EdgeWare FastBreak Pro Version 5 - Manual (Page 18)

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Systems has results from a study that reversed the typical date range order. Note: If you
reverse the IS and OS date orders, be aware that FastBreak Pro only performs error
checking on the IS Start Date to be certain enough data exists to do the initial ranking
and other calculations. For guidance on how to set the OS Start Date if you reverse
the order, try the traditional date order and see how early FastBreak Pro allows the IS
Start Date to be set. Now, use this or a later date in the OS Start Date as the earliest
possible date.
In general, if you want FastBreak Pro to optimize an option use the check box.
FastBreak Pro will take this as a sign to consider the option. This doesn't guarantee a
particular option will be used, but it will be considered in the optimization process. For
example, if you only want to use “Buy and Sell using Rank” as a trading strategy, then
select only the box for Buy and Sell Using Rank. However, if you want FastBreak Pro to
evaluate and try other strategies then check the box for those strategies.
You can select individual buying and selling strategies or the “Buy and Sell Strategies
(All Available)” check box to select all strategies for consideration. Note: We do not
recommend using the All Available option because it can result in extreme run time
without improvement in trading systems. Some of the ranking strategies are extremely
calculation intensive. In developing our own strategies, we only select one ranking
method per optimization run. See the Suggestions chapter for additional guidance.
For every variable that can be optimized in FastBreak Pro, you can input a range of
parameters to try. For example:
If you want to try Buy and Sell Using Rank, you would check the box and this would
indicate to try that parameter option. Next, FastBreak Pro needs a range of parameters to
try. In the above example, FastBreak will try Buy Ranking parameters between 10 and
95 days, and Sell Ranking parameters between 10 and 95 days. During optimization
FastBreak Pro will search this range to find the optimum set of parameters. Note: The
first range of text boxes is listed at Parm1 and the second range of boxes as Parm2. In
the case of some ranking strategies, such as simple Rank, Parm1 = Buy period and
Parm2 = Sell period. For other strategies, it will be a little more complicate. To
understand exactly what Parm1 and Parm2 reference for each strategy, go to the
Standard FastBreak Strategy Tab. Select a particular strategy in the pull down menu
and look at the parameter titles in left central part of the screen. For example, for
simple ranking it is the Buy parameter and Sell parameter. The left variable = Parm1
and the variable to its right is Parm2. For ranking strategies that use three variables,
such as GAM and MAM, you will see text box ranges on the optimizer screen that
allow you to insert ranges for this third variable.
You can change the range to values other than the default values. Although the Genetic
Algorithm (GA) is very powerful, there are two advantages to keeping the range small.