Need to Allow Step value of 0

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MC_Prog
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Need to Allow Step value of 0

Postby MC_Prog » 19 Aug 2009

Related to (but not the same as) the idea of having an on/off checkbox for each optimization input is the idea of allowing Step = 0 as a way to tell the optimizer "stay at the start value".

Doing sequential optimizations (first some params, then different params) with MC is currently agonizing.

IMO, this should be dead-simple to do, with every possible form of support provided for.

On/Off checkboxes and allowing Step = 0 are two of the desirable forms of support.

The problem with requiring Step <> 0 as currently, is that it is not possible to prevent optimization of a given parameter without destroying the (normal, default, standard, generally used, special case, - pick one) range settings for the parameter.

This is a big-time drag for doing sequential optimizations.

It is also very simple to fix, with just minor design changes.

I hope that the reasoning here can be seen and accepted for implementation ASAP.

Thanks!

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Andrew Kirillov
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Postby Andrew Kirillov » 10 Sep 2009

Dear MC_Prog,

Probably we will consider these features.

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Postby MC_Prog » 12 Feb 2010

I note that this situation persists in MC 6.0 Beta 2.

This is one of several key items pertaining to real-world usage of the MC backtesting capabilities that needs/deserves completion/enhancement prior to (IMO) turning all development attention elsewhere (e.g. manual trading, etc.).

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Postby Tresor » 12 Feb 2010

This is one of several key items pertaining to real-world usage of the MC backtesting capabilities that needs/deserves completion/enhancement prior to (IMO) turning all development attention elsewhere (e.g. manual trading, etc.).
TSS should focus on manual trading first as this is low-hanging fruit. The bell and whistles you suggest are unimportant for majority of users.

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Postby Bruce DeVault » 14 Feb 2010

This should be trivial to fix. The right person at TS Support could fix this in no more than 5 minutes. Let's not get distracted please by how this minor bug fix merits vs. manual trading, which TS Support is already doing anyway and thus is immaterial to discussion of this item.

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Postby MC_Prog » 18 Mar 2010

In support of any user's sequential optimization, I'd like to also mention the importance of quick and easy configuration of the starting point.

Consider the case where an initial optimization has been performed, and many iterations (let's say 16000 iterations) are available for reloading into the chart to be displayed.

The user may wish to take any one of those 16000 iterations as the starting point for a fine-grained sweep of just 1 or 2 parameters.

So, in the optimization setup dialog, we would like a button "Set Start to Current" (or similar name) whose effect would be threefold:

1. Set all the Start Values to the currently displayed values
2. Set all the End Values to the currently displayed values (e.g. same as the start values)
3. Set all the step values to 0.

The user would then merely adjust the Start/End/Step for the one or two parameters of interest and start the desired optimization.

The button would accomplish accurately in a split-second what would today take the user a minute or two (or maybe even many minutes, if there are alot of parameters) with the possibility of undetected error.

And, of course, that savings in time and aggravation would accrue to every user of optimization, every time they want to do a "starting point sequential optimization", forever after.

I highly recommend this way of looking at "software leverage" when choosing to devote effort (or not) to implementing workflow improvement for users/customers.

The human's time is the critical component that there will never be more of. You can buy faster computer clock speed, you can buy more memory, more processor cores, more machines, and the future promises even more of all that. But you cannot buy more than 24 hours in your day, and never will be able to.

IMO, this is the most important single understanding needed for developing superior software solutions that will be highly popular and sell well at a favorable price. Smart people will pay up for what really, truly saves them time (and will abandon what sucks that time away to no purpose).


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