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catalyst/docs/source/whatsnew/1.0.0.txt
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2016-05-04 16:31:58 -04:00

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Development
-----------
:Release: 1.0.0
:Date: TBD
.. warning::
This release is still under active development. All changes listed are
subject to change at any time.
Highlights
~~~~~~~~~~
New Entry Points (:issue:`xxxx`)
````````````````````````````````
In order to make it easier to use zipline we have updated the entry points for
a backtest. The three supported ways to run a backtest are now:
1. :func:`zipline.run_algo`
2. ``$ python -m zipline run``
3. ``%zipline`` (IPython magic)
Data Bundles (:issue:`xxxx`)
````````````````````````````
1.0.0 introduces data bundles. Data bundles are groups of data that should be
preloaded and used to run backtests later. This allows users to not need to to
specify which tickers they are interested in each time they run an
algorithm. This also allows us to cache the data between runs.
By default, the ``quandl`` bundle will be used which pulls data from quandl's
`WIKI dataset <https://www.quandl.com/data/WIKI>`_. New bundles may be
registered with :func:`zipline.data.bundles.register` like:
.. code-block:: python
@zipline.data.bundles.register('my-new-bundle')
def my_new_bundle_ingest(environ,
asset_db_writer,
minute_bar_writer,
daily_bar_writer,
adjustment_writer,
calendar,
cache,
show_progress):
...
This function should retrieve the data it needs and then use the writers that
have been passed to write that data to disc in a location that zipline can find
later.
This data can be used in backtests by passing the name as the ``-b / --bundle``
argument to ``$ python -m zipline run`` or as the ``bundle`` argument to
:func:`zipline.run_algo`.
For more information see `Data Bundles`_ for more information.
String Support in Pipeline (:issue:`1174`)
``````````````````````````````````````````
Added support for string data in Pipeline.
:class:`zipline.pipeline.data.Column` now accepts ``object`` as a dtype, which
signifies that loaders for that column should emit windowed iterators over the
experimental new :class:`~zipline.lib.labelarray.LabelArray` class.
Several new :class:`~zipline.pipeline.Classifier` methods have also been added
for constructing :class:`~zipline.pipeline.Filter` instances based on string
operations. The new methods are:
- :meth:`~zipline.pipeline.Classifier.element_of`
- :meth:`~zipline.pipeline.Classifier.startswith`
- :meth:`~zipline.pipeline.Classifier.endswith`
- :meth:`~zipline.pipeline.Classifier.has_substring`
- :meth:`~zipline.pipeline.Classifier.matches`
``element_of`` is defined for all classifiers. The remaining methods are
only defined for string-dtype classifiers.
Enhancements
~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Made the data loading classes have more consistent interfaces. This includes
the equity bar writers, adjustment writer, and asset db writer. The new
interface is that the resource to be written to is passed at construction time
and the data to write is provided later to the `write` method as
dataframes or some iterator of dataframes. This model allows us to pass these
writer objects around as a resource for other classes and functions to
consume (:issue:`1109` and :issue:`1149`).
* Added masking to :class:`zipline.pipeline.CustomFactor`.
Custom factors can now be passed a Filter upon instantiation. This tells the
factor to only compute over stocks for which the filter returns True, rather
than always computing over the entire universe of stocks. (:issue:`1095`)
* Added :class:`zipline.utils.cache.ExpiringCache`.
A cache which wraps entries in a :class:`zipline.utils.cache.CachedObject`,
which manages expiration of entries based on the `dt` supplied to the `get`
method. (:issue:`1130`)
* Implemented :class:`zipline.pipeline.factors.RecarrayField`, a new pipeline
term designed to be the output type of a CustomFactor with multiple outputs.
(:issue:`1119`)
* Added optional `outputs` parameter to :class:`zipline.pipeline.CustomFactor`.
Custom factors are now capable of computing and returning multiple outputs,
each of which are themselves a Factor. (:issue:`1119`)
* Added support for string-dtype pipeline columns. Loaders for thse columns
should produce instances of :class:`zipline.lib.labelarray.LabelArray` when
traversed. :meth:`~zipline.pipeline.data.BoundColumn.latest` on string
columns produces a string-dtype
:class:`zipline.pipeline.Classifier`. (:issue:`1174`)
* Added several methods for converting Classifiers into Filters.
The new methods are:
- :meth:`~zipline.pipeline.Classifier.element_of`
- :meth:`~zipline.pipeline.Classifier.startswith`
- :meth:`~zipline.pipeline.Classifier.endswith`
- :meth:`~zipline.pipeline.Classifier.has_substring`
- :meth:`~zipline.pipeline.Classifier.matches`
``element_of`` is defined for all classifiers. The remaining methods are
only defined for strings. (:issue:`1174`)
Experimental Features
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.. warning::
Experimental features are subject to change.
* Added a new :class:`zipline.lib.labelarray.LabelArray` class for efficiently
representing and computing on string data with numpy. This class is
conceptually similar to :class:`pandas.Categorical`, in that it represents
string arrays as arrays of indices into a (smaller) array of unique string
values. (:issue:`1174`)
Bug Fixes
~~~~~~~~~
None
Performance
~~~~~~~~~~~
None
Maintenance and Refactorings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
None
Build
~~~~~
None
Documentation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
None
Miscellaneous
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
None