Insufficient capital -- with one symbol!?
Author: fritz
Creation Date: 5/24/2009 10:36 AM
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fritz

#1
I tried a simple test using the RSI Rotation strategy. I limited it to trading 1 symbol at a time, and told it to trade with 100% of equity. That caused it to drop almost half the trades due to insufficient equity. Anything over 83% of equity caused it to drop trades.

But: how can there be insufficient equity if it's only trading one symbol at a time?? If only one order is open -- as it should be with the RSI Rotation when it's holding 1 symbol -- it should *always* have 100% of equity available, shouldn't it? And it should calculate the position size to use whatever percentage you tell it to use, up to 100%.

I've verified that it holds only 1 open symbol at a time, even when I set the %equity below 80% or if I set the position size to a fixed value (raw profit mode).

What gives?
Gary
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Eugene

#2
It could be basis price (Wealth-Lab User Guide: Strategy Window > Backtesting Strategies > 100% of Equity Sizing). In WL5 you can bump up the Margin Factor a little in the position sizing dialog.
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fritz

#3
Sure enough, that was it. Thanks Eugene!
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