Help On Sell In May Strategy

Hi Yao, The error is in the line:

Qty= self.Portfolio.Cash/["SPY"].Close

This is because the data for SPY needs to be accessed using:

Qty= self.Portfolio.Cash/data["SPY"].Close

Below is a working backtest:

Hi Gurumeher,

Thanks a lot, The algorithm works. But may I ask why there is no even one trade activated? Based on the algorithm, it should buy at Nov period which the timeframe has covered.

Thanks.

Error here.:)

It looks like you're ordering more than your margin allows. You're only allowed 2x leverage for a margin account. If you switch to a pattern day trade model you're allowed 4x intraday and 2x leverage overnight. You can try adding the pattern day trade model to initialize or setting leverage to 2 . Go to the cash and brokerage models in documentation to read more. 

Eric

Hi Eric,

Thanks. I changed the leverage=1 but still see the same error. One finding is, it keeps buying until cannot buy any more, But cannot see any sell action. Any logic problem of the script?

Thanks

Yao Yiyang

import numpy as np
import datetime

class SellInMayBuyInNov(QCAlgorithm):
    def Initialize(self):
        self.SetStartDate(2018,1, 1)  #Set Start Date
        self.SetEndDate(2019,2,1)    #Set End Date
        self.SetCash(10000)           #Set Strategy Cash
        # Find more symbols here: http://quantconnect.com/data
        self.AddEquity("SPY", Resolution.Minute,Leverage=1,fillDataForward = True, extendedMarketHours = False)
        self.SetRunMode(RunMode.Series)
        

    def OnData(self, data):
        if self.Time.month == 5:
            if self.Portfolio.Invested:
                self.SetHoldings("SPY", -Qty)
                self.Debug("Sell In May " + str(self.Time.year) +" Quantity:"+ str(Qty))
        elif self.Time.month  == 11:
            if not self.Portfolio.Invested:
                Qty= self.Portfolio.Cash/data["SPY"].Close
                self.SetHoldings("SPY", Qty)
                self.Debug("Buy In Nov " + str(self.Time.year) +" Quantity:"+str(Qty))

Hi Yao, few things to consider when creating this algorithm:

The algorithm runs in minute resolution. Is there a reason to why you are iterating through all that data if you only trade twice a month? 

Also if you would like to use all of the cash in your portfolio to buy SPY, the line using SetHoldings can just be:

Below is a backtest that should run to the specifications you want:

Hi Gurumeher,

Thanks for sharing. I copied your code but found some strange thing from the trades.

1. Orignally, it only bought 3950 shares of SPY in Nov'2017 but can sell 7886 shares in May'2018?  The quantity not match.

2.By right, in May, it only allows sell action. But you can see below, it also has "buy" action in May.

Yao, I apologize, it looks like I took a short position in May instead of liquidating the assets. Here is the update! I just changed line 17.

Thanks a lot for your help Guru