There were sevaral places you could supply sim_params
in TradingAlgorithm (__init__, run). This got confusing
as its not clear who updated what and which one was the
correct one to use at each time.
Then there were to ways to define data_frequency, one in
__init__() and one in the sim_params which also added code
complexity.
This refactor makes it explicit that sim_params are to be
passed to __init__() only. Moreover, data_frequency is
only stored in sim_params. For backwards compatibility,
it can still be supplied separately but will link to
the one in sim_params.
For example, you could create new sim params via:
sim_params = create_simulation_parameters(data_frequency='minute')
algo = MyAlgo(sim_params)
algo.run(data)
In addition, perf_tracker only gets initialized in one place:
_create_generator() which should also make the various ways
of running an algorithm more deterministic.
This also fixes a bug with SimulationParameters where
you could not change the period_start. Unfortunately, the
current implementation still requieres an implicit call to
update the internal variables.
When zipline is imported it checks whether
it runs in the IPython notebook. If it does,
it registers a %%zipline magic that takes the
same arguments as the CLI with the addition of
a -o for specifying the output variable to store
the performance frame in.
The algo code in the cell is, as of yet, executed
in its own environment rather than that of the
IPython NB which is probably what we want.
Also adds cli option to save the perf dataframe
to a pickle file.
Also adds an IPython notebook buyapple example.
Add a CLI that reads in an algorithm, loads data,
run the algorithm, and output performance metrics.
The examples are adapted to the new zipline API and
analyses are split into separate files.
Also add config files that run the example
algorithms with preset settings.
This is a step towards the goal of uniting Quantopian scripts
and zipline.
To make the syntax of zipline identical to Quantopian
we break out the API methods (like order) and turn them into
functions. To access the algo object we add a thread local reference
to the current algorithm that is accessed in the API functions.
TradingAlgorithm now takes either a string or two functions
(initialize and handle_data) that it executes.
Use api method decorator for methods available in algoscript.
Ported appropriate algorithm tests from internal code.
zipline.__version__ is now present. Closes#94.
Moreover, git master should have a .dev version string according
to convention. Releases then get the .dev label removed.
Python 3 requires using dot syntax for relative imports,
otherwise the import is treated as an absolute import, i.e.
an import of a module from outside of the project.
By using dot syntax now, imports should be compatible with both
Python 2.7 and Python 3.
Makes TradingAlgorithm available at the top-level.
So that algorithms can do:
```
import zipline
class MyAlgo(zipline.TradingAlgorithm)
```
OR
```
from zipline import TradingAlgorithm
class MyAlgo(TradingAlgorithm)
```
I wrote this a little while ago as I noticed that a lot of time is spent
computing risk statistics. This is done over the complete history over
and over again while this could be done just by using the previously
computed value (iteratively).
We didn't go forward back then because for minute trade data the
difference was not significant enough. However, now with zipline
standalone I think most people will use daily (because that's
what's available) and it makes a huge difference
(speed-up of a couple of 100%).
Unfortunately, we can't just replace the existing one with an
iterative as for the final cumulative stats the batch is still
better. So that's not as nice, but the performance increase is
big enough for me to issue this PR (zipline is actually painfully
slow with daily data).
There is a unittest that compares that both produce exactly
the same outputs.
Speed measurements (for 500 trading days, daily source):
with iterative:
real 26.617 user 12.909 sys 6.112 pcpu 71.46
prior:
real 44.176 user 31.030 sys 11.381 pcpu 96.00
Thomas Wiecki