Speeding up an Optimization by Avoiding Settings

December 21st, 2012, 10:15 AM

Programers, Ninjas, Martial Artists,

I have written a strategy that optimizes stop levels and take profits, but it takes forever to optimize since I usually use the default optimizer. I'd like it to just skip a setting if the stop is larger than the take profit. Right now I have an if statement so that the algorithm enters the trade only if the stop is <= the take profit. Is there a way to do this where the code just exits? I'm not a professional programmer so I'm not clear on how to approach this and would like suggestions from some pros who know how to make code faster. Thanks.

-steps

My current solution:

protected override void OnBarUpdate()
{
if (!(stopSmaller&&stop1>profit1))
{
EnterLongLimit(DefaultQuantity, (High[barsAgo]+ Low[barsAgo])/2-openDiff, "scale");
}
}

kevinkdog · December 21st, 2012, 10:23 AM

stepseazy

Programers, Ninjas, Martial Artists,

I have written a strategy that optimizes stop levels and take profits, but it takes forever to optimize since I usually use the default optimizer. I'd like it to just skip a setting if the stop is larger than the take profit. Right now I have an if statement so that the algorithm enters the trade only if the stop is <= the take profit. Is there a way to do this where the code just exits? I'm not a professional programmer so I'm not clear on how to approach this and would like suggestions from some pros who know how to make code faster. Thanks.

-steps

My current solution:

protected override void OnBarUpdate()
{
if (!(stopSmaller&&stop1>profit1))
{
EnterLongLimit(DefaultQuantity, (High[barsAgo]+ Low[barsAgo])/2-openDiff, "scale");
}
}

I'm not a Ninja person (I use Tradestation), but I'm guessing you have to set up the optimizer something like this:

Optimized variables are stop1 and profit1

You want to run cases of stop1 from say 1 to 20, and profit1 from 1 to 20, but stop1 has to be less than profit1

If that is the case, I would change your variables...

profit1 still the same
inc1 = new variable
stop1 = profit1 - inc1 (now this is a calculated variable, not one you set)

then you'd run cases of profit1 from 1 to 20, and inc1 from 1 to whatever

Then, stop1 would always be less than profit1

Hopefully this makes sense.

December 21st, 2012, 10:38 AM

Kev,

Very good solution, thanks. That does make a lot of sense. Not sure why I didn't think of that LOL. I wish I could change the optimizer logic though. Maybe I'm being too ambitious.

-steps

December 21st, 2012, 11:04 AM

stepseazy

Programers, Ninjas, Martial Artists,

I have written a strategy that optimizes stop levels and take profits, but it takes forever to optimize since I usually use the default optimizer. I'd like it to just skip a setting if the stop is larger than the take profit. Right now I have an if statement so that the algorithm enters the trade only if the stop is <= the take profit. Is there a way to do this where the code just exits? I'm not a professional programmer so I'm not clear on how to approach this and would like suggestions from some pros who know how to make code faster. Thanks.

-steps

My current solution:

protected override void OnBarUpdate()
{
if (!(stopSmaller&&stop1>profit1))
{
EnterLongLimit(DefaultQuantity, (High[barsAgo]+ Low[barsAgo])/2-openDiff, "scale");
}
}

kevinkdog

I'm not a Ninja person (I use Tradestation), but I'm guessing you have to set up the optimizer something like this:

Optimized variables are stop1 and profit1

You want to run cases of stop1 from say 1 to 20, and profit1 from 1 to 20, but stop1 has to be less than profit1

If that is the case, I would change your variables...

profit1 still the same
inc1 = new variable
stop1 = profit1 - inc1 (now this is a calculated variable, not one you set)

then you'd run cases of profit1 from 1 to 20, and inc1 from 1 to whatever

Then, stop1 would always be less than profit1

Hopefully this makes sense.

I think that could be a neat solution, but I would change it.
Let's say you are optimizing profit1 from 1 to 20 and inc 1-19, now when profit1 is 2 and inc is 19 you have a stop value of -17...no good...
This ensures that you don't end up with a negative stop:

Code

stop1 = Math.Max(1, profit1 - inc1); //now stop1 will alwas be 1 or bigger

I guess you were originally talking about sth. like (depending on the rest of your calculations, this might well be faster...):

Code

if(stop1>profit1) return;

vvhg

December 21st, 2012, 05:04 PM

I think what he meant is

profit=stop+inc

where inc >=0, stop>=0

December 22nd, 2012, 02:11 AM

stepseazy

I think what he meant is

profit=stop+inc

where inc >=0, stop>=0

That would work, but will always include unneccessary runs as it will always work up to profit = maximum stop + maximum inc.
So if you want to run stop from 1-20 and profit also 1-20 it will in fact run up to profit = 39 ( stop 20 + inc 19).

Vvhg

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

September 5th, 2014, 04:31 AM

what about the other improvements?, such as turning off Windows Search (disable), or making the settings on your windows 7 or 8, SSD capable, hence making it take longer on some tasks, like File_Explorer, but faster within Ninja?

something like disabling Windows Search service

September 5th, 2014, 07:56 AM

I find for me using the default setting in Ninjatrader Optimization is going to take me 10 to 50 times longer then the genetic settings. The results you get in the default should always be fairly close to what you come up with using the genetic settings unless your sampling to few trades over a long time period or very short periods in general.
I suggest forget the default and waiting 3 hours to 3 days for it to complete a complex optimization and do it in 3 to 30 minutes in the genetic mode.

Quantismo

Speeding up an Optimization by Avoiding Settings

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Speeding up an Optimization by Avoiding Settings