Remove Take Profit

The first function of the Normalizer is "Remove Take Profit". (We don't have "Remove Stop Loss" intentionally.)

Imagine a strategy on EURUSD that has Take Profit of 10 000 pips. It is very unlikely it be hit whenever. So, the Normalizer will try to remove it temporarily and will calculate the strategy performance. It works like that:

1. Make a modification step. In that case, the Normalizer will disable the Tak Profit.
2. Backtest the strategy.
3. Validate the strategy against the Common Acceptance Criteria (if the option is on).
4. Calculate strategy fitness according to the "Search best" option.
5. If the strategy is valid and if its fitness is same or better than the original one, it accepts the modification. Restore the previous strategy in other cases.
6. Continue to step 1 or exit. (Remove the Take Profit has only one step, so exit)

The previous post screenshot shows Calculations = 2. It is because the Normalizer first calculates teh original strategy and then it calculates the variant without TP.

The variant without TP shows better stats, so it is accepted.

The balance chart shows the original balance with a grey line and also the final normalized Balance and Equity lines.

(it must show the stats for the Normalized strategy, but I still don't have it   )

It looks great, looking forward to it.

Thank you Popov

I found out that I can use the very same Optimizer for a part of the job.

Currently, we send to the Optimizer the indicators' parameters as a Start value, an End value and Steps. The Start and End value are equal to the current value +- the steps we set (let's say +- 20). I can use it in the Normalizer tool as follows:
- set the Start value equal to the current indicator value
- set the End value equal to the Indicator's default value
- adjust the number of steps depending on the values and the precision.

It may work for both Indicators and protections.

We can have a second step - rounding the values to 5 or 10.

And a third step - trying to remove the indicators to see if strategy becomes better   (This can be the first step)

In that way, we will be sure the Normalizer works flawlessly because of the proven Optimizer's algorithm.

This may sound like an easy task and should be. However, please note that the Browser's JavaScript is single-threaded. I make something like virtual multithreading to make it possible all algorithms to work for a long time. It allows us even to have the Generator working and to test or optimise different strategy in the Strategy tab.  Once explained this to a friend, who also has an It company. He only told me that EA Studio must be much more expensive to provide that technology.

Hi Popov,

Firstly this is something that I have thought would be such a good idea for Ea Studio so good work on the development I can see this being a huge advantage for users!
Secondly with the TP could it be possible to have the Normaliser step down the TP rather than have the TP either on or off. Reason I say this is that I generate a lot of strategies that have a huge TP and you may only get a few trades where the TP is reached. Going into the future the chances of it hitting are slim and we end up with strategies that find most of there profits over only a select few trades.

My idea would be to step the TP and SL towards zero to see if the strategy improves this way we can elimate those large losses as well large wins. Kind of like ‘what would the strategy look like if we eliminated the N number of largest wins/losses. This would allow us to have tighter SL and TP towards the mean of all trades.

I just implement some more functionality and the new Normalizer managed to surprise me

I wanted it to remove a dumb Take Profit from a strategy and it did it successfully. However, it removed also one of the indicators !?. Mhm. It appeared that the indicator is needed only if I use this particular TP. Without the TP, the strategy becomes better without that indicator.

..

Update on my progress:

- the Normalizer can remove indicators.
- it correctly updates the Backtest output panel on successful normalization (can be called optimization in that context).
- the Reset button works. It reset all Normalizer settings and also resets the strategy. (I'm planning to add such Reset buttons to the Monte Carlo, the Walk Forward, and the Optimizer tools.)
- the Edit button works. It becomes green when the Normalizer finds a better strategy. It advises to "accept" the change because most probably the normalized strategy is better.

Normalizer - Default Settings

EA Studio is updated. You may test the new Normalizer.

Further to the previous notes, it now optimizes the indicator values toward the defaults in both directions. It means it increases the lower values and decreases the higher values toward the default value. The option is renamed to "Normalize indicator parameters" to correspond better to the behaviour.

Please share your opinion and ideas for improvements!

Are there any plans to put the normalizer into FSB Pro?

FSB Pro has a basic form of Normalizer. It is included in the Generator.
You may switch it on or off from the Generator's Settings. The option is called "Normalize strategies"

You may find some more info in the FSB Pro User Guide: Strategy Generator

My current plans are to add new and experimental features in EA Studio only.

Finally decided that all options of the Normalizer must be on by default. Its job is to normalize after all.