SID Name	Description	Rating
	584 Backtest_Newsle	This example trading system allows the backtesting of newsletter "buy" and "sell" signals. The signals are stored in a comma separated variable (CSV) file that can be edited in a text editor or in a spreadsheet.	Not Approved

Notes for this Trading Account:

Rules for this Trading Account:

Begin event logic:

#The file format for the newsletter file should be:
#Signal(Buy or Sell,Symbol,Date (in the format of YYYYMMDD)
#for example:

##An example file 
#Buy,MSFT,20051004
#Sell,MSFT,20051027
#Buy,BA,20051130
#Sell,BA,20051230
#Buy,GM,20050815
#Sell,GM,20051010

#To use this file, the leading '#' should be removed. Note
#that you can use '#' - the line will be ignored when it's
#the first character.


#The path to the newsletter file
my $filepath="C:/newsletter.csv";
open(FILE,"< $filepath") || die("can't open $filepath: $! .See instructions in the Account Begin Event");
#load the file into an array
my @lines=<FILE>;
close(FILE);

#A reference to a hash structure

$buy={}; 
$sell={}; 

foreach my $line (@lines) {
  #ignore the line if the first character is a '#'
  next if substr($line,0,1) eq '#';
  #split the line
  my ($action,$symbol,$date)=split(',',$line);
  #We need to convert the date into a valid Seer date, then validate the date just to be sure
  $date*=10000000;
  die "invalid date $date in line $line" unless ValidateDateTime($date);
  #we now populate the buy/sell hash with the symbol and the date, setting the entry to true
  if ($action eq 'Buy') {
    $buy->{$symbol}{$date}=1;
  }
  elsif ($action eq 'Sell') {
    $sell->{$symbol}{$date}=1;
  }
  else {
    die "unknown action $action in line $line";
  }
}

Notes for this Trading System:

Rules for this Trading System:

Bar event logic:

#fetch the current symbol and the datetime
#we will use these items to test the buy/sell hashes for signals
my $symbol = Symbol;
my $date   = Now(DateTime);

unless (Position) {
  #Buy logic
  if ($buy->{$symbol}{$date}) {
    Output "we have a buy signal for $symbol on $date";
    BuyOpen;
  }
}
else {
  #Sell logic
  if ($sell->{$symbol}{$date}) {
    Output "we have a buy signal for $symbol on $date";
    SellOpen;
  }
}