Moving-Average Crossover Limit Entries

Code backtrader

Summary

This Backtrader example demonstrates a simple trend-following strategy and order-monitoring setup. It calculates a 15-period simple moving average and uses a crossover between the closing price and the average: an upward cross creates a buy signal, while a downward cross closes an existing position. When entering, the strategy places a limit buy below the current close and sets the order to expire after a stated validity period. It waits for any pending order to resolve before considering another trade.

Order notifications log submission, acceptance, expiration, and execution details, including price, value, and commission. The script loads a daily historical data file, attaches an order observer, runs the strategy, and plots the result. It is an illustrative framework example, not evidence that the signal is profitable. The document does not report backtest results, define position sizing or protective exits, or discuss slippage and broader parameter sensitivity; the limit-entry and expiry choices would need evaluation for a specific market and dataset.

Key ideas

The strategy generates signals from price crossing a 15-period simple moving average.
An upward crossover places a limit buy below the current close, with a defined expiry period.
A downward crossover exits an existing position, and pending orders block new signal handling.
Order notifications record order status and execution details such as price and commission.
The example provides no performance results, position-sizing rules, or analysis of trading costs and parameter sensitivity.

Tags

Backtesting Trend following Technical indicators Execution Risk management

Full text

# observers-orderobserver.py


```py
#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8; py-indent-offset:4 -*-
###############################################################################
#
# Copyright (C) 2015-2023 Daniel Rodriguez
#
# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
#
###############################################################################
from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function,
                        unicode_literals)

import datetime

import backtrader as bt
import backtrader.feeds as btfeeds
import backtrader.indicators as btind

from orderobserver import OrderObserver


class MyStrategy(bt.Strategy):
    params = (
        ('smaperiod', 15),
        ('limitperc', 1.0),
        ('valid', 7),
    )

    def log(self, txt, dt=None):
        ''' Logging function fot this strategy'''
        dt = dt or self.data.datetime[0]
        if isinstance(dt, float):
            dt = bt.num2date(dt)
        print('%s, %s' % (dt.isoformat(), txt))

    def notify_order(self, order):
        if order.status in [order.Submitted, order.Accepted]:
            # Buy/Sell order submitted/accepted to/by broker - Nothing to do
            self.log('ORDER ACCEPTED/SUBMITTED', dt=order.created.dt)
            self.order = order
            return

        if order.status in [order.Expired]:
            self.log('BUY EXPIRED')

        elif order.status in [order.Completed]:
            if order.isbuy():
                self.log(
                    'BUY EXECUTED, Price: %.2f, Cost: %.2f, Comm %.2f' %
                    (order.executed.price,
                     order.executed.value,
                     order.executed.comm))

            else:  # Sell
                self.log('SELL EXECUTED, Price: %.2f, Cost: %.2f, Comm %.2f' %
                         (order.executed.price,
                          order.executed.value,
                          order.executed.comm))

        # Sentinel to None: new orders allowed
        self.order = None

    def __init__(self):
        # SimpleMovingAverage on main data
        # Equivalent to -> sma = btind.SMA(self.data, period=self.p.smaperiod)
        sma = btind.SMA(period=self.p.smaperiod)

        # CrossOver (1: up, -1: down) close / sma
        self.buysell = btind.CrossOver(self.data.close, sma, plot=True)

        # Sentinel to None: new ordersa allowed
        self.order = None

    def next(self):
        if self.order:
            # pending order ... do nothing
            return

        # Check if we are in the market
        if self.position:
            if self.buysell < 0:
                self.log('SELL CREATE, %.2f' % self.data.close[0])
                self.sell()

        elif self.buysell > 0:
            plimit = self.data.close[0] * (1.0 - self.p.limitperc / 100.0)
            valid = self.data.datetime.date(0) + \
                datetime.timedelta(days=self.p.valid)
            self.log('BUY CREATE, %.2f' % plimit)
            self.buy(exectype=bt.Order.Limit, price=plimit, valid=valid)


def runstrat():
    cerebro = bt.Cerebro()

    data = bt.feeds.BacktraderCSVData(dataname='../../datas/2006-day-001.txt')
    cerebro.adddata(data)

    cerebro.addobserver(OrderObserver)

    cerebro.addstrategy(MyStrategy)
    cerebro.run()

    cerebro.plot()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    runstrat()

```

Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: GPL-3.0

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.

A Moving-Average Crossover Strategy with Expiring Limit Entries

Summary

Key ideas

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