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How is initial capital used?

If we have to check notional via code, what is the point in setting initial capital at the backtesting stage?

3 responses

Hello Charlie,

The backtester allows unconstrained buying and selling, so if you need constraints, they need to be applied within the code. The initial capital is used to model the amount of cash you would supply to fund the trading (with additional funds possibly coming from the broker as margin).

Grant

Thanks for replying Grant.

Is there any way to hook the initial capital to the constraints in code?

Charlie, the initial capital is used to calculate your returns - that's really all it is used for at this point.

It is definitely possible to hook the initial capital in, but unfortunately it's not a one-line fix. I've got a to-do for us to make it a lot easier. For now, this example is very helpful.

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