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Returns and Dollar P/L questions
Dave Rish
edited Aug 15, 2013

Greetings all! And pardon my ignorance if these are dumb questions as I've only been looking into quant strategies for a few months. I started running the sample algo on aug. 5 and now have 527% returns and $52,651 P/L (although I'm exposed about 1 million!)!! I don't see where I made that money, i.e. it means I've actually made $52,651? Is this when I sold my long shares on aug. 7 and got rid of my shorted shares on aug. 12?

Again, this is just the default algo offered on the site when you sign up w/ no changes in the code.

Is there anywhere on the Dashboard where I can see where I actually made money, i.e. where the buys and sells are and for how much?

Any help much appreciated.
Dave R.

4 responses
Dan Dunn
Aug 14, 2013

Dave, are you talking about a backtest or papertrading?

If you're doing a backtest, make sure you click "Full Backtest" and let that run. Then, on the left-hand side, you'll see a series of tabs that have all the nitty-gritty detail of your transactions, positions, risk, and more.

If you're in papertrading, click on the algorithm in My Algorithms. The top row tells you what your current P/L is. The lower-right panel shows you your transactions.

One thought: in the sample algorithm, the "notional" is limited to $1,000,000. However, when you do paper trading, the default capital start is $10,000. So it might be that you started papertrading with $10,000 and then borrowed $990,000. That leverage can certainly drive some outrageous (and impossible) returns.

Disclaimer

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.

Dave Rish
Aug 14, 2013

Dan, thanks for the response - I'm enjoying the site and i hope i didn't sound like I was complaining. Anyway, I'm talking about papertrading. I see the P/L. But the transactions - I see them but i would like to see exactly where my long and short-sale profits occurred - it's a bit confusing. All I see is a series of long and then short buys. Here is a link to my algo - My algo

Also, is the P/L quoted at the top before transaction costs, taxes, etc?

Dan Dunn
Aug 14, 2013

I welcome the questions =)

I understand now more what you're after. That's an interesting data display idea. We don't have that. Right now it's all queued up together, and the long/short pairs or whatever aren't shown together. Interesting idea for future revisions, which are sure to come.

The P/L includes any transaction costs already incurred, but doesn't include the cost of liquidation of holdings, and doesn't include taxes. Also, if you borrowed money or went short, it doesn't include margin costs either.

Dave Rish
Aug 14, 2013

sounds good to me - yes if you could add that data at some point, great. just keep moving forward - thanks again...

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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.