot rate to convert the data, and I don't use any commercial program out there. Currently, I'm using a 4GL based program, which can do a lot of things. Just that it's not written in OO, so it's quite hard for me to change things.
     
    #94     Feb 16, 2006
  5. BENG

    BENG

    James Simons.
     
    #95     Feb 16, 2006
  6. BENG

    BENG

    Can it run simluations based on individual front month contract, and be able to do the roll over itself? I know simulation with perpetual data is enough, but only simulation based on real individual contract can simulate the real world situation.

    Data issues... I have huge problem managing data (perpetual, ratio adjusted, individual contract, roll over date, currency conversion, tick size, tick value, news date, etc), can TradersStudio make it easy for people to import data from sources like CSI, CQG, Pinnacle, etc. I might have experience with system building, but definitely not data management. Imagine I'm new to system building, and I buy data from CSI, I don't even know how to use it properly... based currency, tick size, tick value, these values don't stay constant in the historical data, and it's impossible for me to know what has happened in the past 10 to 20 years for every product.

    About simulation... can TradersStudio do something like rolling window simulation? For example, I like to take the best cases from the last 3 years to run simulation for the next 3 months, then take the best cases again for the moving 3 years window, and run simluations for another 3 months. Simulations could get really complicated in some cases, how would TradersStudio tackle this issue?
     
    #96     Feb 16, 2006
  7. Murray Ruggiero

    Murray Ruggiero Sponsor

    What is short term, What average trade length ? I don't know any professional money manager who only trade very short term scalping, maybe before the dot-com crash but not today.
     
    #97     Feb 16, 2006
  8. Murray Ruggiero

    Murray Ruggiero Sponsor

    We do not have built in support for individual contract roll over, but I know that we can do it in script using our portfolio capabilities. I just have not had time to write the code.
    The currency problem for overseas futures goes away with TradersStudio 2.0 , just supply the conversion file that you create using CSI. When CSI updates it along with the rest of your data you will always have the correct conversion without fudging it.

    In 1.3.6 we wrote a walk forward macro, this does walk forward analysis which is what I think you mean by rolling windows. This is included for free in the current version of the product. In 2.0 we are integrating this technology into the product.
     
    #98     Feb 16, 2006
  9. swingman

    swingman


    Xephen (or Murray when you get better),
    Do you mean a stop and reversal volatility breakout system? Please tell me more about the mechanics, and where do the stops come in, if any?
     
    #99     Feb 16, 2006
  10. swingman

    swingman

    Xephen,
    Yes, I've had problems with the short side in building a robust system. It always ends up DRAGGING or even CRUSHING a good long-side. Any advice or clues on how to rectify this? That would greatly be appreciated, as it's frustrating.

    I've obviously been guilty of using the same criteria for long and short, only to find that the short side is not working. I know this, but can't figure out how to address it. One time even, by luck (don't ask me what I did), when I finally reduced the number of short trades and used a signal more beneficial to the short side, my long-side performance completely went negative! I gave up and moved on...but am thinking of getting back into automated strategies more seriously.
     
    #100     Feb 16, 2006