All Backtesting

Here is a description of the backtest function and all of its parameters. This is true for any kind of backtesting that you will be doing.

strategies.strategy.Strategy.backtest(*args, minutes_before_closing=5, minutes_before_opening=60, sleeptime=1, stats_file=None, risk_free_rate=None, logfile=None, config=None, auto_adjust=False, name='StratName', budget=10000, benchmark_asset='SPY', plot_file=None, plot_file_html=None, trades_file=None, pandas_data=None, show_plot=True, **kwargs)

Backtest a strategy.

Parameters

  • datasource_class (class) – The datasource class to use. For example, if you want to use the yahoo finance datasource, then you would pass YahooDataBacktesting as the datasource_class.

  • backtesting_start (datetime) – The start date of the backtesting period.

  • backtesting_end (datetime) – The end date of the backtesting period.

  • minutes_before_closing (int) – The number of minutes before closing that the minutes_before_closing strategy method will be called.

  • minutes_before_opening (int) – The number of minutes before opening that the minutes_before_opening strategy method will be called.

  • sleeptime (int) – The number of seconds to sleep between each iteration of the backtest.

  • stats_file (str) – The file to write the stats to.

  • risk_free_rate (float) – The risk free rate to use.

  • logfile (str) – The file to write the log to.

  • config (dict) – The config to use to set up the brokers in live trading.

  • auto_adjust (bool) – Whether or not to automatically adjust the strategy.

  • name (str) – The name of the strategy.

  • budget (float) – The initial budget to use for the backtest.

  • benchmark_asset (str) – The benchmark asset to use for the backtest to compare to.

  • plot_file (str) – The file to write the plot to.

  • plot_file_html (str) – The file to write the plot html to.

  • trades_file (str) – The file to write the trades to.

  • pandas_data (pandas.DataFrame) – The pandas data to use.

  • show_plot (bool) – Whether or not to show the plot.

Returns

The backtest object.

Return type

Backtest

Examples

>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> from lumibot.backtesting import YahooDataBacktesting
>>> from lumibot.strategies import Strategy
>>>
>>> # A simple strategy that buys AAPL on the first day
>>> class MyStrategy(Strategy):
>>>    def on_trading_iteration(self):
>>>        if self.first_iteration:
>>>            order = self.create_order("AAPL", quantity=1, side="buy")
>>>            self.submit_order(order)
>>>
>>> # Create a backtest
>>> backtesting_start = datetime(2018, 1, 1)
>>> backtesting_end = datetime(2018, 1, 31)
>>> budget = 10000
>>> backtest = MyStrategy.backtest(
>>>     datasource_class=YahooDataBacktesting,
>>>     backtesting_start=backtesting_start,
>>>     backtesting_end=backtesting_end,
>>>     budget=budget,
>>>     name="MyStrategy",
>>>     benchmark_asset="QQQ",
>>> )