Collection

The Collection page shows the best strategies calculated by the application.

When you edit a strategy in the Editor or use the automatic Generator, EA Studio performs a backtest and shows the corresponding statistics and charts. The app sends the strategy to the Collection page. The Collection receives the strategy and puts it among the other collected strategies.

EA Studio sorts the strategies by highest net balance. The Collection can contain a maximum of 100 records. If a new strategy is to be added to the Collection EA Studio will first compare its net balance to the other strategies that are already within the Collection. If the balance of the new strategy is higher than any one of the strategies in the Collection, the new strategy will be added. At the same time the strategy with the lowest net balance will be removed. In this way the Collection will remain at a maximum of 100 strategies.

Click on a strategy in the Collection to load that strategy in the Editor.

Toolbar
Refresh  – Refresh the strategy list. When you open the Collection it shows the top 10 strategies using the last used sorting and filtering criteria. However, if the Generator is working at the same time, it may push more strategies into the Collection. When the Generator pushes a new strategy the number next to the Collection link in the navigation bar will raise. If there are new strategies in the Collection the  Refresh  button will turn green. Click it to make the new strategies show up. The Collection does not refresh automatically because it would be difficult for you to review the strategies if their position is constantly changing.

Recalculate  – Recalculate the complete Collection i.e. EA Studio loads the corresponding market for each strategy and backtests it. This action will leave only the strategies that are profitable after the new backtest.

+ Portfolio  - Add strategies to the Portfolio.

Download  – Download the complete collection to your computer. This is useful when you want to save these strategies for later review and use. The collection file has a “json” extension.

Upload  – Upload a previously downloaded collection file. By doing that you can load previously saved collection.

Remove all  – remove all the strategies from the Collection. Use this command to clean the Collection before starting the work with a new symbol or period.

Sorting records
Use this parameter to sort the collected strategies. When you make a change, the app reloads the strategies automatically. EA Studio uses the sorting option to prune the excessive strategies.

Filtering records
By default EA Studio shows all collected strategies. However you may choose to filter out strategies that do not meet your requirements. When you add or remove filters, EA Studio passes all records through each filter and shows only the strategies that passed.

Use performance filters  - Enables or disables performance filters for the Collection. If you export the Collection while the performance filters are enabled this will only export the currently visible strategies.

Passed Strategies  - The first number shows the number of visible strategies in the Collection. The second number shows the total number of strategies in the Collection.

Remove all hidden strategies  - Using this button deletes all hidden strategies from the collection.

Add a filter  - Click and choose a filter to add.

The filters are the same as in the Acceptance Criteria but only to the Collection.

Correlation Analysis
The Generator will sometimes produce strategies that are very similar to the strategies that are already in the Collection. Because of this you might end up with a Collection of many very similar strategies. Of course we want to have different strategies so we can minimize the risk when trading. Therefore having many similar strategies is not desirable.

This is why we have the Correlation Analysis feature. It will detect correlation automatically. The correlation analysis uses a coefficient. Setting the coefficient to a lower or higher value allows you to define how similar should the strategies be to be considered correlated. Strategies with a correlation coefficient higher than (by default) 0.98 are considered correlated. You can set the coefficient to a different value between 0 and 1. You can set this from Tools > Settings > Correlation Analysis

Pictures below shows Correlation Analysis in the Collection (left) and the Settings for Correlation Analysis from the Settings page (right).

Higher coefficient setting:

Lower coefficient setting:

You can see how a higher coefficient of 0.96 in Settings results in less found strategies. EA Studio now shows only 56 strategies as being correlated. If we change the coefficient to a lower value - 0.56 this results in more strategies (95) being found as correlated.

Lower coefficient means strategies can be less similar and still considered correlated. Higher coefficient means the strategies should be very similar to be considered correlated.

You can use the Correlation Analysis option in two modes: automatic and manual.

For manual operation disable  Resolve correlations automatically

The program will use the selected  Sorting order. The first strategy of a correlated group of strategies will not be marked. However every following correlated strategy will be marked with a red bar.

The  Resolve correlations  button will become green when EA Studio finds correlated strategies in the collection. Clicking the button will remove the correlation “duplicates” and will leave only the best strategy, according to your  Sort records  choice.

The  Resolve correlations automatically  option does what it says. When it is on, the counter and the  Resolve correlations  button will hide.

You can see how many correlations EA Studio resolved in the  Records stats  box below.

The Correlation Analysis can be done with two different algorithms: based on the balance line and based on the trading rules of the strategies. You can choose what to use from Tools > Settings > General > Correlation Analysis

If you have old collections that you exported before this feature was added you might want to pass them through EA Studio again to remove any correlated strategies.

Strategy Collection
The Collection records and shows the strategy ID and the market the strategy is calculated on.

The strategy tile also has the following action buttons:

Export Expert Advisor for MT4  - export an Expert Advisor for MetaTrader 4.

Export Expert Advisor for MT5  - export an Expert Advisor for MetaTrader 5.

Add to the Portfolio  - adds the current record to the Portfolio content. A Strategy can be added only once.

Remove  - removes a record. When you remove a record, the app refreshes the strategy list. New strategies may appear if the Generator is currently working.

Click on a record to send a strategy to the Editor for review and export.