R/blotter-package.R

In blotter: Tools for Transaction-Oriented Trading Systems Development

#'@name blotter
#'@rdname blotter-package
#'@docType package
#'@useDynLib blotter
#'
#'@title
#'Tools for Transaction-Oriented Trading Systems Development
#'
#'@description
#'Transaction-oriented infrastructure for constructing transactions, portfolios
#'and accounts for trading systems and simulation.  Provides support for
#'multi-asset class and multi-currency portfolios for backtesting and other
#'financial research.  Still in heavy development.
#'
#'@details
#'The blotter package provides infrastructure for developing trading systems and
#'managing portfolios in R.  Although the name might suggest a smaller scope,
#'blotter provides functions for tracking trades and positions in portfolios,
#'calculating profit-and-loss by position and portfolio, and tracking performance
#'in a capital account. 
#'
#'Blotter works with a companion package,
#'\code{\link[FinancialInstrument:FinancialInstrument-package]{FinancialInstrument
#'}}, that defines meta-data for tradeable contracts (referred to as
#'"instruments", e.g., stocks, futures, options, etc.), so that blotter can
#'support multi-asset portfolios, derivatives and multiple currencies.  As used
#'here, instruments are objects that define contract specifications for a tradable
#'contract, such as IBM common stock.  These objects include descriptive
#'information and attributes that help identify and value the contract.
#'
#'Blotter's scope is focused on the heirarchy of how transactions accumulate into
#'positions, then into portfolios and an account.  'Transactions' are typically
#'trades in an instrument - an amount bought or sold at a price and time.  But
#'other transaction types include splits, dividends, expirations, assignments,
#'etc. (some of which are implemented currently, others are not).  
#'
#'Those transactions are aggregated into 'positions'.  Positions are held in a
#''portfolio' that contains positions in several instruments.  Positions are
#'valued regularly (usually daily) using the price history associated with each
#'instrument.  That results in a position profit-and-loss (or PnL) statement that
#'can be aggregated across the portfolio.
#'
#'Portfolios are associated with an 'account'.  An account is modeled as a cash
#'account where investments, withdrawals, management fees, and other capital
#'account changes are made.  
#'
#'The package also contains functions to help users evaluate portfolios, including
#'charts and graphs to help with visualization.  A small selection of post-trade
#'metrics has been added recently, and is likely to change and expand as we hear
#'more about what people want to calculate.  
#'
#'Blotter's functions build and manipulate objects that are stored in an
#'environment named ".blotter" rather than the global environment,
#'\code{.GlobalEnv}.  Objects may be listed using \code{ls(envir=.blotter)}. See
#'\code{\link{environment}} for more detail.  
#'
#'We do that for two reasons.  First, keeping them out of the \code{.GlobalEnv}
#'means less clutter in the user's workspace and less chance of clobbering
#'something locally.  Second, we don't recommend acting on the account and
#'portfolio objects directly.  Manipulating the objects directly will almost
#'certainly create inconsistencies and problems with the resulting calculations. 
#'Instead, we recommend copying them into the local workspace using
#'\code{getPortfolio} or \code{getAccount} functions, or simply using blotter
#'functions.  
#'
#'Blotter relies heavily on \code{\link[xts:xts-package]{xts}} for the heavy
#'lifting of date and time subsetting.  Many thanks to Jeff Ryan and Josh Ulrich
#'for their diligent help ferretting out all those corner cases.  As a result, any
#'\code{Dates} parameter in the package leverages
#'\code{\link[xts:xts-package]{xts}} date scoping.  For example,
#'\code{getTxn(Portfolio="p", Symbol="XYZ", Dates="2007-01")} will retrieve all
#'transactions for "XYZ" from January, 2007.  Similarly, a range of dates may be
#'specified as "2007-01::2008-04-15".  Take a look at the
#'\code{\link[xts:xts-package]{xts}} documentation for more detail.  Otherwise,
#'the \code{Date} or \code{Dates} parameter accepts an ISO 8601 format such as
#''2008-09-15' or '2010-01-05 09:54:23.12345'.  In almost all cases, if the
#'\code{Dates} parameter is unspecified, the function will return all results.
#'
#'The sole example in the documentation of blotter follows, providing a simple but
#'more complete overview of how blotter can be used.  More extensive examples can
#'be seen in the demos.  The \code{longtrend} demo shows a simple trend-following
#'example, and \code{turtles} shows a more complicated trend-following example. 
#'The \code{amzn_test} demo shows blotter's use with tick data.
#'
#'@author Peter Carl, Brian Peterson
#'
#'Maintainer: Brian Peterson \email{brian@@braverock.com}
#'
#'@keywords package
#'@seealso
#' \code{\link[quantmod:quantmod-package]{quantmod}}, 
#' \code{\link[xts:xts-package]{xts}}, 
#' \code{\link[PerformanceAnalytics:PerformanceAnalytics-package]{
#' PerformanceAnalytics}}
#'@examples
#'\dontrun{
#'# Construct a portfolio object and add some transactions
#'## These two lines are here to deal with frame issues in R CMD check
#'## and ARE NOT NECESSARY to run by hand in your own environment.
#'if(!exists(".instrument")) .instrument <<- new.env()
#'if(!exists(".blotter")) .blotter <<- new.env()
#'
#'# Use the FinancialInstrument package to manage information about tradable 
#'# instruments
#'require(FinancialInstrument)
#'# Define a currency and a couple stocks
#'currency("USD")
#'symbols = c("IBM","F")
#'for(symbol in symbols){ # establish tradable instruments
#'     stock(symbol, currency="USD", multiplier=1)
#'}
#'
#'# Download price data
#'require(quantmod)
#'getSymbols(symbols, from='2007-01-01', to='2007-01-31', src='yahoo',
#'index.class=c("POSIXt","POSIXct"))
#'
#'# Initialize a portfolio object 'p'
#'print('Creating portfolio \"p\"...')
#'initPortf('p', symbols=symbols, currency="USD")
#'
#'## Trades must be made in date order.
#'print('Adding trades to \"p\"...')
#'# Make a couple of trades in IBM
#'addTxn(Portfolio = "p", Symbol = "IBM", TxnDate = '2007-01-03', TxnQty = 50, 
#'TxnPrice = 96.5, TxnFees = -0.05*50)
#'addTxn("p", "IBM", '2007-01-04', 50, 97.1, TxnFees = -0.05*50)
#'
#'# ...a few in F...
#'addTxn("p", "F", '2007-01-03', -100, 7.60, TxnFees = pennyPerShare(-100))
#'addTxn("p", "F", '2007-01-04', 50, 7.70, TxnFees = pennyPerShare(50))
#'addTxn("p", "F", '2007-01-10', 50, 7.78, TxnFees = pennyPerShare(50))
#'# pennyPerShare is an example of how a cost function could be used in place of 
#'# a flat numeric fee.
#'
#'# ...and some in MMM
#'# We didn't include this in the list of symbols for the portfolio, so first we 
#'# have to download prices and add a slot for MMM to the portfolio
#'getSymbols("MMM", from='2007-01-01', to='2007-01-31', src='yahoo',
#'index.class=c("POSIXt","POSIXct")) # Download price data
#'stock("MMM", currency="USD", multiplier=1) # Add the instrument
#'
#'# Now we can add transactions:
#'# TODO: convert this to addTxns
#'addTxn("p", "MMM", '2007-01-05', -50, 77.9, TxnFees = -0.05*50)
#'addTxn("p", "MMM", '2007-01-08', 50, 77.6, TxnFees = -0.05*50)
#'addTxn("p", "MMM", '2007-01-09', 50, 77.6, TxnFees = -0.05*50)
#'
#'print('Updating portfolio \"p\"...')
#'updatePortf(Portfolio="p",Dates='2007-01')
#'
#'print('Creating account \"a\" for portfolio \"p\"...')
#'initAcct(name="a", portfolios="p", initEq=10000, currency="USD")
#'print('Updating account \"a\"...')
#'updateAcct("a",'2007-01') # Check out the sweet date scoping. Thanks, xts.
#'updateEndEq("a",'2007-01')
#'PortfReturns(Account="a",Dates="2007", Portfolios="p")
#'# Examine the contents of the portfolio
#'## Here is the transaction record
#'getTxns(Portfolio="p", Symbol="MMM", Date="2007-01")
#'getTxns(Portfolio="p", Symbol="MMM", Date="2007-01-03::2007-01-05")
#'## Here are the resulting positions
#'getPos(Portfolio="p", Symbol="MMM", Date="2007-01")
#'getPos(Portfolio="p", Symbol="MMM", Date="2007-01-05")
#'getPosQty(Portfolio="p", Symbol="MMM", Date="2007-01")
#'
#'# Alternatively, you can copy the objects into the local workspace
#'p = getPortfolio("p") # make a local copy of the portfolio object 
#'a = getAccount("a") # make a local copy of the account object
#'
#'chart.Posn(Portfolio="p", Symbol="MMM", Dates="2007-01")
#'
#'# add tradeStats
#'
#'## Not Run
#'## Here is the transaction record in the local object
#'p$symbols$MMM$txn
#'
#'## Here is the position and any gains or losses associated in the local currency
#'## and the portfolio currency (which are the same in this example)
#'p$symbols$MMM$posPL
#'p$symbols$MMM$posPL.USD
#'
#'## Here is the calculated portfolio summary denominated in the portfolio 
#'## currency
#'p$summary
#'}
#'
#'@import FinancialInstrument PerformanceAnalytics quantmod xts zoo
#'@importFrom graphics abline grid plot points
#'@importFrom methods hasArg
#'@importFrom stats lag median na.omit quantile sd start
#'@importFrom utils View head tail
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