Define a question, problem or specific aspect of my life to change.

• Improve liver functions.
• Reduce serum Cortisol and increase Testosterone naturally.
• Reduce Blood Pressure.
• Reduce CRP and ESR values.

As you can see this is a laundry list of things that I hope to improve. The main way I hope to improve these metrics is through diet exercise, supplementation of specific compounds, meditation and breathing exercises and more sleep.

Monitoring

I will be having blood and other tests at 3 monthly intervals to monitor progress. This second goal of improving key health metrics  is closely linked to improving my body composition. Over the course of the next year I will be posting the health related articles and experiments I am undertaking.

The Metric’s Simple Hypothesis

Reduce Blood Pressure

The first metric that I will be targeting is blood pressure. Blood pressure really is the silent killer. From the literature  that I have reducing body fat, reducing salt intake and increasing cardiovascular fitness all help reduce blood pressure.

Improve Liver Functions

This will be the hardest metric to improve as medical profession is unable to find out what’s going on. After two liver biopsy still no definitive diagnosis, they have discounted a lot of things I am no closer to an answer. Hopefully by reducing my body fat and eating healthier this may improve.

Reduce serum Cortisol and increase Testosterone naturally

An inverse relationship appears to exist in the literature that I have read between Cortisol and Testosterone. I will be reducing my coffee intake although not conclusive some studies indicate coffee increases Cortisol levels. I will also be taking up meditation and breathing exercises to reduce Cortisol levels. To increase my Testosterone I will be doing weight training, taking Zinc and Selenium supplements as I am deficient and getting adequate sleep.

Reduce CRP and ESR values

These are both non specific blood indicators that in my case the Dr.’s believe show inflammation in my body. I will begin taking turmeric and krill oil daily and see if this has a positive impact on these values.

Test, test & re-test

I will be testing these key metrics at three monthly intervals except for blood pressure which will be checked more regularly. This is just a very rough outline, everything I am undertaking is done under direct doctors supervisions. I would advise anyone who wants to improve their key health metrics that they visit their local doctor.

At the moment I am running eSignal on a dedicated Windows 7 computer, however it would be helpful to also run eSignal on my iMac. If you want to run eSignal on a Mac OS X you really only have two options at the moment.

1. Install on Bootcamp and multi boot.
2. Install in a virtual machine.

I have put together a quick video detailing the options below.

eSignal running in Parallels

The install process is pretty straightforward and so far eSignal has been running perfectly. The best way to see how well eSignal performs is by seeing it in action under Parallels Desktop 7.

• To skip the install process and watch demo of eSignal running in the virtual machine.
• To skip to cold start time of eSignal.

Enrolment has opened in three Stanford University courses that will be offered online. These courses differ from the normal MIT open courseware programs. After completion of tests and assignments you will receive a letter of attainment from the lecturers. While the course’s will not give you credits from Stanford University it is an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge that can applied to trading systems.

The Course’s Offered

1. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
2. Introduction to Databases
3. Machine Learning

Each of the courses requires about ten hours of additional study on top of the lectures. I have signed up to the advanced track of all three course and am looking forward to taking part. Even though I have already taken a level III AI program at university it will be good refresh my knowledge.

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence Video

Machine Learning Video

Introduction to Databases Video

I have finally settled on a prototyping environment for my trading strategies. I have tested many different options but I keep coming back to MATLAB. I have tried python with both iPython and sciLab. I used Octave for a bit and I even tried Excel. None of these solutions have even com close to MATLAB. Given the widespread use in industry and the speed and flexibility I can test trading ideas MATLAB is clearly the superior option.

“MATLAB is a high-level language and interactive environment that enables you to perform computationally intensive tasks faster than with traditional programming languages such as C, C++, and Fortran.”

-MathWorks.com

Back in 2010 I first read Ernest Chan’s Book How to Build Your Own Algorithmic Trading Business.  I found the book interesting however I didn’t implement any of the ideas from the book. I have got the book of the shelf and I am going to work through it.

MATLAB on Mac & Solarized Colour Scheme

MTALAB 2011b is much more Mac friendly then previous versions. The menu items are now all at the top of the screen on the Mac menu bar. Below is a basic screenshot showing the setup I use. For all my programming work I use a solarized colour theme with Monaco as the font face. When you spend at least 8 hours a day looking at a computer screen I have found these colour schemes to be easier on the eyes.

Clean up MATLAB Environment

I am always looking to save time so I wrote a quick cleanup script that removes all variables, clears history and clears the command window. It is trivial but I have posted it below as it might be helpful to someone.

% simple script to clean up workspace

% remove vars
clear;

% clear command window
clc;

% remove command history
com.mathworks.mlservices.MLCommandHistoryServices.removeAll;

Implementation

I will probably use C++ or a DSL for the actual implemntation of the strategies. I will post some screen casts as I think information is more easily digestible in that format. I am just waiting for my podcasting mic to arrive. I think it is on a slow boat from china.

eSignal 11 the Main Screen

The Top Menu Bar

eSMenu

The eS menu bar as shown above is pretty much just like the File menu in most other applications. From this menu bar you can create New Pages, Open Pages, Save Page Create new Layouts, arrange windows and modify application properties.

New Menu

Tools Menu

Watch List

Trade

The Trade menu handles most of the eSignal trade integration functions. From this menu you can handle orders, mange connections to brokers and Money Management planner.

Support

Detailed Quote Window

Charting

• Unlimited Overlays
• Sub-Charts
• View other symbols in sub-chart
• Selectable Studies, Lines
• Drag-and-Drop Studies
• Translucency
• Bars Aligned with Sessions
• Technical Indicators
• Add-On Studies
• EFS
• Back Testing
• Area Chart
• Bar Chart
• Candlestick Chart
• Line Chart
• Drawing Tools
• Tick Intervals
• Percentage Scale

Bottom Line

I have been playing poker online for a few years now and until this week I have been to lazy to properly mange and synchronize my hand history files. I do all my opponent analysis and hand history analysis under Windows. The analysis software I use is Hold’em Manger, Poker Hands, Poker Stove, Sit and Go Wiz and Troutulater. The problem I have been faced with is that I play across three different computers and two different operating systems.

DropBox: Synchronize, Backup and Import

DropBox is an easy and seamless way to synchronize and backup documents across computer’s and the internet. If you have not got an account yet sign up now it is FREE. After you have signed up to DropBox download the desktop application and install it on all desired computers. As I primariliy play on my iMac my laptop or my Windows7 machine; I created a root folder in my DropBox called HandHistory and three sub folders for each computer.

You will only need to define the structure once and it will be synchronized and backed up online.

Change your HandHistory Folder

In all of your poker clients you will need to save the HandHistory data to the desired drop box folder. This will automatically store the data online and synchronize it across computers. In my case I launch my stars client and choose the corresponding DropBox folder.

Final Step

Now that you have configured all your poker clients to save HandHistory’s to your DropBox it is time to configure your analysis software. Just put in the path to your DropBox –> HandHistory folder and now all that is left to do is click import. I have found this to be an excellent solution and is much better then using USB stick or other methods.

Getting The Symbol List’s For ASX Listed Companies

The first step in the process is to download the symbol lists from the ASX website. The ASX listed companies list is updated daily at 12Am. The easiest way to get the data is to download the CSV file, then we can work with it in Excel. As you can see in the image below there are three columns of data: Company Name, ASX Code and GICS Industry Group.

If you are unfamiliar with the GCIS or Global Industry Classification Standard you can read up on it here. Basically it is just the industry group assigned to a specific company by Standard and Poor’s.

Converting and Sorting the Symbol List

eSignal requires the symbol code and then an exchange code to be added on the end. So for example BHP in eSignal would have the code BHP-ASX. There is over 2000 companies that we wish to change the code for so we need to automate the process. In Excel this can be done with a simple formula and a fill. What we want to do is take the text string in column B of our spreed-sheet and add the text string “-ASX” to the end of the stock code. To do this we use the CONCATENATE function, this function takes n text strings and adds them together to form a new string.

As you can see from the above image in cell D1 we simply type: =CONCATENATE(B4, “-ASX”) and we fill down for the entire range and we now have our eSignal symbols ready for export. In order to export our symbol list by GCIS sector we need to custom sort the data first. Simply go to Sort -> Custom Sort and then sort by GCIS Industry Group as shown below.

Creating a New Page in eSignal 11 and Adding a Watch List

The first step is to create a new page in eSignal, to do this go to eSignal menu -> New Page or CTRL + SHIFT + N.

In the New Window template select Watch List. This will add a blank watch list to the page. After the Watch List has been added it is a good idea to save the page. You can do this be right clicking on the page tab and selecting save.

For each GCIS group I will create a new list. To do this simply click on the gear icon to the right of the blank symbol list, now rename the list to the appropriate GCIS group.

Copy and paste the group symbols from the Excel spreed-sheet, save the list rinse and repeat. The image below shows my ASX sorted GCIS watch lists.

In total there are 21 separate lists with 2227 symbols.

]]> http://www.traineetrader.com/esignal-11-creating-your-own-watch-list-ordering-by-sector/feed/ 0 http://www.traineetrader.com/excel-quick-tips-howtouse-format-painter-to-format-cells/ http://www.traineetrader.com/excel-quick-tips-howtouse-format-painter-to-format-cells/#comments Fri, 28 Jan 2011 01:59:13 +0000 Mark http://www.traineetrader.com/?p=1425

In todays Microsoft Excel quick tip we are going to make use of the Format Painter tool. The Format Painter tool allows as to take the formating from one cell and apply it to many other cells.  You can find the Format Painter in the Home Ribbon on the very left hand side as shown.

The Format Painter tool is very simple to use and can be very usefull when you have custom formatted cells.

1. Simply click in the cell that you want to copy the format from.
2. Click on Format painter then the cursor will change to a paintbrush.
3. click and drag to apply format to desired cells.

This Format Painter tool’s really comes in handy when you have custom formatted cells. For standard formatted cells other methods will probably be sufficient.

Naming a Cell in Excel

Simply double click  in the field that is shown in the image below.

Simple Named Cells Example

In this example we will name three cells, InterestRate, Balance and iEarn. After the cells have been named in cell iEarn enter the formula:

= InterestRate * Balance

Another Way you can use named cells is for navigation. Click on the button next to the name cell field and a drop down list of cells will appear. Simply select the desired cell and that region will become active.

]]> http://www.traineetrader.com/excel-quick-tips-howtoname-cells-to-simplify-formulas/feed/ 0 http://www.traineetrader.com/excel-quick-tips-working-with-time-series-data/ http://www.traineetrader.com/excel-quick-tips-working-with-time-series-data/#comments Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:50:09 +0000 Mark http://www.traineetrader.com/?p=1366 In our previous Microsoft Excel quick tip we made use of the WEEKDAY() function and introduced the concept of a serial_number to represent dates.  In this article we will look at dates in a little bit more detail. The quickest way to get the current date and time in a cell is to use the NOW() function.

Date & Time Functions NOW( )

Simply type = NOW() in the desired cell and the current date and time will be returned. I should point out that whenever formulas are recalculated the time and date will change to the current time and date. therefore you should only use the now function where you require a dynamic date and time field.

More Fun With Dates and Times

As Excel treats dates as serial number we can do normal arithmetic operations add subtract, divide and multiply dates. In the example below we add 5, subtract 5 and multiply and divide by 2 to our date and time field.