Genetic Algorithm for EA, how?

[lumanauw]

Reading from ATC2008, EA Prizmal is using "Genetic Algorithm" for predicting price. Searching from internet, it is said that Genetic Algorithm is better than Neural Network for predicting Forex.
Some links about Genetic Algorithm
http://www.ai-junkie.com/ga/intro/gat1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_algorithm
http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Boltzmann_machine
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyzOUbkUf3M"]The Next Generation of Neural Networks - YouTube[/ame]

 

[lumanauw]

Some tips about how to use Neural Network (quoted from internet):

Here's a a few tips when using neural networks.
1) standardise the inputs by using the natural log of lagged returns (eg take the log of the difference in closing prices over x bars)
2) look for correlations between a target variable of AT LEAST 50 bars in the future, and inputs using lagged returns covering the past 50-250 bars
3) use intermarkets as the primary source of inputs
4) keep the number of inputs below 7-8 (as few as possible)
5) do not use more than 1 hidden layer
6) build several networks and use emsembles
7) do not try and predict price as the target variable - rather predict the log return of price over the next x days, or something like the rsi.
8) stay away from predicting moving averages - they are easy to predict and utterly useless in real trading (one particular software vendor uses predictions of moving averages and i know from bitter experience its a pointless exercise)
9) before building a network do seperate analysis on correlations

I have reserached neural nets for some time and have had some success - particularly with forex. (e.g over 90% directional accuracy at predicting direction over the next 50 bars on out of sample and live trading). Its not easy, and every market behaves differently, so no holy grail.

 

[lumanauw]

Also from internet, I got this EA. From the title, maybe it uses Genetic Algorithm.

Unfortunately, it is originally in Russian, the comments are not readable. I'm not a programmer myself, so I don't understand exactly what the codes are about. I only know little about coding MT4.

Anybody can add comment, what each block in that EA do? Is it really a Genetic Algorithm EA?

Gathering all the informations above, maybe we can come up with a working and profitable EA. Anyone interested?

 

[lumanauw]

The term "Genetic Algorithm" can be found on standard MT4 program. If you backtest or optimizing EA, there's a "Genetic Algorithm" button in the option.

Anybody knows how "Genetic Algorithm" in MT4 backtester works? What are the codes? How does it work?

It speeds up optimization process.

So, for an EA, at least Genetic Algorithm can speeds up process of "looking for something". If we have got a good strategy, certainly Genetic Algorithm can help speed things up.

But how to make/ to program Genetic Algorithm for MT4 from 0?

 

[Enivid]

The term "Genetic Algorithm" can be found on standard MT4 program. If you backtest or optimizing EA, there's a "Genetic Algorithm" button in the option.

Anybody knows how "Genetic Algorithm" in MT4 backtester works? What are the codes? How does it work?

It speeds up optimization process.

So, for an EA, at least Genetic Algorithm can speeds up process of "looking for something". If we have got a good strategy, certainly Genetic Algorithm can help speed things up.

But how to make/ to program Genetic Algorithm for MT4 from 0?

This article describes this to a certain extent:

http://articles.mql4.com/134

They use selective combinations of the input parameters during the optimization with the "Genetic Algorithm" on instead of using all the possible combinations of the parameters.

 

[gjrexach]

GA for this EA

Also from internet, I got this EA. From the title, maybe it uses Genetic Algorithm.

Unfortunately, it is originally in Russian, the comments are not readable. I'm not a programmer myself, so I don't understand exactly what the codes are about. I only know little about coding MT4.

Anybody can add comment, what each block in that EA do? Is it really a Genetic Algorithm EA?

Gathering all the informations above, maybe we can come up with a working and profitable EA. Anyone interested?

This is Neural network EA that just uses a simple genetic algorithm for improving the Neural weights; It does not create a trading strategy; IMHO, this cannot be described as a true GA EA(such as Adaptive Modeler Software;google for info)


See www.ai-junkie.com for a brief tutorial of how a genetic algorithm works and understand terms such as crossover, roulette selection, and mutation.. hope this helps.