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Development outside the scope of Quantopian
Daniel Greenberg
posted Aug 18, 2015
Seeking Help

Quantopian is really great, but it has limitations such as lack of ability to import external code, no versioning system, as well as many other development related things.

I've installed Zipline on a machine and am trying to run the demos on their website. However, the demos don't work. Every one that I try gives some errors.

This command has been copied directly from the Zipline website:

python scripts/run_algo.py -f zipline/examples/dual_moving_average.py --symbols AAPL --start 2011-1-1 --end 2012-1-1 -o dma.pickle

When running it, it gives this error:
File "scripts/run_algo.py", line 25, in
File "pandas/hashtable.pyx", line 694, in pandas.hashtable.PyObjectHashTable.get_item (pandas/hashtable.c:12231)
KeyError: 'AAPL'

It seems a bit ridiculous that the demos for Zipline don't work. Am I doing something wrong? Is anyone else having the same issue?

2 responses
francis Pieraut
Aug 18, 2015

I got the same issue so I have opened an issue on github 19 days ago but the zipline team didn't reply yet (https://github.com/quantopian/zipline/issues/663)....if the basic examples don't work nor get fix, it is quite scary. It looks quite bad guys....at least turn down the site http://www.zipline.io/ so people don't get pissed and it doesn't discredit quantopian team.
I want to develop/debug outside quantopian as mentioned in the faq but it simply isn't working.
The solution is quite simple, fix it guys fast....a frustrated quantopian user or change you FAQ and remove zipline.io.

James Kirk
Aug 18, 2015

Daniel - Thanks for reporting this bug! It appears that there is a problem with record() statements that is causing dual_moving_average_analyze.py to fail. This is most likely a result of some recent changes I made to clean up our performance packet generation. I am digging in now to find the cause, and I'll ensure that there is test coverage on this once I have my head around the issue.

Francis - Thank you, too! And I am very sorry that I missed your Zipline issue on GitHub. I will update it accordingly with my findings.

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The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation or endorsement for any security or strategy, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services by Quantopian.

In addition, the material offers no opinion with respect to the suitability of any security or specific investment. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action as none of Quantopian nor any of its affiliates is undertaking to provide investment advice, act as an adviser to any plan or entity subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity, or give advice in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the materials presented herein. If you are an individual retirement or other investor, contact your financial advisor or other fiduciary unrelated to Quantopian about whether any given investment idea, strategy, product or service described herein may be appropriate for your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Quantopian makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the views expressed in the website. The views are subject to change, and may have become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.