Annual return

Learn what is needed in order to calculate the annual return.

Annual return

Annual return is the average yearly return and appears in the Statistics window.

What is needed to compute it

In order to compute it, it is necessary to know the time span in the historical file. This is required only if you are interested in the annual return. For all other metrics in statistics and all other features in general of Trading Conceiver, date and time as expressed in the historical file don't need to be understood by the software. If you want to know the annual return, follow the following steps.

Select the Profit tab

In the main window of Trading Conceiver, select the main tab:

  Profit

Enable annual return calculation

Select the check box

  Enable annual return calculation

If this check box is selected, the annual return will be calculated and shown in the statistics. As a corollary, other metrics will be calculated and shown in the statistics, such as:

Trading period (days)
Trading period (years)
Entries per year

If the check box is not selected, the annual return will not be calculated and will not appear in the statistics.

Different methods

By selecting this check box, you can select the method of your choice to indicate to Trading Conceiver the time span in the historical file. Each method is represented by a radio button. You need to fulfill only one method, not all of them. We suggest you try the methods in the order they are presented here.

Method applied

The method applied when computing the statistics is the one selected by the radio button.

Once you find a certain method (except the Enter dates one) works properly, you can leave it selected for all historical files with the same date / time format.

The 5 methods

Auto detect

Trading Conceiver will try to auto detect the date / time format. Try this option first. If date and time are expressed in a reasonably standard way, it will detect the format correctly.

Two dates / times are shown: the first and the last in the historical file. Look at the

  Day, month, ..., minute, second

fields to check if dates / times have been interpreted correctly. If so, no further actions are required; leave the

  Auto detect

radio button selected. Otherwise, select another method.

Periodicity

Radio buttons

Enter the periodicity of the data in the historical file. For instance, if the historical file contains daily data, select 'Daily'. The radio button

  Less than daily

means there is more than one entry per day, like hourly, 5 minutes...

Spinners

The spinners are enabled only for some radio button selections.

Holidays per year

Enter the number of holidays when the stock exchange is closed, like New Year's Day, Christmas day, national holidays...

Trading days per week

Enter the number of trading days per week. E.g., if the stock exchange occurs Monday to Friday, they are 5 days.

Entries per day

If there is more than one entry per day, enter the number here. E.g. if the periodicity is hourly and the exchange occurs for 9 hours, enter 9.

Decimal numbers for fine tuning

You can enter decimal numbers, not just integers, in order to fine tune the input. As an example, suppose there are 11 holidays per year in your country, during which the stock exchange is close, and that trading days are Monday to Friday. You might want to fine tune your input calculating that, statistically, those 11 holidays have a probability of occurring between Monday and Friday of

  5 / 7 = 0.7

i.e. 5 trading days per week and 7 days per week in total. So in the 'Holidays per year' spinner you could input

  11 · 5 / 7 = 7.86

instead of 11.

Entries per year

You have to input the number of entries (bars) in your historical file per year. They can even be decimal numbers, not necessarily integer.

In order to do that, you need to consider the periodicity of the data in the historical file.

Yearly

If the data in the historical file are yearly, obviously you have to enter:

  entries per year = 1

Monthly

There are

  entries per year = 12

months in one year.

Weekly

There are 52 whole weeks in one year. More precisely, they are

  365 / 7 = 52.14

Even more precisely, considering one leap year out of 4, statistically there are

 (365 · 3 + 366) / 4 = 365.25

days per year. So there are

  entries per year = 365.25 / 7 = 52.18

weeks in one year.

Daily

Typically, it is considered there are

  entries per year = 252

trading days in one year, considering 5 trading days per week and holidays. Indeed, trading days are:

  5 days/week · 52.18 weeks/year = 260.9

to be reduced by the holidays. But this completely depends on your country and the market you are trading.

Hourly, 5 minutes...

You can start from the 252 trading days per year of the previous section and multiply it by the number of bars per day. E.g. for hourly data, if there are 9 bars per day:

  entries per year = 252 · 9 = 2268

Date pattern

You have to enter the format used for dates and times in your historical file. The format is expressed through specific symbols.

The first date / time in the historical file is shown. Enter the pattern and press the button

  Apply pattern

Then, look at the

  Day, month, ..., minute, second

fields to check if the date and time have been interpreted correctly. If so, no further actions are required; leave the

  Date pattern

radio button selected. Otherwise, select another method.

Pattern

Symbols


Symbol     Meaning               Examples
─────────────────────────────────────────
yy       2 digit year              04
yyyy     4 digit year            2004
M        1 or 2 digit month       1 ; 12
MM       2 digit month           01 ; 12
MMM      month (short, English)  Jan
MMMM     month (full, English)   January

d        1 or 2 digit day         1 ; 31
dd       2 digit day             01 ; 31
H        1 or 2 digit hour        1 ; 23
HH       2 digit hour            01 ; 23
m        1 or 2 digit minute      1 ; 59
mm       2 digit minute          01 ; 59
s        1 or 2 digit second      1 ; 59
ss       2 digit second          01 ; 59

Examples with just the date


   Date            Pattern
───────────────────────────────
20170830          yyyyMMdd
170830            yyMMdd
2011-12-30        yyyy-MM-dd
2017/08/30        yyyy/MM/dd
30/08/17          dd/MM/yy
30/08/2017        dd/MM/yyyy
30-10-2017        dd-MM-yyyy
31-08-09          dd-MM-yy
6-November-2017   d-MMMM-yyyy
Nov 09, 2017      MMM dd, yyyy
03-Jan-12         dd-MMM-yy

Examples with just the time


 Time      Pattern
───────────────────
10:15:30   HH:mm:ss
10:00      HH:mm
443        Hmm
16h04      HH'h'mm

Examples with both the date and the time


 Date & time             Pattern
───────────────────────────────────────────
2011-12-03T10:15:30   yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss 
30-10-2017 09:30:02   dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss
201010150935          yyyyMMddHHmm
30/08/2011|14:00      dd/MM/yyyy|HH:mm

Enter dates

You have to manually enter the first and the last dates of the historical file.

Leave this as the last choice: it will be reset whenever you load another historical file.

If the

  Day, month, ..., minute, second

is not present, select a 0 in the spinner.