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How to limit the number of trades in one day for my algorithm

I found my algorithm buying and selling 1~2 stocks for each ticker multiple times a day, which doesn't make sense considering the transaction cost. Is there a simple way to limit the number of trades?

4 responses

Well, it depends on the details of your code. If you are simply ordering Ni shares of the i th security in your universe, then add some logic that says, if N < Nmin, don't order. If you are using order_target_percent, for example, then it is a matter of making sure that you don't make small changes in the portfolio allocation vector (the list of security allocations as a percent). One approach I've toyed around with is to think of the portfolio vector in its M-dimensional space, and set a limit on how far it needs to be rotated for a change to go through (keeping it normalized to 1 for a long-only portfolio). --Grant

You can also use the "set_max_order_count" trading guard, which limits the number of orders per day: https://www.quantopian.com/help#ide-trading-guards

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Hi Grant and Alisa,
Thank you for the advises!
I do have another question at this time. I have stopped my algorithm, made the changes, how do I put it back to 'live trading' again? If I click enter contest, it will just add a new one instead of continuing with the stopped algorithm.
Best,
Alex

Once a live algorithm is stopped, that algorithm's track record is finished and it can't be re-started.

You can then make updates, tweak the code and parameters, and re-deploy to live trading (or the contest). When you re-deploy, this will start a new live algorithm, with a new trading history, logs, risk metrics etc.