I wrote two customized commission scheme for cryptocurrencies, one for spot market and the other for contracts:

class CryptoSpotCommissionInfo(bt.CommissionInfo):
    '''Commission scheme for cryptocurrency spot market.
    
        Required Args:
            commission: commission fee in percentage, between 0.0 and 1.0
    '''
    params = (
        ('stocklike', True),
        ('commtype', bt.CommInfoBase.COMM_PERC), # apply % commission
    )

    def __init__(self):
        assert abs(self.p.commission) < 1.0 # commission is a percentage
        assert self.p.mult == 1.0
        assert self.p.margin is None
        assert self.p.commtype == bt.CommInfoBase.COMM_PERC
        assert self.p.stocklike
        assert self.p.percabs
        assert self.p.leverage == 1.0
        assert self.p.automargin == False

        super().__init__()

    def getsize(self, price, cash):
        '''Support fractional size.
        
            More details at https://www.backtrader.com/blog/posts/2019-08-29-fractional-sizes/fractional-sizes/.
        '''
        return self.p.leverage * (cash / price)

class CryptoContractCommissionInfo(bt.CommissionInfo):
    '''Commission scheme for cryptocurrency contracts.
    
        Including futures contracts and perpetual swap contracts.
        
        Required Args:
            commission: commission fee in percentage, between 0.0 and 1.0
            mult: leverage, for example 10 means 10x leverage
    '''
    params = (
        ('stocklike', False),
        ('commtype', bt.CommInfoBase.COMM_PERC), # apply % commission
    )
    
    def __init__(self):
        assert abs(self.p.commission) < 1.0 # commission is a percentage
        assert self.p.mult > 1.0
        assert self.p.margin is None
        assert self.p.commtype == bt.CommInfoBase.COMM_PERC
        assert not self.p.stocklike
        assert self.p.percabs
        assert self.p.leverage == 1.0
        self.p.automargin = 1 / self.p.mult

        super().__init__()

    def getsize(self, price, cash):
        '''Support fractional size.
        
            More details at https://www.backtrader.com/blog/posts/2019-08-29-fractional-sizes/fractional-sizes/.
        '''
        return self.p.leverage * (cash / price)

    def _getcommission(self, size, price, pseudoexec):
        '''Percentage based commission fee.
        
            More details at https://www.backtrader.com/docu/user-defined-commissions/commission-schemes-subclassing/.
        '''
        return abs(size) * self.p.commission * price * self.p.mult

Hope it helps!

After reading the source code I think I've figured out.

timeframe and compression are used at analyzers/sharpe.py#L153:

returns = list(itervalues(self.timereturn.get_analysis()))

• timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=1, means TimeReturn will take a snapshot on the equity curve per day
• timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Minutes, compression=24*60, means TimeReturn will take a snapshot on the equity curve per 24*60 minutes, which is the same as a day

returns is a list of (timestamp, percentage), sharpe ratio is calculated on top of this list.

timeframe, compression --> TimeReturn -->returns --> sharpe_ratio

The factor is used to convert riskfreerate to rate, which used at analyzers/sharpe.py#L186:

ret_free = [r - rate for r in returns]

Since I snapshot on the equity curve per day, and one year contains 365 trading days(crypto exchanges never stop on weekends, which is different with stocks).

Recommended configurations:

• Prerequisites: make sure you have over 2 days data and make over 2 trades during backtesting, otherwise you'll get None
• Always set annualize =True, because sharpe ratio is usually in annual form.
• Set riskfreerate=0.01 and convertrate=True, Backtrader already sets them default
• Set timeframe and compression to make TimeReturn take a snapshot on equity curve per day, if the timeframe of your data feed is equal or less than 1 day, set timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=1, otherwise set timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=data_feed
• Set factor to 252 for stocks and 365 for cryptocurrencies.

Examples:

• 1-day OHLCV bars for US stocks, timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=1, factor=252,annualize =True
• 3-day OHLCV bars for US stocks, timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=3, factor=252,annualize =True
• 1-day OHLCV bars for cryptocurrency, timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=1, factor=365,annualize =True
• 3-day OHLCV bars for cryptocurrency, timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=3, factor=365,annualize =True
• 15-minutes OHLCV bars for cryptocurrency, timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=1, factor=365,annualize =True

I implemented the trend following strategy in the book "Following the trend" by Andreas Clenow. The following is the core logic:

class ClenowTrendFollowingStrategy(bt.Strategy):
    """The trend following strategy from the book "Following the trend" by Andreas Clenow."""
    alias = ('MeanReversion',)

    params = (
        ('trend_filter_fast_period', 50),
        ('trend_filter_slow_period', 100),
        ('fast_donchian_channel_period', 25),
        ('slow_donchian_channel_period', 50),
        ('trailing_stop_atr_period', 100),
        ('trailing_stop_atr_count', 3),
        ('risk_factor', 0.002)
    )

    def __init__(self):
        self.trend_filter_fast = bt.indicators.EMA(period=self.params.trend_filter_fast_period)
        self.trend_filter_slow = bt.indicators.EMA(period=self.params.trend_filter_slow_period)
        self.dc_fast = DonchianChannelsIndicator(period=self.params.fast_donchian_channel_period)
        self.dc_slow = DonchianChannelsIndicator(period=self.params.slow_donchian_channel_period)
        self.atr = bt.indicators.ATR(period=self.params.trailing_stop_atr_period)
        # For trailing stop
        self.max_price = self.data.close[0] # track the highest price after opening long positions
        self.min_price = self.data.close[0] # track the lowest price after opening short positions

    def next(self):
        is_long = self.trend_filter_fast > self.trend_filter_slow # trend filter
        
        # Position size rule
        max_loss = self.broker.getvalue() * self.p.risk_factor # cash you afford to loss
        position_size = max_loss / self.atr

        # self.dc_slow.low <= self.dc_fast.low <= self.dc_fast.high <= self.dc_slow.high
        assert self.dc_slow.low <= self.dc_fast.low
        assert self.dc_fast.low <= self.dc_fast.high
        assert self.dc_fast.high <= self.dc_slow.high

        if self.data.close > self.dc_slow.high:
            if is_long and self.position.size == 0:
                self.long_order = self.buy(size=position_size) # Entry rule 1
                print(f'Long {position_size}')
                self.max_price = self.data.close[0]
                return
        elif self.data.close > self.dc_fast.high:
            if self.position.size < 0:
                print(f'Close {self.position.size} by exit rule 2')
                self.close() # Exit rule 2
                return
        elif self.data.close > self.dc_fast.low:
            pass
        elif self.data.close > self.dc_slow.low:
            if self.position.size > 0:
                print(f'Close {self.position.size} by exit rule 1')
                self.close() # Exit rule 1
                return
        else:
            if (not is_long) and self.position.size == 0:
                self.short_order = self.sell(size=position_size) # Entry rule 2
                print(f'Short {position_size}')
                self.min_price = self.data.close[0]
                return

        # Trailing stop
        if self.position.size > 0:
            self.max_price = max(self.max_price, self.data.close[0])
            if self.data.close[0] < (self.max_price-self.atr[0]*3):
                print(f'Close {self.position.size}  by trailing stop rule')
                self.close()
                return
        if self.position.size < 0:
            self.min_price = min(self.max_price, self.data.close[0])
            if self.data.close[0] > (self.min_price+self.atr[0]*3):
                print(f'Close {self.position.size} by trailing stop rule')
                self.close()
                return

Jupyter notebook: https://github.com/soulmachine/crypto-notebooks/blob/master/backtest/Clenow-trend-following.ipynb

Any improvement suggestions? Thanks.

It seems Backtrader is not compatible with Dask.

Dask version not working:

with ProgressBar(): # Backtrader is not compatible with Dask
    stats = db.from_sequence(params_list).map(run_strategy).compute()

Plain multiprocessing version works:

with multiprocessing.Pool(os.cpu_count()) as p:
    stats = p.map(run_strategy, params_list)

@run-out The link you posted above explains compression clearly, thanks a lot!

@run-out You're right, the strategy retrieves the CommissionInfo instance at this line https://github.com/mementum/backtrader/blob/master/backtrader/strategy.py#L1315 :

comminfo = self.broker.getcommissioninfo(data)

So it uses the data name.

Since data has only one name, so it's not possible to apply multiple commission fees?

@dasch What if my bars are volume bars(from Chapter 2 "Financial Data Structures" of the book "Advances in Financial Machine Learning" by Marcos Prado), which don't have a fixed timeframe, use timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Ticks?

Typo: alias = ('ClenowTrendFollowing',)

@ab_trader It works, thanks!

@ab_trader https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_of_Python

It seems Backtrader is not compatible with Dask.

Dask version not working:

with ProgressBar(): # Backtrader is not compatible with Dask
    stats = db.from_sequence(params_list).map(run_strategy).compute()

Plain multiprocessing version works:

with multiprocessing.Pool(os.cpu_count()) as p:
    stats = p.map(run_strategy, params_list)

I guess the issue is in the Donchian channel indicator:

class DonchianChannelsIndicator(bt.Indicator):
    '''Donchian channel.'''

    alias = ('DCH', 'DonchianChannel',)

    lines = ('dcm', 'dch', 'dcl',)  # dc middle, dc high, dc low

    params = (
        ('period', 20), # lookback period
    )

    plotinfo = dict(subplot=False)  # plot along with data
    plotlines = dict(
        dcm=dict(ls='--'),  # dashed line
        dch=dict(_samecolor=True),  # use same color as prev line (dcm)
        dcl=dict(_samecolor=True),  # use same color as prev line (dch)
    )

    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.addminperiod(self.params.period + 1)
        self.lines.dch = bt.indicators.Highest(self.data.high(-1), period=self.params.period)
        self.lines.dcl = bt.indicators.Lowest(self.data.low(-1), period=self.params.period)
        self.lines.dcm = (self.lines.dch + self.lines.dcl) / 2.0  # avg of the above

In sequential mode the indicator has 3 lines, while in parallel mode the indicator has 0 lines, why? This is so weird.

Probably Backtrader is not compatible with Dask?

@ab_trader Good idea, I'll try it, thanks!

I write a strategy in this Jupyter notebook: Clenow trend following strategy - Github

I try to run a grid search to find out the optimal parameters combination. If I run sequentially as the following, no problem at all:

stats = []
    for params in tqdm(params_list):
        result = run_strategy(params)
        stats.append(result)

If I run in parallel as the following:

stats = db.from_sequence(params_list).map(run_strategy).compute()

It always throw out an exception:

~/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/backtrader/lineiterator.py in dopostinit()
    133 
    134         # my minperiod is as large as the minperiod of my lines
--> 135         _obj._minperiod = max([x._minperiod for x in _obj.lines])
    136 
    137         # Recalc the period

ValueError: max() arg is an empty sequence

Full stack trace is in the Jupyter notebook.

Any ideas? Thanks!

I want to optimize my strategy with customized parameters, for example:

cerebro.optstrategy(bt.strategies.MA_CrossOver, fast=range(2,8), slow=range(4, 16))

The above configuration generates a lot of parameters that I don't want.

Instead, I want to specify parameters manually as the following:

cerebro.optstrategy(bt.strategies.MA_CrossOver, myparams=[
  {'fast': 2, 'slow': 4},
  {'fast': 4, 'slow': 8},
{'fast': 3, 'slow': 7},
])

How can I achieve this? Thanks

Typo: alias = ('ClenowTrendFollowing',)

I implemented the trend following strategy in the book "Following the trend" by Andreas Clenow. The following is the core logic:

class ClenowTrendFollowingStrategy(bt.Strategy):
    """The trend following strategy from the book "Following the trend" by Andreas Clenow."""
    alias = ('MeanReversion',)

    params = (
        ('trend_filter_fast_period', 50),
        ('trend_filter_slow_period', 100),
        ('fast_donchian_channel_period', 25),
        ('slow_donchian_channel_period', 50),
        ('trailing_stop_atr_period', 100),
        ('trailing_stop_atr_count', 3),
        ('risk_factor', 0.002)
    )

    def __init__(self):
        self.trend_filter_fast = bt.indicators.EMA(period=self.params.trend_filter_fast_period)
        self.trend_filter_slow = bt.indicators.EMA(period=self.params.trend_filter_slow_period)
        self.dc_fast = DonchianChannelsIndicator(period=self.params.fast_donchian_channel_period)
        self.dc_slow = DonchianChannelsIndicator(period=self.params.slow_donchian_channel_period)
        self.atr = bt.indicators.ATR(period=self.params.trailing_stop_atr_period)
        # For trailing stop
        self.max_price = self.data.close[0] # track the highest price after opening long positions
        self.min_price = self.data.close[0] # track the lowest price after opening short positions

    def next(self):
        is_long = self.trend_filter_fast > self.trend_filter_slow # trend filter
        
        # Position size rule
        max_loss = self.broker.getvalue() * self.p.risk_factor # cash you afford to loss
        position_size = max_loss / self.atr

        # self.dc_slow.low <= self.dc_fast.low <= self.dc_fast.high <= self.dc_slow.high
        assert self.dc_slow.low <= self.dc_fast.low
        assert self.dc_fast.low <= self.dc_fast.high
        assert self.dc_fast.high <= self.dc_slow.high

        if self.data.close > self.dc_slow.high:
            if is_long and self.position.size == 0:
                self.long_order = self.buy(size=position_size) # Entry rule 1
                print(f'Long {position_size}')
                self.max_price = self.data.close[0]
                return
        elif self.data.close > self.dc_fast.high:
            if self.position.size < 0:
                print(f'Close {self.position.size} by exit rule 2')
                self.close() # Exit rule 2
                return
        elif self.data.close > self.dc_fast.low:
            pass
        elif self.data.close > self.dc_slow.low:
            if self.position.size > 0:
                print(f'Close {self.position.size} by exit rule 1')
                self.close() # Exit rule 1
                return
        else:
            if (not is_long) and self.position.size == 0:
                self.short_order = self.sell(size=position_size) # Entry rule 2
                print(f'Short {position_size}')
                self.min_price = self.data.close[0]
                return

        # Trailing stop
        if self.position.size > 0:
            self.max_price = max(self.max_price, self.data.close[0])
            if self.data.close[0] < (self.max_price-self.atr[0]*3):
                print(f'Close {self.position.size}  by trailing stop rule')
                self.close()
                return
        if self.position.size < 0:
            self.min_price = min(self.max_price, self.data.close[0])
            if self.data.close[0] > (self.min_price+self.atr[0]*3):
                print(f'Close {self.position.size} by trailing stop rule')
                self.close()
                return

Jupyter notebook: https://github.com/soulmachine/crypto-notebooks/blob/master/backtest/Clenow-trend-following.ipynb

Any improvement suggestions? Thanks.

After reading the source code I think I've figured out.

timeframe and compression are used at analyzers/sharpe.py#L153:

returns = list(itervalues(self.timereturn.get_analysis()))

• timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=1, means TimeReturn will take a snapshot on the equity curve per day
• timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Minutes, compression=24*60, means TimeReturn will take a snapshot on the equity curve per 24*60 minutes, which is the same as a day

returns is a list of (timestamp, percentage), sharpe ratio is calculated on top of this list.

timeframe, compression --> TimeReturn -->returns --> sharpe_ratio

The factor is used to convert riskfreerate to rate, which used at analyzers/sharpe.py#L186:

ret_free = [r - rate for r in returns]

Since I snapshot on the equity curve per day, and one year contains 365 trading days(crypto exchanges never stop on weekends, which is different with stocks).

Recommended configurations:

• Prerequisites: make sure you have over 2 days data and make over 2 trades during backtesting, otherwise you'll get None
• Always set annualize =True, because sharpe ratio is usually in annual form.
• Set riskfreerate=0.01 and convertrate=True, Backtrader already sets them default
• Set timeframe and compression to make TimeReturn take a snapshot on equity curve per day, if the timeframe of your data feed is equal or less than 1 day, set timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=1, otherwise set timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=data_feed
• Set factor to 252 for stocks and 365 for cryptocurrencies.

Examples:

• 1-day OHLCV bars for US stocks, timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=1, factor=252,annualize =True
• 3-day OHLCV bars for US stocks, timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=3, factor=252,annualize =True
• 1-day OHLCV bars for cryptocurrency, timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=1, factor=365,annualize =True
• 3-day OHLCV bars for cryptocurrency, timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=3, factor=365,annualize =True
• 15-minutes OHLCV bars for cryptocurrency, timeframe=bt.TimeFrame.Days, compression=1, factor=365,annualize =True

After reading some source code and several experiments, my guess is that the timeframe in SharpeRatio has no relation to the timeframe of the data feed. The timeframe in SharpeRatio means how frequent you want to snapshot the equity curve.

@benmercerdev See my another post https://community.backtrader.com/topic/2747/how-to-initialize-bt-analyzers-sharperatio/