LookBack, UnstablePeriod

LookBack

Number of bars that are executed before Zorro can begin to trade (default = 80). Required for indicators or other functions that need a certain amount of price history for their calculations. Set LookBack to a value that is sure to cover the longest indicator time period, or to 0 when no lookback period is required because no functions or indicators need it. The maximum lookback period for live trading is one year. Backtests can have any lookback period as long as it does not exceed the total number of bars.

UnstablePeriod

Strips off the given period (default = 40) from cumulative indicators. Some indicators, even when calculated over a finite period, are influenced by an infinite number of past bars. They are cumulative - indicators "with memory". Examples are the EMA (Exponential Moving Average) and the ATR (Average True Range). They use their previous bar's value in their algorithm, which in turn use the value of their previous bars, and so forth. This way a given value will have influence on all the subsequent values. In contrast, a simple moving average (SMA) only reflects the average of its period, without any influence from bars further in the past.
Because a price series is always finite and starts at a certain point, the affect of missing past bars is the more significant, the closer to the start a cumulative indicator is calculated. Thus a trade strategy using the EMA or derived indicators (such as the MACD) could behave different dependent on its bar number. The UnstablePeriod value allows to strip off such initial unstable period and remove the influence of all bars prior to this period. This way indicators are guaranteed to behave the same way regardless of the amount of past data. For coming as close to the real cumulative formula as possible, strip off as much data as you can afford. Getting rid of 40 bars (default) is reasonable for most indicators.

TradesPerBar

Maximum number of trades per bar, or 0 (default) for automatically estimating the maximum. Determines the allowed total number of trades when multiplied with the assets and bars of the simulation. Also affects the maximum allowed number of series. Opening more trades causes an Error 049 message. Set this to a higher value when the strategy needs to enter an unusual number of trades or create an unusual number of series, as for special systems such as grid trading, or for training an advise function. Set it to a low value, such as 1, for saving memory when the system does not trade more often than once per bar on average.

MinutesPerDay

Minimum daily trading time of the least traded asset in minutes (default = 360, i.e. 60 minutes * 6 hours). Internally used for determining the maximum lookback time. Set this to a lower value when Error 047 indicates that the lookback period gets not enough historical bars at trading start. This can be the case when an asset is only traded a few hours per day, or when you use a bar function that produces only a few bars per day.

Type:

int

Remarks:

All variables on this page must be set before loading an asset.
The number of the first bar at which a trade can be entered is greater or equal to Lookback.
If LookBack is not set by script, it is automatically set to the maximum time period of all used indicators, and a message "Lookback set to nnnn bars" is printed to the window and log file. Automatic setting is not always possible, for instance when different time frames are used or when indicator time periods change during the simulation, like in a training run. It is strongly recommended to set LookBack by script when different time frames or varying time periods are used.
If indicators get their data from other indicators - for instance, taking the a SMA of another SMA, or normalizing the value of an indicator - LookBack should be set to at least the sum of all time periods in the indicator chain.
If LookBack is still too small for a certain indicator or other function - this can happen when UnstablePeriod was changed, or when the indicator time period is not known at the first run of the strategy - an error message will be issued. Set LookBack then to a higher value.
When using series with an offset (f.i. myseries+n), make sure that LookBack is always higher than the required lookback period of the series plus UnstablePeriod plus the highest offset. Otherwise the series length can be exceeded, resulting in a script error at runtime.
When optimizing the time period of an indicator, make sure that LookBack is big enough to cover the maximum time period of the optimize range, plus the UnstablePeriod when the indicator is cumulative. Do not optimize the LookBack period itself, since it must not change anymore after loading the first asset.
UnstablePeriod is not used for all cumulative indicators. Cumulative indicators that use series - such as LowPass, DominantPeriod, UO, etc. - use LookBack as unstable period. After the lookback period they can have still differences, but they are negligible.
Setting Lookback to 0 overrides all lookback length checks. You must be sure that a lookback period is really not needed.
In [Trade] mode, price history covering the LookBack duration is downloaded from the server immediately before trading starts. Due to weekends and market hours, the lookback duration is normally longer than LookBack * BarPeriod. The downloaded history usually exceeds the lookback duration by a safety margin, but does not exceed 1 year. A longer lookback duration requires the PRELOAD flag and available price history. A too long lookback period will be indicated with a warning message.

Example:

UnstablePeriod = 60;
LookBack = 120+UnstablePeriod; // required for ATR(120) 
...
Stop = ATR(120);