Basic Plotting - No X Axis

rluc99

Hi fellow backtraders!
I have just started familiarizing myself with Backtrader. I have a newbie question for you:
Using the examples in the Quickstart guide I got to the section on plotting.
https://www.backtrader.com/docu/quickstart/quickstart/#visual-inspection-plotting
I copied the code exactly and got an identical plot except the x axis (date) is not showing at all. The cursor gives the right dates but there is no text on the axis. What have I forgotten?!
Thanks
(PS: Also, is there a place in Backtrader Community for newbies like me to look at first to find the usual gotchas.)

Pablo Reyes Almagro

I just wanted to ask the same thing. Good to know I'm not alone!

backtrader

The x-axis is there (luckily, because if not everything would be displayed on a singularity rim and we should fear a potential earth implosion into such an event) but the x-ticks (i.e: timestamps in this case) are not displayed in the latest latest version of matplotlib (currently 3.1.1)

The previous stable version 3.0.3 and the last LTS version 2.2.4 do display the x-ticks.

pip install --force matplotlib==YOUR-PREFERRED-WORKING-VERSION

rluc99

@backtrader Thanks for the rapid reply - it works! Life is good. The universe is back in equilibrium

Pablo Reyes Almagro

@backtrader Awesome, that fixed it!

Aritz Lizaso

Hi, i need some help please. I tried to install matplotlib as you say but now i cant run the plot. i tried to change versions, reinstall anoaconda but now always have the same error and i cant show the plots as always. It give me this error:

TypeError Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-8-cf679b847698> in <module>
1 # cerebro.plot(start=datetime.date(2005, 7, 1), end=datetime.date(2006, 1, 31))
2
----> 3 fig = cerebro.plot(style='candle', numfigs=1, barup ='gold', bardown ='darkgoldenrod', valuetags=False, rowsmajor=5, rowsminor=2, plotdist=0.1)[0][0]
4 fig.savefig('example.png', dpi=400)
5 #figure = cerebro.plot(style ='candlebars')[0][0]

~\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\backtrader\cerebro.py in plot(self, plotter, numfigs, iplot, start, end, width, height, dpi, tight, use, **kwargs)
972
973 if not plotter:
--> 974 from . import plot
975 if self.p.oldsync:
976 plotter = plot.Plot_OldSync(**kwargs)

~\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\backtrader\plot_init_.py in <module>
31
32
---> 33 from .plot import Plot, Plot_OldSync
34 from .scheme import PlotScheme

~\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\backtrader\plot\plot.py in <module>
33 import numpy as np # guaranteed by matplotlib
34 import matplotlib.dates as mdates
---> 35 import matplotlib.font_manager as mfontmgr
36 import matplotlib.legend as mlegend
37 import matplotlib.ticker as mticker

~\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python37\site-packages\matplotlib\font_manager.py in <module>
46
47 import matplotlib as mpl
---> 48 from matplotlib import afm, cbook, ft2font, rcParams, get_cachedir
49 from matplotlib.fontconfig_pattern import (
50 parse_fontconfig_pattern, generate_fontconfig_pattern)

~\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python37\site-packages\matplotlib\afm.py in <module>
358
359
--> 360 @deprecated("3.0", "Use the class AFM instead.")
361 def parse_afm(fh):
362 return _parse_afm(fh)

TypeError: deprecated() takes 1 positional argument but 2 were given