Generation of blank trades

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GuppyDRV
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Generation of blank trades

Postby GuppyDRV » 06 Oct 2017

Hello all,

I would like to try testing some new strategy ideas that I have by isolating various entries. The strategy I have in mind has several different options for entering trades both long and short. What I would like to do is isolate one individual entry at a time as the only entry that actually trades. Here's the catch, I want the other entries to continue functioning as if they were actually trading without taking actual trades. They would in essence function as place holders.

So here is the question. Do we have a reserve word that instead of executing a trade will execute a "place holder" type of trade only?

Any help or a point to a reference thread etc... would be greatly appreciated.

GuppyDRV

PS. I'm still using MC10

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TJ
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Re: Generation of blank trades

Postby TJ » 06 Oct 2017

Hello all,

I would like to try testing some new strategy ideas that I have by isolating various entries. The strategy I have in mind has several different options for entering trades both long and short. What I would like to do is isolate one individual entry at a time as the only entry that actually trades. Here's the catch, I want the other entries to continue functioning as if they were actually trading without taking actual trades. They would in essence function as place holders.

So here is the question. Do we have a reserve word that instead of executing a trade will execute a "place holder" type of trade only?

Any help or a point to a reference thread etc... would be greatly appreciated.

GuppyDRV

PS. I'm still using MC10

I am not sure if I follow your "place holder" concept.

Can you explain it a bit more?


Do you mean you want some kind of indication or record that a trade has been triggered?

janus
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Re: Generation of blank trades

Postby janus » 06 Oct 2017

I think I understand what you are asking for but not sure. You sound like you have a number of different trading strategies within one study but you only want to select one or more of them to send orders to the broker, while the rest place a entry/exit symbol on the chart to simulate "dummy" orders. Is that correct? If so then yes you can do this by setting up another indicator that sets a particular global variable, which can be modified using the "Inputs" dialogue of the indicator and restarting it. The main study picks up the global variable value and blocks/allows the appropriate strategy(ies).. That way you don't have to restart your main study, only the indicator. A better way is to construct a menu in the study itself to allow you to click on "buttons" displayed on the chart but that's a lot more complicated. I have done this for other reasons.

GuppyDRV
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Re: Generation of blank trades

Postby GuppyDRV » 30 Oct 2017

Thanks for the reply and sorry for the delayed response, I took two weeks off for holiday!

I'll try and and post a better explanation of what I'm looking for with blank trades.

The system I'm attempting to build has multiple entry options both long and short.

Let's call them........

Entry A "Long"
Entry B "Long"
Entry C "Short"
Entry D " Short"

Each entry has a corresponding exit tied to the entry. Actually, multiple exits tied to the individual entry, some of which reverse trades. My desire is to explore how each individual entry and tied exit perform. The difficulty is that each entry effects how the others trade. An example might be where Entry "B" has entered a trade and the strategy is now long 1 contract. This would prohibit Entry "C" from entering a trade as Entry "C" will only trade if the strategy is flat. Thus, if I wanted to explore how Entry "C" performs with various changes to the rest of the strategy I would need for the other entries to be actively trading. This is my issue......I want them to trade but without the results of those trades being recorded so that I can isolate just Entry "C" results.

If I were to just create a simple strategy with just Entry "C" the overal results would be flawed as the effect of the other parts of the strategy would be missing.

Thus I would like to isolate Entry "C" and just see those results but to do this I need for Entry "A,B,D" to continue behaving as they would normally. Is there a reserve word I could substitute instead of buy 1 contract. Something like this.

If condition one then begin
Buy "place holder contract" next bar a market
End;

I hope this helps and I look forward to any input that might be available.

GuppyDRV

evdl
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Re: Generation of blank trades

Postby evdl » 31 Oct 2017

I had such a strategy. The main idea was that every strategy works sometimes. And you want to exclude the periods when a strategy is not working and change over to the strategy that is working at a certain period. For example, you could have a trending, small tradingrange, big tradingrange strategy running at the same time. You only have to switch strategies on time. And that is just as hard as creating one single winning strategy.

I think Janus does something similar.

What I did is: create 4 identical charts with 4 different strategies on them. Now create another chart which is the main trading chart and place a strategy on this to take the real trades depending on the data you get from the other 4 strategies with global variabels. On this main chart you can run statistics of how each strategy is performing including the realtime live one and you can automate the switch between strategies.

GuppyDRV
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Re: Generation of blank trades

Postby GuppyDRV » 24 Nov 2017

I hope everyone has had a good Thanksgiving holiday.

So after some additional research I think TradersStudio might have the type of function I'm looking for although I'm firmly rooted with Multicharts.

They call it a vertual trade.....this can be used to simulate how a complex strategy might perform with peaces of the strategy not actually trading but submitting vertual trades.

Example.....

If condition1 = true then begin

"Place vertual trade (buy)" 1 contracts Next Bar at Market

End;

I'm not sure how they code it in TradersStudio so I'm just guessing on what it might look like.

GuppyDRV

TraderWalrus
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Re: Generation of blank trades

Postby TraderWalrus » 29 Nov 2017

If you're looking at overall results such as net profit, max drawdown, return on account etc. rather than specific trade statistics, one way to achieve what you need may be to set minimal size for the strategy that should place "placeholder" trades, and realistic size for the one you want to evaluate. That way, the effect of the minimal size orders may be negligible.

However if you're also looking at win rate, number of trades, average trade size and so on this won't help.

GuppyDRV
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Re: Generation of blank trades

Postby GuppyDRV » 29 Nov 2017

If you're looking at overall results such as net profit, max drawdown, return on account etc. rather than specific trade statistics, one way to achieve what you need may be to set minimal size for the strategy that should place "placeholder" trades, and realistic size for the one you want to evaluate. That way, the effect of the minimal size orders may be negligible.

However if you're also looking at win rate, number of trades, average trade size and so on this won't help.
TraderWalrus,

Now that's an interesting idea...........outside of the box! I do really want to look at more detailed data but I'm going to play around with this appproach as it might yield some interesting results.

Essentially, I'm trading some complex stuff that works but has many nested strategies, as in multiple entries/exits. Overall it works but some work better than others. The problem is they all interact and play off each other such that an entry signal from one can be an exit signal for an existing trade or an straight entry if market condition is flat. I just can't pull individual entries from the overall strategy. I would like to keep them working as in letting them effect the overall system but for the few that trade at a loss I would like them to not actually place trades with my broker. I'd like them to just sort of rest the trade "vertual trade" on my system so as to retain the integrity of the system as a whole.

Great thinking though I'm going to have a look at it this week with some of my development time.

GuppyDRV


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