A Trading System development tutorial for the

AmiBroker Stock Charting/Analysis program

By Herman van den Bergen, Monday, July 29, 2002.

This tutorial was prepared in response to a post by Dimitris Tsokakis, on the AmiBroker
Users list, in which he introduces the basic idea for a StoCCI system (see text on page 2).

The procedures used below reflect personal design philosophy and preferences. I do not
use any commissions or interest in my calculations, if these play a role the system it is so
weak that I discard it. You may or may not agree with my approach, either way I
encourage you to express your opinion on the AmiBroker list. It is only through frank
dialogue and criticism that we can improve our skills. Kindly report any errors or
omissions to me privately: [email protected]

“The Starting Position”

Profits: 143% for the period 4/12/00 to 7/26/02

Important Note: This report outlines typical procedures that you may use to develop a
trading system. Do not trade this system as is; no profitability is suggested or implied.

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 1 of 1

Dimitris’ Post

Posted on [email protected]
By: Dimitris Tsokakis [[email protected]]
Subject: [amibroker] Tranformations
Date: Mon 7/29/02 5:41 AM

Suppose you trade INTC with a Stochastic CCI [6,12,70] system.

The total % net profit, after 18trades/12 winners/6losers is -15.85%
See INTC1.gif
[buy,sell,short,cover at open, delay +1, commission 0.5%, all stops disabled] with the use of the code:

/*Smoothed Stochastic CCI*/

P =6;D=DateNum()>1000301;
Blevel =Optimize("BL",12,10,20,1);Slevel = Optimize("SL",70,70,90,1);
StOcci=100*(CCI(6)-LLV(CCI(6),14))/(HHV(CCI(6),14)-LLV(CCI(6),14));
stocci=MA(stocci,5);
Buy=Cross(STOCCI,BLEVEL);Sell= Cross(STOCCI, Slevel);
Buy=D*(Buy);Sell=D*Sell;Short = Sell;Cover = Buy;
Buy=ExRem(Buy,Sell);Sell=ExRem(Sell,Buy);
Short=ExRem(Short,Cover);Cover=ExRem(Cover,Short);
E1=Equity();EM40=MA(E1,40);
XB=Flip(Buy,Sell);XS=Flip(Sell,Buy);
XSH=2*Flip(Short,Cover);XCO=2*Flip(Cover,Short);
XBSH=(XB+XSH);
XSXCO=(XS+XCO);
ASC=Cross(E1,EM40);DESC=Cross(EM40,E1);
// Buy=ASC*(XBSH==1);Sell=DESC*(XSXCO==1);
//Short=ASC*(XBSH==2);Cover=DESC*(XSXCO==2);

Do you want to transform the -15.85% to a +126% somehow automatically ?

Simply delete the // from the last line !!
6trades/5winners/1loser and that΄s it.
See INTC2.gif
Dimitris Tsokakis
PS1. Any volunteers to improve this method and reach its final form with a co-operative work ??
We may create a method belonging to this excellent list.
This is my ambition. I know what to do for myself. With or, sometimes, without strict coding.
PS2. The above combination [6,12,70] is just for the example
PS3. Some other examples
CSCO from +39% to +364%
MSFT from -11% to +87%
QQQ from +158% to +328%
but
ORCL from +36% to +9% etc. etc

Thank you Dimitris, for this and many other interesting posts!

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 2 of 2

The Tools

1) AmiBroker EOD 4.07 beta (version 4.07.4, July 28,2002)

2) Excel 2000 (3D charts, I don’t know if 3D macro works in other versions)
3) Excel Plugin: ABOptimizer392c.zip (Makes 3D charts for you)
4) AmiBroker User group (here you can join discussions and find support)

Preliminary observations

• There are three periods that can be optimized

• The DateNum() has to be changed to allow out-of-sample optimizing
• The usual smoothing of the Stochastic formula has been disabled
• The LookBack period is rather large
• Crossovers are not as usual and may need optimizing
• Before adding signal gating (Equity Feedback) the basic formula should be
optimized
• No Stops are used
• ExRem statements may not be needed
• Equity(1) may be needed to ensure proper Buy/Sell signals
• The gating MA() uses a very long period of 40

Selecting a test period

There are many ways to do this however it is my personal preference to develop on data
(starts 1/1/1997 for me) before 1/1/01 and perform out-of-sample testing on the
subsequent period of 1/1/01 to today. I will adopt these choices for this project.

I disable the starting date by changing the second line of code

(D=DateNum()>1000301;) to (D= 1; //DateNum()>1000301;).

The System test Settings

To duplicate this exercise you will need INTC data from 1/1/97 to today. I use QuotePlus
data, if you use another data source your results may be slightly different. Do not be
concerned about that; it is the procedures that are important, not the exact figures or
profits. Before starting you must make INTC your current stock, select it in your
workspace. I use these three testing periods:

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 3 of 3

Out-of-Sample period Development period Full History

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 4 of 4

Crossover Optimizing

When working with new systems I always first determine the optimum direction of
signal-threshold crossings. This is a reversal system so there are only two ways the
StoCCI indicator can cross the thresholds.

If the system were utilizing cash positions there would be four possible combinations. I
perform this step on “All Quotations” because the system, at this stage, performs very
poorly; using a longer testing period will give me a better indication. I assume that the
optimum crossings remain constant for the system.

For this test I also set the Threshold levels to “neutral” that would be 50 in this case. I do
this to prevent distortion of the results by far-out threshold choices. I use this code to test
the crossovers:

/*Listing #1 - Smoothed Stochastic CCI*/

TM = Optimize("TML",1,1,2,1); //Determine optimum direction of crossing
P = 6; //Optimize("Pd",6,2,10,1); //Periods as provided by Dimitris
LB = 14; //Optimize("LB",14,1,20,1);
Ps = 1; //Optimize("Ps",5,1,6,1);
D = 1; //DateNum()>1000301; //Disable datenum()
Blevel = 50; //Optimize("BL",12,10,20,1); //Use neutral thresholds
Slevel = 50; //Optimize("SL",70,70,90,1);

StOcci=100*(CCI(P)-LLV(CCI(P),LB))/(HHV(CCI(P),LB)-LLV(CCI(P),LB));
Plot(StoCCI,"StoCCI",4,1);
StoCCI=MA(stocci,Ps);

Buy = IIf(TM==1,Cross(STOCCI,BLEVEL),Cross(BLEVEL,STOCCI));
Sell = IIf(TM==1,Cross(Slevel,STOCCI),Cross(STOCCI,SLevel));
Buy = D*Buy;
Sell = D*Sell;
Short = Sell;
Cover = Buy;

The clear winner, which I confirmed with tests over other periods (not shown) is TM=2.
Modifying the basic formula we now have:

/* Listing #2 - Smoothed Stochastic CCI*/

P = 6; //Optimize("Pd",6,2,10,1); //Periods as provided by Dimitris
LB = 14; //Optimize("LB",14,1,20,1);
Ps = 1; //Optimize("Ps",5,1,6,1);
D = 1; //DateNum()>1000301; //Disable datenum()
Blevel = 50; //Optimize("BL",12,10,20,1); //Use neutral thresholds
Slevel = 50; //Optimize("SL",70,70,90,1);

StOcci=100*(CCI(P)-LLV(CCI(P),LB))/(HHV(CCI(P),LB)-LLV(CCI(P),LB));
Plot(StoCCI,"StoCCI",4,1);
StoCCI=MA(stocci,Ps);

Buy = Cross(BLEVEL,STOCCI);

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 5 of 5

Sell = Cross(STOCCI,SLevel);
Buy = D*Buy;
Sell = D*Sell;
Short = Sell;
Cover = Buy;

Period Optimizing

All optimizations are performed on data from 1/1/1997 to 1/1/01. This reserves data from
1/1/01 to today for out-of-sample testing.

We have three (I am including Stochastic Smoothing which was disabled by Dimitris)

that can be optimized. We can chart only two parameters vs. the gain at a time on a 3D
chart so I will need to make many charts to find the optimum parameters. I decided to
make a different chart for each Smoothing period (Ps). The two parameters to be charted
in each case are the CCI Period (P) and the Look Back period (LB). I use the formula
from Listing #2. Thus, Ps is changed manually while P and LB are changed by the AA
Optimizer. The charts produced are shown on the next few pages. There is one chart for
Ps=1, one for Ps=2, etc.

Looking at the charts and pick the best periods is not easy. Clearly the highest gain is
obtained with Ps of 10, 11 and 12. We also note that the CCI Period (P) is 5 for each of
these three cases. So, to start I’ll pick the middle value of 11 for smoothing and use a
period of 5 for the of CCI().

We still have three choices (8, 3 and 6) for the LookBack value. Further testing is needed
to make a decision on this. To get a good feel of how they work I overlay the equities in
one display, I use the following code to do this.

Text continues below the next few pages of 3D charts.

Figure 1 - Ps=1

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 6 of 6

 Figure 2 - Ps=2

Figure 3 - Ps=3

Figure 4 - Ps=4

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 7 of 7

 Figure 5 - Ps=5

Figure 6 - Ps=6

Figure 7 - Ps=7

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 8 of 8

 Figure 8 - Ps=8

Figure 9 - Ps=9

Figure 10 - Ps=10

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 9 of 9

 Figure 11 - Ps=11

Figure 12 - Ps=12

Figure 13 - Ps=13

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 10 of 10

 Figure 14 - Ps=14

Figure 15 - Ps=15

/* Listing #3 - Triple equities

/* Smoothed Stochastic CCI*/

// System #1
P = 5; //Optimize("Pd",6,2,10,1); //Periods as provided by Dimitris
LB = 8; //Optimize("LB",14,1,20,1);
Ps = 11; //Optimize("Ps",5,1,6,1);
D = 1; //DateNum()>1000301; //Disable datenum()
Blevel = 50; //Optimize("BL",12,10,20,1); //Use neutral thresholds
Slevel = 50; //Optimize("SL",70,70,90,1);

StOcci=100*(CCI(P)-LLV(CCI(P),LB))/(HHV(CCI(P),LB)-LLV(CCI(P),LB));
StoCCI=MA(stocci,Ps);

Buy = Cross(BLEVEL,STOCCI);
Sell = Cross(STOCCI,SLevel);
Buy = D*Buy;
Sell = D*Sell;
Short = Sell;

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 11 of 11

Cover = Buy;
E1=Equity();
Plot(E1,"E1-LB=6 (RED)",4,1);

// System #2
/* Listing #2 - Smoothed Stochastic CCI*/
P = 5; //Optimize("Pd",6,2,10,1); //Periods as provided by Dimitris
LB = 3; //Optimize("LB",14,1,20,1);
Ps = 11; //Optimize("Ps",5,1,6,1);
D = 1; //DateNum()>1000301; //Disable datenum()
Blevel = 50; //Optimize("BL",12,10,20,1); //Use neutral thresholds
Slevel = 50; //Optimize("SL",70,70,90,1);

StOcci=100*(CCI(P)-LLV(CCI(P),LB))/(HHV(CCI(P),LB)-LLV(CCI(P),LB));
StoCCI=MA(stocci,Ps);

Buy = Cross(BLEVEL,STOCCI);
Sell = Cross(STOCCI,SLevel);
Buy = D*Buy;
Sell = D*Sell;
Short = Sell;
Cover = Buy;
E2=Equity();
Plot(E2,"E2 LB=8 (BLK)",1,1);

//System #3
/* Listing #2 - Smoothed Stochastic CCI*/
P = 5; //Optimize("Pd",6,2,10,1); //Periods as provided by Dimitris
LB = 6; //Optimize("LB",14,1,20,1);
Ps = 11; //Optimize("Ps",5,1,6,1);
D = 1; //DateNum()>1000301; //Disable datenum()
Blevel = 50; //Optimize("BL",12,10,20,1); //Use neutral thresholds
Slevel = 50; //Optimize("SL",70,70,90,1);

StOcci=100*(CCI(P)-LLV(CCI(P),LB))/(HHV(CCI(P),LB)-LLV(CCI(P),LB));
StoCCI=MA(stocci,Ps);

Buy = Cross(BLEVEL,STOCCI);
Sell = Cross(STOCCI,SLevel);
Buy = D*Buy;
Sell = D*Sell;
Short = Sell;
Cover = Buy;
E3=Equity();
Plot(E3,"E3 LB=6 (BLU)",6,1);

GraphXSpace = 5;
/*

Equity Charts for LB=8, 3 and 6

The following chart show three equities for the 8, 3 and 6 LookBack periods. These
systems were optimized before the vertical purple line; to the right of the Purple line is
the out-of-sample period.

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 12 of 12

 Figure 16 - Equities for basic system using LB=8(RED), 3(BLK) and 6(BLU).

To me this is a no-brainer, I’ll continue with a look back period of 8. It is very

encouraging to note the good response in the out-of-sample period after 1/1/01. The
system need more work but looks promising.

Threshold Optimization

We now are working with a modified formula that gives about 5500% profits since
1/1/97 and 280% for the out of sample period 1/1/01 to 7/26/02. It is time to optimize the
thresholds and I will use this formula:

/* Listing #4
/* Smoothed Stochastic CCI*/
D = 1; //DateNum()>1000301; //Disable datenum()
Blevel = Optimize("BL",49,10,20,1); //Use neutral thresholds
Slevel = Optimize("SL",49,70,90,1);
StOcci=100*(CCI(5)-LLV(CCI(5),3))/(HHV(CCI(5),3)-LLV(CCI(5),3));

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 13 of 13

StoCCI=MA(stocci,11);

Buy = Cross(BLEVEL,STOCCI);
Sell = Cross(STOCCI,SLevel);
Buy = D*Buy;
Sell = D*Sell;
Short = Sell;
Cover = Buy;
E1=Equity();
Plot(E1,"Equity Listing #4",4,1);
GraphXSpace = 5;
/*

I first optimize the thresholds separately, to save time. Doing this I obtain 49 for each, the
Long and the Short Thresholds. Next I optimize them simultaneously to make sure there
is no interaction between the thresholds – while I can’t explain it I have seen this happen.
Below are the Flat and 3D charts for thresholds from 25-75.

The 3D chart reveals a central point of high profits. Normally such sharp peaks worry me
however in this case there are very few competitive peaks so it appears that this stock has
some characteristics that make it response favorable to our system.

Also note that this chart uses a linear axis for the gain while the profits were
compounded. I tried a log scale but it wasn’t as clear to see the system’s performance, so
I show you the linear chart.

All in all I am pleased with the gain concentration around our thresholds of 49/49, so I’ll
continue working with these.

Our system now gives about 2100% profit in the development period (1997-2001) and
gives about 400% profit during the out-of-sample period. Total profits since 1/1/1997 are
about 12400%.

Below are the 4D charts for the Threshold optimizations.

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 14 of 14

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 15 of 15
Adding Profit Stops

I believe that Stops are more time sensitive than periods and should be optimized using
more recent data. This is my personal preference. Contrary to what many traders say I
believe that Stops must be optimized separately for Long and Short positions. I modified
the formula to do just that.

Again, to save time, I perform a quick optimization at 1% increments I find that 8% for
Long and 9% for Short positions increase the returns. I have found that fractional
percentages can make a lot of difference so I will repeat the optimization with 0.1%
increments over a narrower range. My formula:

/* Listing #5
/* Smoothed Stochastic CCI*/
D = 1; //DateNum()>1000301; //Disable datenum()
StOcci=100*(CCI(5)-LLV(CCI(5),3))/(HHV(CCI(5),3)-LLV(CCI(5),3));
StoCCI=MA(stocci,11);
Buy = Cross(49,STOCCI);
Sell = Cross(STOCCI,49);
Buy = D*Buy;
Sell = D*Sell;
Short = Sell;
Cover = Buy;

E = Equity();
Plot(E,"Equity wo Stops",4,1);

LPos = Flip(Buy,Sell);
SPos = Flip(Short,Cover);
LPT = 8.1; //Optimize("LProfitTarget",8,5,10,0.1);
SPT = 9.6; //Optimize("SProfitTarget",9,5,10,0.1);
PT = IIf(LPos,LPT,IIf(SPos,SPT,0));
ApplyStop(1,1,PT,1);

E = Equity();
Plot(E,"Equity with PT Stops",6,1);
GraphXSpace = 5;
/*

Profits increased from about 12K% to 20K% for the 1997-2002 range. Most of the profit
increase took place in the out-of-sample period, see chart below.

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 16 of 16

 Figure 17 - Blue = Equity with PT Stops, Red = No Stops

This looks OK but I would like to verify the distribution of the stops, there is always
something to learn! I exported the optimization values from AmiBroker and produced a
3D-Chart, this is what it looks like.

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 17 of 17

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 18 of 18
From the above charts you can see that letting the profits run above our thresholds of
8.1% (Long) and 9.5% (Short) reduces profits. I find this a very revealing chart; probably
worthwhile studying in more detail some other time. After studying the flat chart and
then referring back to the 3D chart you will be able to distinguish very distinct features.

What did we accomplish?

For the period of the initial proposal, 3/1/00 to today, we have:

Net Max Profit

System Ticker #Trades Winners Losers Exp. RAR
%Profit SysDD Factor
Basic INTC 143.82% -94.00% 6 5 1 38.36% 45.26% 18.95
Optimized INTC 2724.03% -40.60% 118 84 34 34.71% 236.87% 2

Net profit improved 19 times, approximately in proportion to the number of trades. Draw
Down is reduced about 50%. Below is a chart showing both the starting and final

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 19 of 19

equities for this period. To me one of the main advantages is that this system works on
out-of-sample data.
Before and After

Figure 18 - The starting position (BLK) and result of our efforts (RED)

Performance Overview

The final equity curve for the 1/1/97 to today period is now:

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 20 of 20

The Performance Report

Overall performance summary

Total net profit: 20084.01 Total commissions paid: 0

Return on account: 20084.01% Open position gain/loss -821.97
Buy&Hold profit: 7.35 Bars (avg. days) in test: 1400 (2032)
Buy&Hold % return: 7.35% System to Buy&Hold index: 272972.05%

Annual system % return: 159.44% Annual B&H % return: 1.28%

System drawdown: -20.26 B&H drawdown: -4.55

Max. system drawdown: -8744.5 B&H max. drawdown: -361.61
Max. system % drawdown: -40.60% B&H max. % drawdown: -78.55%
Max. trade drawdown: -6267.08
Max. trade % drawdown: -32.88%
Trade drawdown: -6172.12

Total number of trades: 259 Percent profitable: 70.70%

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 21 of 21

 Number winning trades: 183 Number losing trades: 76
Profit of winners: 41479.61 Loss of losers: -20573.62
Total # of bars in winners: 823 Total # of bars in losers: 527
Commissions paid in winners: 0 Commissions paid in losers: 0

Largest winning trade: 2348.59 Largest losing trade: -5142.6

# of bars in largest winner: 2 # bars in largest loser: 15
Commission paid in largest winner: 0 Commission paid in largest loser: 0

Average winning trade: 226.66 Average losing trade: -270.71

Avg. # of bars in winners: 4.5 Avg. # bars in losers: 6.9
Avg. commission paid in winner: 0 Avg. commission paid in loser: 0
Max consec. winners: 9 Max consec. losers: 3

Bars out of the market: 250 Interest earned: 0

Exposure: 82.10% Risk adjusted ann. return: 194.10%

Ratio avg win/avg loss: 0.84 Avg. trade (win & loss): 80.72
Profit factor: 2.02

Conclusion

The above showed that with a systematic approach and by taking the time to make some
charts you can improve on almost any trading system. The stock and formulas are
incidental and you can apply the process on your favorite formulas and stocks.

If you give it a try and the performance of your system improves, please share your
experience with me. No need to email formulas, I am only interested to know what
difficulties you encountered, what other development techniques you employed, and how
you improved on the system.

Do not trade this system as is; no future profitability is suggested or implied. In fact, I
would not trade it since it works only well on INTC.

The next step is up to you J I wish you the best of luck in your trading efforts!
Herman.

Author: Herman van den Bergen Page 22 of 22