why does every future i load on MC need to be fixed in quote

Questions about MultiCharts and user contributed studies.
greenroomhoo
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why does every future i load on MC need to be fixed in quote

Postby greenroomhoo » 02 Dec 2011

I want my money back

IQ feed data
This morning i go to load dax for first time. of course MC loads it with the wrong settings (1/100 instead of 1/2) and it crashes MC (after of course getting the annoying pc is running out of memory error).

NT does not do that - SC doesnt either. what gives?

Also - when are we going to fix this memory issue? I now have to reboot my computer for loading one symbol with 14 days of data. I cant really do any serious level of portfolio backtesting either because the thing runs out of memory (dont worry i have plenty of memory and processor speed)?

This perplexes me...i can portfolio back test a hundred or so symbols for say....1yr but not much longer or memory fails. What is the point of having a portfolio backtesting software that i have to do one year at a time?

I paid for my license and started to do that stuff and guess what...i cant and the memory preventing me from loading lots of intraday stuff keeps from even using it....thats right i bought a license but dont even use it as i wait for this memory to be solved.

Can others really portfolio backtest a bunch of symbols over any reasonable period of time without the memory problem? What am I missing?

One more question - when are we going to get decent renko bars like SC or NT with wicks that we can actually backtest with instead of having to using multiple data streams to do it - which takes forever.

Got to go now and shutdown all my stuff and reboot to clear memory. did that but of course i did not delete the chart with the offending symbol so used up all the memory at launch and it now stopped reading from iq. so i need to reboot AGAIN....so of course i wont and continue to use SC. Hence why i consider my money on MC completely wasted...

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Dave Masalov
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Re: why does every future i load on MC need to be fixed in q

Postby Dave Masalov » 02 Dec 2011

greenroomhoo,

Please explain the issue in details. How many charts and symbols in scanner windows do you have open at the same time? What is the resolution and number of bars on your charts? What is the number of studies running simultaneously?

Also, please send us your workspaces and custom studies (if any) so we can investigate the issue on our end.

MultiCharts is a 32 bit application and has a Windows limitation of 2 GB of virtual memory per process. The warning message comes up when the use of virtual memory reaches 1.5 GB. If the process that consumes too much memory is MultiCharts.exe or MCPortfolio.exe, then you can try to use multiple instances of the program. However, if it is Tsserver.exe, there is no workaround at the moment. The issue will disappear when we transition to 64 bits.

Task manager does not show the virtual memory consumption properly. The easiest way to check the consumption of virtual memory is to use Process Explorer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 96653.aspx).

As for Renko charts, our implementation of Renko charts is a standard one. These are normal Renko charts. We do not plan to implement Renko bars with wicks in the nearest future.

greenroomhoo
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Re: why does every future i load on MC need to be fixed in q

Postby greenroomhoo » 02 Dec 2011

I opened up IQ feed and add the DAX XGZ11 from IQ feed. It loaded natively in the platform with 1/100 size - WHICH IS NOT CORRECT. I believe it is 1/2. So when you open a chart with it you get crazy looking bars and voila....it crashes mc.

This was the case with just about every future (6e - NQ - YM) no matter the exchange and for each one i had to go look up the correct settings - that alone cost me tons of time. So launching the dax this am "broke this camel's back"...After paying for a license I should not have to fix stuff like that. Its now to the point that i am afraid to open a symbol I have never open before. Instead i pull up NT first to see what that symbol's attributes are then load it into quote manager and then.....etc. etc. By the time i do all that I might as well just stay in NT.

Without renkos with wicks (again see Invetor RT, NT, and SC to name a few) - you cannot backtest renkos. But i can live without that since i ahve already abandoned the platform for intraday futures trading anyway and just hope i can recover some of my investment on the portfolio backtesting side.

However, the memory is a serious problem. i have quad processor and 16bg so plenty of memory in my computer. I spent some time loading a couple of hundred symbols for stocks, made up some plain old strategy and ran it. Runs fine for about 5/6 or iterations then i start getting the memory full error for another handful then it just crashes.

I have "tried" to do the portfolio optimization on the same and it just does not work. Runs one iteration then nothing else...im assuming the memory again. But at that point i am so fed up with wasting many hours of my time i throw up my hands and move on.

So my questions:

WHEN will this memory issue be fixed such that the platform will funciton in the way advertised (portflio bactesting and optimization)? and

IS anyone actually using portfolio backtesting on a couple hundred symbols without having memory errors? If so, HOW?

When are keyboard shortcuts coming?

Please answer the first question honestly - because i need to know if I should wait patiently or move on to another platform. Id rather NOT move on because of my easylanguage knowledge but if it is going to be a long time...

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Re: why does every future i load on MC need to be fixed in q

Postby Xyzzy » 02 Dec 2011

greenroomhoo,

I haven't had any problems backtesting strategies on renko charts in MultiCharts. The one "gotcha" is that your strategy needs to be set to open or close a position "this bar at close" rather than "next bar at market." I.e., it opens or closes a position immediately after the block is drawn, at the closing price of that block.

This is because when one block closes, you don't know whether the next block will be an up or down block until after the next block is completed. Consequently, you can't know the "opening" price of a renko block when that block is forming. However, if you backtest using closing prices, the problem goes away.

I've submitted some feature requests for renko charts, including wicks. However, I view these as "nice to have," not "must have," features. Hopefully MultiCharts will implement these in a future release.

http://www.multicharts.com/pm/viewissue ... _no=MC-386

Concerning portfolio backtesting, you should be able to backtest at least 125 to 150 symbols now, using the 32 bit version. I believe that the MultiCharts people have said that the 64-bit version would be out shortly (within a few months), although perhaps they can clarify that.

greenroomhoo
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Re: why does every future i load on MC need to be fixed in q

Postby greenroomhoo » 02 Dec 2011

thanks Xyzzy....i guess i am just pretty tweaked that they did not make that clear (that portfolio backtesting is limited by memory constraints).

Dont you have issues with backtesting renkos though when you are trailing stops since the bar will have prints outside the defined bar?

ill try the other suggestion on entries. thanks for the help

greenroomhoo,

I haven't had any problems backtesting strategies on renko charts in MultiCharts. The one "gotcha" is that your strategy needs to be set to open or close a position "this bar at close" rather than "next bar at market." I.e., it opens or closes a position immediately after the block is drawn, at the closing price of that block.

This is because when one block closes, you don't know whether the next block will be an up or down block until after the next block is completed. Consequently, you can't know the "opening" price of a renko block when that block is forming. However, if you backtest using closing prices, the problem goes away.

I've submitted some feature requests for renko charts, including wicks. However, I view these as "nice to have," not "must have," features. Hopefully MultiCharts will implement these in a future release.

http://www.multicharts.com/pm/viewissue ... _no=MC-386

Concerning portfolio backtesting, you should be able to backtest at least 125 to 150 symbols now, using the 32 bit version. I believe that the MultiCharts people have said that the 64-bit version would be out shortly (within a few months), although perhaps they can clarify that.

Xyzzy
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Re: why does every future i load on MC need to be fixed in q

Postby Xyzzy » 02 Dec 2011

I haven't used trailing stops using renko charts. To me, it seems counterintuitive. I view each renko block as an individual "unit" of price, and I don't try to subdivide that further (e.g., by setting a trailing stop for half of a block).

My strategies just trade at the close of a block if the price gets too low. E.g., "If close < minprice then sell this bar at close." This will place a market order if the price gets too low, although you're limited to price increments based on the size of the block.

If you wanted to have a trailing stop, I don't think that you could model that accurately using MultiChart's current implementation of renko charts. The alternative would be to use regular time-based charts or tick-based charts, and create a signal based on something like the Renko Adaptive Indicator to simulate renko blocks. However, that would be pretty complicated.

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums ... mc-ts.html

Xyzzy
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Re: why does every future i load on MC need to be fixed in q

Postby Xyzzy » 02 Dec 2011

I just had a thought... You could try turning on the Bar Magnifier (under Strategy Properties: Backtesting). That might allow you to correctly simulate a trailing stop on a renko chart. I don't know if that would work, but it's worth a try.

greenroomhoo
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Re: why does every future i load on MC need to be fixed in q

Postby greenroomhoo » 03 Dec 2011

I am using the 2data workaround like you mention, it is just more complicated that it needs to be IMHO. Thanks again. ill try this stuff.
I haven't used trailing stops using renko charts. To me, it seems counterintuitive. I view each renko block as an individual "unit" of price, and I don't try to subdivide that further (e.g., by setting a trailing stop for half of a block).

My strategies just trade at the close of a block if the price gets too low. E.g., "If close < minprice then sell this bar at close." This will place a market order if the price gets too low, although you're limited to price increments based on the size of the block.

If you wanted to have a trailing stop, I don't think that you could model that accurately using MultiChart's current implementation of renko charts. The alternative would be to use regular time-based charts or tick-based charts, and create a signal based on something like the Renko Adaptive Indicator to simulate renko blocks. However, that would be pretty complicated.

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums ... mc-ts.html

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TJ
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Re: why does every future i load on MC need to be fixed in q

Postby TJ » 03 Dec 2011

thanks Xyzzy....i guess i am just pretty tweaked that they did not make that clear (that portfolio backtesting is limited by memory constraints).

Dont you have issues with backtesting renkos though when you are trailing stops since the bar will have prints outside the defined bar?

ill try the other suggestion on entries. thanks for the help

...
No need to get upset...
the 64 bit version of MultiCharts has been in the work for some time,
it should be ready very soon.




ps. I would not spend too much time back testing in range type charts. Just my 2c.

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Dave Masalov
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Re: why does every future i load on MC need to be fixed in q

Postby Dave Masalov » 07 Dec 2011

WHEN will this memory issue be fixed such that the platform will funciton in the way advertised (portflio bactesting and optimization)?
greenroomhoo,

We are working on 64 bit version of MultiCharts which won't have 2GB of virtual memory per process limitation and consequently will solve running out of memory issues. There is no exact ETA at the moment, but it is a highest priority project for us and we plan to release it in the beginning of 2012.


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