Performance of Calling Indicators with No Plots

February 21st, 2013, 08:44 PM

Hello,

I am attempting to code Strategy which will call several other indicators. I am wondering if there is any overhead associated with the Plot logic that would not be used by my Strategy.

IOW, I am wondering if I should have Indicators that just perform necessary calculations and establish the necessary "get" Properties to retrieve the needed values.

I am guessing the answer is "no" as I don't see this mentioned anywhere.

Thanks for your time.

ATC

February 22nd, 2013, 09:34 AM

tornadoatc

Hello,

I am attempting to code Strategy which will call several other indicators. I am wondering if there is any overhead associated with the Plot logic that would not be used by my Strategy.

IOW, I am wondering if I should have Indicators that just perform necessary calculations and establish the necessary "get" Properties to retrieve the needed values.

I am guessing the answer is "no" as I don't see this mentioned anywhere.

Thanks for your time.

ATC

@tornadoatc: This depends on the way you code your strategy. If you add an indicator via the Add() method, then you will effectively add a plot to your strategy, and that plot will be visible, when the strategy is activated on your chart or in the strategy analyzer. In that case there is an overhead associated as the plot is running.

Example:

Code

protected override void Initialize()
{
          Add(SMA(20));
}

adds an indicator to your strategy for the purpose of plotting it!

If you just call an indicator from OnBarUpdate(), then ChartControl has the value "null" when the indicator calculations are performed, and there should be no overhead associated with calling the indicator.

February 22nd, 2013, 09:42 AM

If you calling an external indicator in OnBarUpdate, you should call a previously declared and instantiated, reusable instance of the external indicator.

Just as in an indicator, that instance of an external class can be created in OnStartUp, or in OnBarUpdate with a null test condition to ensure that the instance is not RE-created if it already has been created, ie is not null.

February 22nd, 2013, 08:12 PM

Zondor

If you calling an external indicator in OnBarUpdate, you should call a previously declared and instantiated, reusable instance of the external indicator.

Just as in an indicator, that instance of an external class can be created in OnStartUp, or in OnBarUpdate with a null test condition to ensure that the instance is not RE-created if it already has been created, ie is not null.

Thank you both for your input.

So following some of your previous postings that I believe you both may have contributed to I am creating an Indy that has the following

Code

#region Variables
        // Wizard generated variables
			private int    i_DMILen  = 14; 
        // User defined variables (add any user defined variables below)
			private ibdDM myDM; 
			private double v_DMIPlus 	        = 0 ; 
			private double v_DMIMinus 	= 0 ; 
			private double v_ADX 		= 0 ; 
		
        #endregion

        /// <summary>
        /// This method is used to configure the indicator and is called once before any bar data is loaded.
        /// </summary>
        protected override void Initialize()
        {
            Add(new Plot(Color.FromKnownColor(KnownColor.Orange), PlotStyle.Line, "RankAllRaw"));
            Add(new Plot(Color.FromKnownColor(KnownColor.Green), PlotStyle.Line, "RankAllFast"));
            Add(new Plot(Color.FromKnownColor(KnownColor.DarkViolet), PlotStyle.Line, "RankAllSlow"));
            Add(new Line(Color.FromKnownColor(KnownColor.GhostWhite), 0, "ZeroLine"));
            Overlay				= false;
        
            CalculateOnBarClose = true ; 
		
	}

	protected override void OnStartUp()
	{
			myDM = ibdDM(i_DMILen) ; 
	}
		
		/// Called on each bar update event (incoming tick)
        protected override void OnBarUpdate()
        {		
			v_DMIPlus 	= myDM.DiPlus[0] ; 
			v_DMIMinus 	= myDM.DiMinus[0] ; 
			v_ADX 		= myDM.ADX[0] ;

So does this method of instantiating the above ibdDM indicator eliminate the overhead of associated Plots?

Also, other Indys I am working with have required inputs for Plot Colors. I tried to pass in "null but it did not like "null" in those instances so I just passed in Color.FromKnownColor(KnownColor.GhostWhite).

Thanks for your time and assistance.

February 24th, 2013, 02:21 PM

While I am still learning C# (and probably will be for a long time) I am wondering if the use of a Partial Class might be of use for what I am trying to describe.

So I want to call other indicators / classes for use in more complex Indys or Strats. There are two issues currently wondering:
1) I do not want any overhead associated with Plot functionality
2) I sometimes only need most recent value of an Indy but the current implementation of that Indy might only be setup to return the entire DataStore. IOW, is it less efficient to return entire DataSeries (or even calculate them) if only most recent values are needed?

So, can these concerns be alleviated with use of a partial class? IOW, can I create a partial class where I would create calculations within a separate file that I can used over and over in other Indys or Strats? Can this class have multiple Properties that enable return of all the calculations I might need.

Ugg.

Thanks for your input.

Performance of Calling Indicators with No Plots

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Performance of Calling Indicators with No Plots