Moonshot is a backtester designed for data scientists, created by and for QuantRocket.
Pandas-based: Moonshot is based on Pandas, the centerpiece of the Python data science stack. If you love Pandas you'll love Moonshot. Moonshot can be thought of as a set of conventions for organizing Pandas code for the purpose of running backtests.
Lightweight: Moonshot is simple and lightweight because it relies on the power and flexibility of Pandas and doesn't attempt to re-create functionality that Pandas can already do. No bloated codebase full of countless indicators and models to import and learn. Most of Moonshot's code is contained in a single Moonshot class.
Fast: Moonshot is fast because Pandas is fast. No event-driven backtester can match Moonshot's speed. Speed promotes alpha discovery by facilitating rapid experimentation and research iteration.
Multi-asset class, multi-time frame: Moonshot supports end-of-day and intraday strategies using equities, futures, and FX.
Machine learning support: Moonshot supports machine learning and deep learning strategies using scikit-learn or Keras.
Live trading: Live trading with Moonshot can be thought of as running a backtest on up-to-date historical data and generating a batch of orders based on the latest signals produced by the backtest.
No black boxes, no magic: Moonshot provides many conveniences to make backtesting easier, but it eschews hidden behaviors and complex, under-the-hood simulation rules that are hard to understand or audit. What you see is what you get.
A basic Moonshot strategy is shown below:
from moonshot import Moonshot
class DualMovingAverageStrategy(Moonshot):
CODE = "dma-tech"
DB = "tech-giants-1d"
LMAVG_WINDOW = 300
SMAVG_WINDOW = 100
def prices_to_signals(self, prices):
closes = prices.loc["Close"]
# Compute long and short moving averages
lmavgs = closes.rolling(self.LMAVG_WINDOW).mean()
smavgs = closes.rolling(self.SMAVG_WINDOW).mean()
# Go long when short moving average is above long moving average
signals = smavgs > lmavgs
return signals.astype(int)
def signals_to_target_weights(self, signals, prices):
# spread our capital equally among our trades on any given day
daily_signal_counts = signals.abs().sum(axis=1)
weights = signals.div(daily_signal_counts, axis=0).fillna(0)
return weights
def target_weights_to_positions(self, weights, prices):
# we'll enter in the period after the signal
positions = weights.shift()
return positions
def positions_to_gross_returns(self, positions, prices):
# Our return is the security's close-to-close return, multiplied by
# the size of our position
closes = prices.loc["Close"]
gross_returns = closes.pct_change() * positions.shift()
return gross_returnsSee the QuantRocket docs for a fuller discussion.
Moonshot supports machine learning strategies using scikit-learn or Keras. The model must be trained outside of Moonshot, either using QuantRocket or by training the model manually and persisting it to disk:
from sklearn.tree import DecisionTreeClassifier
import pickle
model = DecisionTreeClassifier()
X = np.array([[1,1],[0,0]])
Y = np.array([1,0])
model.fit(X, Y)
with open("my_ml_model.pkl", "wb") as f:
pickle.dump(model, f)A basic machine learning strategy is shown below:
from moonshot import MoonshotML
class DemoMLStrategy(MoonshotML):
CODE = "demo-ml"
DB = "demo-stk-1d"
MODEL = "my_ml_model.pkl"
def prices_to_features(self, prices):
closes = prices.loc["Close"]
# create a dict of DataFrame features
features = {}
features["returns_1d"]= closes.pct_change()
features["returns_2d"] = (closes - closes.shift(2)) / closes.shift(2)
# targets is used by QuantRocket for training model, can be None if using
# an already trained model
targets = closes.pct_change().shift(-1)
return features, targets
def predictions_to_signals(self, predictions, prices):
signals = predictions > 0
return signals.astype(int)See the QuantRocket docs for a fuller discussion.
Moonshot depends on QuantRocket for querying historical data in backtesting and for live trading. In the future we hope to add support for running Moonshot on a CSV of data to allow backtesting outside of QuantRocket.
Moonchart is a companion library for creating performance tear sheets from a Moonshot backtest.
Moonshot is distributed under the Apache 2.0 License. See the LICENSE file in the release for details.
