New coder trying to figure out what he's doing wrong

[neilkhess]

Hi Evereyone. New to AFL and Amibroker. I am doing my best to use Google, older posts and everything else to try and get the basics of strategy testing down. So I was hoping someone might take a look at the code below and help me understand what I might be doing wrong. I would think a chandelier stop like the one below would result in at least some positive expectancy, but I keep getting negative returns. Maybe I am way off and maybe my strategy is terrible, but I am hoping that someone might point out a flaw in my coding as to why things are turning out so terribly.

Thanks!

//Strategy Name - 66 Bar breakout or Breakdown

//Limitations - 1 open positions per symbol at a time (No pyramiding)
SetPositionSize(1,spsPercentOfEquity);
SetOption("MaxOpenPositions",10);

//Long Strategy
Buy = C >= HHV(H,66)-1 AND C > MA(C,50) AND MA(C,50) > MA(C,200);
Sell = C == 0;

//Short Strategy
Short = C <= LLV(L,66)-1 AND C < MA(C,50) AND MA(C,50) < MA(C,200);;
Cover = C == 0;

//Stop Loss - Chandiler
ApplyStop(stopTypeTrailing, stopModePoint, 3*ATR(10), True, True );

[Tomasz]

You did not explain:

1. Why do you think it is terrible?
2. What are your expectations?
3. Why do you think you are doing something wrong?
4. If you are looking for coding advice or general "system" advice?
5. What is your goal?

Please follow this advice: How to ask a good question

From code point of view, the only thing that is "wrong" is C == 0 as you are comparing Close price to ZERO. Such thing will never happen for stocks (prices must be > 0 ). If you wanted condition that never happens you could just write Cover = False; or Cover = 0;

[beppe]

@neilkhess

Buy = C >= HHV(H,66)-1 AND C > MA(C,50) AND MA(C,50) > MA(C,200);  // -1 usage probably wrong!!
Sell = C == 0;

//Short Strategy
Short = C <= LLV(L,66)-1 AND C < MA(C,50) AND MA(C,50) < MA(C,200);; // same issue with -1
Cover = C == 0;

@neilkhess I think you should try to change your code to reference the previous bar values:

//Limitations - 1 open position per symbol at a time (No pyramiding)
SetPositionSize(1,spsPercentOfEquity);
SetOption("MaxOpenPositions",10);

//Long Strategy
Buy = C >= Ref(HHV(H,66), -1) AND C > MA(C,50) AND MA(C,50) > MA(C,200);
Sell = 0;

//Short Strategy
// Short = C <= Ref(LLV(L,66), -1) AND C < MA(C,50) AND MA(C,50) < MA(C,200);;
// Cover = C == 0;

//Stop Loss - Chandelier
ApplyStop(stopTypeTrailing, stopModePoint, 3*ATR(10), True, True );

Please, see the Ref() documentation to understand how to use it correctly.

Also, as you can see in the above-modified code, I suggest starting with a simpler formula (in my example, testing only the long side) to verify if it achieves what you want.