How do I get Buy and Sell Signals from an Algo?

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How do I get Buy and Sell Signals from an Algo?

edited Dec 21, 2019

Seeking Help Getting Started

Sorry for a newbie question....
How do I get Buy and Sell Signals from an Algo?
Do I run a backtest up until this moment to see what I should buy/sell right now?

For example, I backtested the Algo in Getting Started: Lesson 7 1, which is supposed to rebalance weekly the 1st day of each week.
I ran the backtest on 12/20/19, but the last day I could use for the back test was 12/19/19.
Therefore, I would only be able to run it on the 2nd day of the week to see what I should have bought/sold on the 1st day of the week....

What am I missing?

2 responses

The Quantopian platform is oriented more towards researching/backtesting strategies and licensing the cream of the crop of those their hedge fund. They've killed off the features for automated real-time trading for personal use.

Zipline is the open source software that powers Quantopian's backtester. There are various projects built on zipline that will do what you're looking for. Unfortunately, I haven't used any, so I can't give you any specific advice.

Thank you for your response Viridian!
I wasn't after automated trading as much as getting "real-time" sell/buy signals for manual trading.
After doing some search I found the post about the killing of paper trading feature at the end of the year. I assume that this feature could have been used to get signals for manual trading with any broker. I see now why so many people were upset about the loss of this feature (and so am I now!).

With a local zipline install, I believe that we lose Quantopian's excellent data which includes fundamentals and many other features. Many Algo's depend on the Quantopian Data.

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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.