Strange undefined errors around some tickers

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Strange undefined errors around some tickers

posted May 28, 2016

It seems like my code is running into a lot of issues around some stocks. I'm not sure why, especially since the error messages seem to be very nondescript. For example,

"Something went wrong. Sorry for the inconvenience. Try using the built-in debugger to analyze your code. If you would like help, send us an email."

is a message I kept getting for a long time (just this message, no extra exception message), seemingly linked to this line of code:

context.stocks = symbols('SPY',
'AMZN',
'AAPL',
'GOOG',
)

I then switched to SIDs, because I read on the forums that using tickers was a potential problem.

context.stocks = [sid(8554), #SPY
sid(16841), #AMZN
sid(24), #AAPL
sid(46631), #GOOG
sid(42950), #FB
sid(2765), #FDX
sid(33729), #DAL
]

(I'm using these as placeholders for groups of stocks, for now)

However, the issue then changed to

"Exception: inputs are all NaN There was a runtime error on line 75."

line 75 being a function that takes in context and data as inputs.

These issues all occur maybe 2-3 years after the beginning of my backtests, so I find it really strange that it's not erroring out at the beginning, but rather somewhere in the middle. Are these issues usually linked to stock variables? I use data.can_trade(stock) on pretty much every function so I find it strange that it would have this kind of issue, unless it's somehow linked to data.history() where a stock changes between the current date and the x number of days I check history for?

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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.