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[Resolved myself] My algorithm doesn't buy positions in the first run

No idea how to delete a post

Resolved the problem myself :)

Hello beautiful folks of Quantopian!

Any suggestions on running a function exactly once, when the algorithms is initializing?

Algorithm builds successfully i.e. no syntax/API errors. However it does not place any trades. My suspicion is that the first_run() function never gets called.

Back-testing is running very slow, so couldn't attach the backtest. But entire algorithm is attached in the notebook.

Regards,
A

3 responses

@Abhi

There are a couple reasons why your algorithm could have been misbehaving. Notably you are placing handle_data as a call made by schedule_function, this isn't really proper form as handle_data will get called for every bar of data no matter what. Take a look at this sample algorithm for a guide to using schedule_function

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@James

I resolved this last night, the algo was misbehaving from the wrong initial values, but really appreciate your help.

What's a "bar"? Is is every minute if I back-test at the minute level, and every day if I back-test at day level?

Yes that is correct. Check out the FAQ for a terse explanation.