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Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1 A Simple Optimization App ....................................................................................................................... 1 Optimization API Overview ....................................................................................................................... 3 The tsopt.Job Class ............................................................................................................................. 4 The tsopt.Optimizer Class ................................................................................................................... 4 The tsopt.ProgressInfo Class .............................................................................................................. 4 The tsopt.BestValues Class ................................................................................................................. 4 The tsopt.Results Class ....................................................................................................................... 4 The tsopt.OptimizationException Class.............................................................................................. 4 Defining an Optimization Job ..................................................................................................................... 5 Structure of a Job Definition ................................................................................................................... 5 Defining a Job in the Traditional Style ................................................................................................... 6 Defining a Job with the Tree Style ......................................................................................................... 8 Defining a Job Incrementally .................................................................................................................. 9 Optimizing Strategy Parameters ........................................................................................................... 11 Optimizing by Range ........................................................................................................................ 11 Optimizing by List ............................................................................................................................ 11 Optimizing Boolean Inputs ............................................................................................................... 13 Setting an Input to a Fixed Value ..................................................................................................... 13 Optimizing a Strategy’s Enabled Status ........................................................................................... 13 Optimizing Security Parameters ........................................................................................................... 14 Optimizing a Symbol ........................................................................................................................ 14 Optimizing an Interval ...................................................................................................................... 15 Complex Optimizations over Symbols, Intervals, and Inputs .......................................................... 16 Specifying Job Settings ......................................................................................................................... 17 Running an Optimization .......................................................................................................................... 19 Define the Optimization Job ................................................................................................................. 19 Define Event Handlers .......................................................................................................................... 19 The ProgressChanged Event ............................................................................................................. 20 The JobFailed Event ......................................................................................................................... 20 The JobDone Event ........................................................................................................................... 21 Start the Optimization ........................................................................................................................... 22 Canceling an Optimization ................................................................................................................... 23 Error Handling .......................................................................................................................................... 25 Catching Errors in Job Definitions ....................................................................................................... 25 Handling Validation Errors ................................................................................................................... 25 Handling Runtime Errors ...................................................................................................................... 26 Summary of Error Handling ................................................................................................................. 26 Retrieving Optimization Results ............................................................................................................... 27 Strategy Metrics and tsopt.MetricID..................................................................................................... 27 Structure of the Results ......................................................................................................................... 27 Retrieving Information about Tests ...................................................................................................... 28 Retrieving Strategy Metrics .................................................................................................................. 28 Using a Named Method for the First Test ........................................................................................ 29 Using a Named Method for a Specific Test, Trade Type, and Range .............................................. 29 Using the GetMetric Method ............................................................................................................ 29 Retrieving Optimized Parameter Data .................................................................................................. 29 Retrieving Specific Kinds of Parameter Data ....................................................................................... 30 Sorting the Results ................................................................................................................................ 31 Example: Writing the Results to a Text File ......................................................................................... 32 Writing Results the Easy Way .............................................................................................................. 34 Queued Optimizations .............................................................................................................................. 34 The Job ID............................................................................................................................................. 35 Canceling Queued Optimizations ......................................................................................................... 37 API Reference ........................................................................................................................................... 38 Job Definition Classes........................................................................................................................... 38 DefinitionObject Class ...................................................................................................................... 38 Job Class ........................................................................................................................................... 38 Securities Class ................................................................................................................................. 39 Security Class.................................................................................................................................... 40 Interval Class .................................................................................................................................... 43 History Class ..................................................................................................................................... 46 OptSymbol Class .............................................................................................................................. 50 OptInterval Class .............................................................................................................................. 51 SecurityOptions Class ....................................................................................................................... 54 Strategies Class ................................................................................................................................. 55 Strategy Class.................................................................................................................................... 56 ELInputs Class .................................................................................................................................. 57 ELInput Class.................................................................................................................................... 60 OptRange Class ................................................................................................................................. 62 OptList Class ..................................................................................................................................... 63 SignalStates Class ............................................................................................................................. 65 IntrabarOrders Class ......................................................................................................................... 66 Settings Class .................................................................................................................................... 67 GeneticOptions Class ........................................................................................................................ 68 ResultOptions Class .......................................................................................................................... 69 GeneralOptions Class........................................................................................................................ 70 CostsAndCapital Class...................................................................................................................... 71 PositionOptions Class ....................................................................................................................... 73 TradeSize Class ................................................................................................................................. 73 BackTesting Class ............................................................................................................................. 74 OutSample Class ............................................................................................................................... 76 WalkForward Class ........................................................................................................................... 77 CommissionBySymbol Class ........................................................................................................... 78 SlippageBySymbol Class .................................................................................................................. 81 AvailableStrategies Helper Class ...................................................................................................... 83 Optimization Classes ............................................................................................................................ 85 Optimizer Class ................................................................................................................................. 85 JobDoneEventArgs Class.................................................................................................................. 88 JobFailedEventArgs Class ................................................................................................................ 88 ProgressChangedEventArgs Class .................................................................................................... 89 ProgressInfo Class ............................................................................................................................ 89 BestValues Class ............................................................................................................................... 90 OptimizationException Class............................................................................................................ 92 The Results Class .................................................................................................................................. 94 Appendix 1: Anatomy of a Tree-Style Definition .................................................................................. 103 Appendix 2: Working with the Tree Style .............................................................................................. 106 EasyLanguage Optimization API Introduction The EasyLanguage Optimization API gives you all the tools you need to define and run optimization jobs using EasyLanguage. It gives you control over every aspect of an optimization:  Define the security (or securities) to use for the optimization, including the symbol, interval, and history range. You can even optimize over multiple symbols or intervals.  Define the strategies to use for the optimization.  Specify the inputs to optimize. You can now optimize over a list of values or expressions as well as over a range of values.  Define the global settings for the optimization, as well as any strategy-specific settings.  Monitor the progress of the optimization as it runs.  Retrieve and analyze the optimization results when the optimization is done.  Handle optimization errors if they occur. Since optimizations are now fully programmable, you can even write an application that executes multiple optimizations automatically. In fact, you can use the results of one optimization to determine the parameters of the next optimization; this opens up new possibilities for strategy analysis. The Optimization API also takes full advantage of the multi-threaded optimization engine. This requires no extra effort on your part. Just specify what you want to optimize and how to respond to events, and the optimization will automatically use all the cores on your machine. (You can also specify how many threads to use for the optimization if you wish.) A Simple Optimization App Before we delve into the details of the API, here is a simple optimization app written in EasyLanguage. Take a minute to read through the code and get the flavor of the API. The following sections will explore the techniques used by the application in depth. This TradingApp optimizes the Bollinger Bands LE and SE strategies for the symbol, minute interval, and history range specified in the inputs. The application optimizes the number of deviations for each strategy (NumDevsUp and NumDevsDn). The step size to use for the optimization is also specified as an input. The application outputs its progress to the Print Log as it runs, and it outputs the best Net Profit when the optimization has completed. If you type in this code yourself, be sure to assign the InitApp method to the TradingApp’s Initialized event. Note that this application will automatically run a multi-threaded optimization if you have multiple cores on your machine. EasyLanguage Optimization API using elsystem; using elsystem.windows.forms; using elsystem.drawing; inputs: Sym("MSFT"), int MinuteInterval(5), LastDate("09/30/2013"), int DaysBack(90), NumDevsStep(0.1); vars: Form form1(null), tsopt.Optimizer optimizer(null); method void InitApp( elsystem.Object sender, elsystem.InitializedEventArgs args ) vars: Button startButton; begin form1 = Form.Create("OptTest", 500, 500); form1.BackColor = Color.LightGray; form1.Dock = DockStyle.Right; startButton = Button.Create("Start Optimization", 120, 30); startButton.Location(20, 20); startButton.Click += OnStartButtonClick; form1.AddControl(startButton); form1.Show(); end; method void OnStartButtonClick(elsystem.Object sender, elsystem.EventArgs args) begin StartOptimization(); end; method tsopt.Job DefineJob() vars: tsopt.Job job, tsopt.Security security, tsopt.Strategy strategy; begin job = new tsopt.Job; security = job.Securities.AddSecurity(); security.Symbol = Sym; security.Interval.SetMinuteChart(MinuteInterval); security.History.LastDateString = LastDate; security.History.DaysBack = DaysBack; strategy = job.Strategies.AddStrategy("Bollinger Bands LE"); strategy.ELInputs.OptRange("NumDevsDn", 1, 3, NumDevsStep); strategy = job.Strategies.AddStrategy("Bollinger Bands SE"); strategy.ELInputs.OptRange("NumDevsUp", 1, 3, NumDevsStep); return job; end; 2 EasyLanguage Optimization API method void StartOptimization() vars: tsopt.Job job; begin ClearPrintLog; Print("Starting optimization..."); job = DefineJob(); optimizer = new tsopt.Optimizer; optimizer.JobDone += OptDone; optimizer.JobFailed += OptError; optimizer.ProgressChanged += OptProgress; optimizer.StartJob(job); end; method void OptProgress(Object sender, tsopt.ProgressChangedEventArgs args) begin Print("Test ", args.Progress.TestNum.ToString(), " of ", args.Progress.TestCount.ToString()); Print(" ", args.BestValues.FitnessName, " = ", args.BestValues.FitnessValue.ToString()); end; method void OptDone(object sender, tsopt.JobDoneEventArgs args) begin Print("Optimization done"); Print("Net Profit = ", args.Results.NetProfit()); end; method void OptError(Object sender, tsopt.JobFailedEventArgs args) begin Print("Optimization Error: ", args.Error.Message); end; Optimization API Overview All of the optimization classes reside within the tsopt namespace. Since the namespace identifier is very short and the classes have simple names that might conflict with other identifiers, importing the namespace is not recommended. When writing code, it is easy and quick just to type tsopt. and then select a class from the pop-up list provided by auto-complete. This also makes it easy to find the classes that are part of the Optimization API. Throughout the code examples in this guide, we will always include the namespace qualifier with the class name. This makes it very clear that the class is related to optimizations. We often name the variable after the class, but without the namespace qualifier. You may find this a useful convention in your code as well. For example, the following code snippet declares a variable called optimizer as an instance of the tsopt.Optimizer class: vars: tsopt.Optimizer optimizer(null); 3 EasyLanguage Optimization API Here is a quick overview of the primary classes in the Optimization API. The tsopt.Job Class The tsopt.Job class allows a client application to define an optimization job. This definition includes the securities to be used in the optimization, the strategies to be optimized, and any relevant settings. A job definition always starts with the Job class, but there are also a number of helper classes that describe different parts of the job. For example, a Job object contains a tsopt.Strategies object that defines the strategies used in an optimization. The Strategies object is a collection of tsopt.Strategy objects, each of which defines a strategy. A Strategy object in turn has a tsopt.ELInputs object which describes the strategy inputs, and so on. The structure of a job definition is described in more detail below. The tsopt.Optimizer Class The tsopt.Optimizer class provides methods to start or cancel an optimization job. This is also where you add the event handlers for the optimization. The tsopt.ProgressInfo Class The tsopt.ProgressInfo class provides information about the progress of an optimization, such as the current test number, the time elapsed and remaining, and for genetic optimizations, the current generation and individual. You can retrieve a ProgressInfo object from the ProgressChangedEventArgs argument of the ProgressChanged event handler. The tsopt.BestValues Class The tsopt.BestValues class provides information about the best fitness result seen so far during an optimization, along with the optimized parameters associated with that result. Like ProgressInfo, this object can be retrieved from the ProgressChangedEventArgs argument of the ProgressChanged event handler. The tsopt.Results Class The tsopt.Results class holds the results of an optimization. It can be retrieved from the JobDoneEventArgs argument of the JobDone event handler. The Results class provides methods to retrieve the strategy metrics for each optimization test in the results set. The tsopt.OptimizationException Class The tsopt.OptimizationException class is an exception that can be thrown during the construction of a job definition. You can catch this exception in order to debug certain kinds of coding errors in the definition process (e.g., indexing into an empty Strategies object). The Optimization API also validates a job definition at the start of an optimization to ensure that it is complete and correct. If there are any validation errors, the library will throw a tsopt.OptimizationException. 4 EasyLanguage Optimization API Note that the Optimization API does not throw exceptions while an optimization is running. Instead, the error is reported by calling your JobFailed event handler. An optimization executes asynchronously, so this technique works better for reporting errors that occur during an optimization. Error handling is discussed in more detail below. Defining an Optimization Job This section provides an overview of the job definition API. For detailed information about each of the job definition classes, see the API Reference later in this document. Structure of a Job Definition A job definition is a tree with three main nodes: Securities, Strategies, and Settings. The Securities node must contain one or more Security nodes that define the securities to use in an optimization. Each Security node corresponds to a different data series (i.e., Data1, Data2, Data3, etc. in TradeStation). Many optimizations will use only one Security. The Strategies node must contain one or more Strategy nodes that define the strategies to use in an optimization. The inputs and settings for a specific strategy are specified within its Strategy node. The Settings node can contain one or more nodes that define various global settings for the optimization. It is permissible for the Settings node to be empty, in which case the default settings are used. A job definition may also specify the OptimizationMethod to use (which can be either Exhaustive or Genetic). If the optimization method is not specified, it defaults to Exhaustive. Every Security node must contain information about the symbol, interval, and history range for the security. If any of this information is missing, the optimizer will throw an exception when you start the job. A Strategy node requires only the strategy name. If no other information is provided, the default inputs and settings for the strategy will be used. However, most job definitions will provide additional information about a strategy. A job definition can specify that certain parameters within a Strategy or Security should be optimized. For example, a common case is to optimize one or more inputs in a strategy. In the Optimization API, this would normally be specified by calling the OptRange or OptList method for the relevant input. It is possible to optimize some parts of a security as well. For example, you can optimize over a list of symbols with the OptSymbol property, or you can optimize over a list of intervals with the OptInterval property. To create a job definition, you must start by creating a tsopt.Job object: 5