- This topic has 11 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 9 months, 3 weeks ago by
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I have an Intel Core i7 8th gen.
And if I run 4 EA Studios Chrome uses about 40% of my CPU. (1 EA Studio = 10% of CPU)
But I noticed if I run 9-10 EA Studios I would be using about 100% of my CPU but each EA Studio will run slower.
So then is a bigger PC better or more littler PC better to get the most out of EA Studio? -
You’d be better off adding Express Generator and using that instead of Chrome to generate strategies before spending more money upgrading hardware I think. In your situation you’d be looking at a new CPU, motherboard, and probably RAM as well. A high core count Intel 13th Gen or Ryzen 9 would definitely make a bigger difference, but at a greater cost of investment, and you’d still want to switch to Express Generator over opening more browser tabs to maximize the performance. Express Generator is just SO much faster and more efficient, on any platform, that it probably makes more sense to invest in that first and hardware later. At the end of the day though, more cores is going to get more done when multitasking, no way around it. Also, you can run Express Generator on more than one computer if you have them, dividing up symbols between different machines. Scripting everything is SO much easier and faster than configuring multiple browser tabs. I generate strategies on 28 pairs daily just by double clicking a script and letting it run.
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Are there good instructions on how to run express-generator?
I know there are youtube videos.
I am a web developer so I know a bit of JS.
Just wondering what instructional material you found the most helpful.-
Mostly from the videos posted on the forexsb . com forum, and the discussions over there. I’ve had a long IT career, so it was easy to figure out, even before the videos were made. You’ll figure it out fast with your skillset. 😉 And there are lots of tips and instructions now on the other forum if you get stuck.
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Jaylon,
The following are the results of my testing of multiple EA Studio to determine the optimum number of EA Studios to use:
This first chart shows the optimum number of EA Studio running at one time for my Intel i5 pc. The graph shows the optimum number of EA studios to run simultaneously is 3. With 3 EA Studios running at one time the Total collected strategies per minute is 3673. Running more than 3 EA studios at one time actually results in slightly fewer strategies collected per minute and just ends up using more unnecessary processor power.
This first chart shows the optimum number of EA Studio running at one time for my Intel i7 11th gen pc. The graph shows the optimum number of EA studios to run simultaneously is 4. With 4 EA Studios running at one time, the Total number of collected strategies per minute is 10435. Running more than 4 EA studios at one time actually results in slightly fewer strategies collected per minute and again just ends up using more unnecessary processor power.
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Personally, I haven’t found the need to get Express Generator. Properly created EAs should work correctly for a few months. So what I do is run 7 instances of EA Studio for two days to collect hundreds of new EAs. I then put them in a file as a collection. The next week I will run 7 more instances of EA Studio for two days and collect more EAs. In one month I have hundreds of collected EAs for 28 forex pairs. Then, at the end of the month, I will choose new EAs from all the collections to trade IF there are some in my portfolio I need to change out. If all EAs in my portfolio are all performing as expected then I will not create new EAs from the collections I gathered from the previous month. So it only takes me a few minutes of time each week to change the 7 EA Studios from one Forex pair to another and restart them. Although Express Generator will collect the EAs faster than EA Studio doesn’t really matter to me as the EA Studios are working in the background and do not require my attention. The only real time spent with EA Studio is at the end of each month when I have to choose which EAs to trade. I would have to spend the same amount of time choosing the EAs from the Express Generator. For these reasons, I cannot justify the expense of purchasing the Express Generator. The only way I could justify the expense is if I was creating new EAs to trade every day. However, this is not my intention. My intention is to monitor/update my trading account once a month and not have to be choosing new EAs every day. To me, the whole idea of using EAs is to automate my trading so I don’t have to be at my computer every day. For these reasons, I see the need for the Express Generator.
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I use it mostly because I leave it generating 24×7 all day long in the background on my server without worrying about a web browser crashing or using too much RAM, etc., saving every 15 minutes, so I can stop it at any time, but it just runs indefinitely. And I validate once or twice a week (usually on weekends) on data from multiple brokers, to only pick strategies that pass Monte Carlo on all of them for several different date ranges (last three years combined, 3yrs ago alone, 2yrs ago, 1yr ago, etc.). If it makes it through the “funnel” of about 12 validation steps, then I import them into EA Studio and make a portfolio EA. For me, that whole validation process across three brokers is so much faster to script with a single file that I double click than to do it for each symbol and each broker in EA Studio. But I still use EA Studio in the end to combine the passed strategies into portfolios that I swap out on weekends. All of that could most certainly be done without the Express Generator, but for me it automates it with less mouse clicks. It’s not so much because it generates more strategies faster persay (although it does), it’s more that it makes my time more efficient processing them afterward.
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There is always more than one way to collect strategies. Aaronpriest does it one way and I do it another. Both ways work! About using computer resources I run 3 Ea Studio on one machine and 4 on the other. I set the run time to 2880 minutes so they are only running for two days each week. About computer resources, I am using about 50%. If this is a problem you can always run them over the weekend when the markets are closed.
In addition, I have thousands of strategies in collections for each forex pair that it is not really necessary to run EA Studio anymore. However, I still collect them. All that is needed is to load them into the validator, set how much historical data I want to use, set the filters, etc, and let it run. As an example, “I can validate a collection of strategies collected a year ago and find strategies that work in recent market conditions.” I have so many strategies collected when I run the validator I get a lot of correlations (similar strategies). This tells me EA Studio is finding duplicate or very similar strategies. This confirms that I have so many collected strategies I really don’t need to use the Reactor to find new strategies as I have a sufficient quantity to run through the validator to find strategies that work in today’s trading environment.
Jaylon, it would be wise to have two computers available and save all your collections and EA Studio settings on an external hard drive. Also, set up your MetaTrader/MetaTraders with login on both computers. Set it up so you can do the same work from either computer. Computers do crash. This way if something happens you can always keep working. I haven’t had a computer crash in a long time but it pays to be prepared. With two computers it also gives you the ability to collect more strategies without Express Generator. Then think about getting Express Generator.
Jaylon, I’m not trying to talk you out of getting the Express Generator I am just explaining why I cannot justify the cost. However, I would suggest you have computer redundancy before getting Express Generator to protect yourself. Do what you think is right for you!
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Thank you, everyone, for your invaluable advice. I currently own two PCs, both equipped with Intel i7 CPUs. To ensure the safety of my collections, I have connected both of them to battery backups. This precaution allows me enough time to save my work when the power inevitably goes out. I primarily use my personal PC for collecting strategists, and I store all my collections on Google Drive. I also make use of the validator every month. In terms of strategy, I am mostly following Petko’s 12 EA system. Additionally, I utilize a VPS to run all my MT4/5 platforms.
At the moment, I am simulating the operation of EA Studio to evaluate its profitability in finding strategies over the past five months. I am well aware of the importance of separating “train” and “test” data to determine if a strategy has potential in the live market. Here are some specific questions I would like answered:
What should be the duration of my train set? Should it cover one year, two years, or six months?
How long should my validation set be?
Which symbols does EA Studio identify as having the most profitable strategies?
Is a 10%, 20%, or 30% out-of-sample allocation more suitable?
Should I enforce the use of a take-profit in EA Studio?
Which time frame yields better long-term profitability?
I have a notion that strategies with lower time frames should be updated more frequently. For instance, a 4-hour strategy may not require monthly updates, but a 5-minute strategy might benefit from weekly revisions.How consistent is EA Studio? If I run it multiple times using the same data, does it consistently identify strategies that generate profits in out-of-sample scenarios?
These are just a few examples of the questions I seek answers to.Furthermore, I understand that there are diminishing returns when attempting to discover the best settings due to the market’s inherent randomness. However, I firmly believe that maintaining a diversified portfolio with various time frames, symbols, and strategies is crucial for consistent gains.
Through numerous tests, I have already obtained answers to some of my inquiries. For instance, I have found that Walk Forward Validation does not necessarily correlate with more profitable strategies in out-of-sample data.
While performing all these tests, Express Generator could prove useful. However, when it comes to discovering new strategies for the upcoming month, EA Studio has proven more than sufficient.
I am confident that many of you possess insights into some of the questions I have raised. I eagerly await your thoughts and feedback.
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