|
PureBytes Links
Trading Reference Links
|
NVIDIA is still going to be around into the future?
(My last four computers have been Dell, because I regard them as
middle of the road, value for money ....if they are using GeForce?)
So given that Tomasz isn't going to go bleeding edge/niche this
solution could remain ahead of the pack for quite a while....even if
MS approach becomes mainstream and adopted by AB?
brian_z
--- In amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "brian_z111" <brian_z111@xxx> wrote:
>
> DL
>
>
> I am following at the top level and understand what you are doing
OK
> (you make me wish I had learnt programming/IT).
>
> I like your CPU.
>
> Allowing niche trading is what AB is all about?
>
> I'll put my money on MS/"general purpose computing on GPU" - I
don't
> think the masses are in love with MS but for 80% of people who can
do
> 80% of what they want with MS the price to move elsewhere is too
> high - they are just in love with max output for min input.
>
> If you go to the trouble to write a plug-in do you think it will be
> around long/require much ongoing support from you?
>
> I can see the benefits of the speed - for a group of traders it is
a
> definite edge they would have for a year or two (I don't think any
> other trading software will be seeing this for a while? -
especially
> in the AT area where more crunching could be done fast enough to
keep
> up with live data.
>
> I don't blame Tomasz for not sitting his backside on the cutting
> edge - too dangerous for developers with long term clientele.
>
> Not having a go at Tomasz - to clarify - Tomeasz said GEForce 8800
> can't be put in a notebook?
>
> To my understanding there seems to be a reasonable number of
laptops
> around that could use your method e.g. Dell has 3 off the shelf
> laptops in their entertainment/performance range that use GeForce
> 8600M and 8700M with 256MB & 2*2456MB (min 256 required for CUDA?)
>
> I looked at the GeF links in Paul's post but they didn't have much
> specific info there that I could see - I assume the above cards
wiil
> run your system.
>
> I am not a buyer for now but good luck with it and what you have
done
> already is a good contribution to AB - once someone on the block
has
> a new super-dooper gadget pretty soon the neighbours want one too
and
> demand grows.
>
> brian_z
>
>
>
> --- In amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "dloyer123" <dloyer123@> wrote:
> >
> > This uses the mid range video card that happened to come with my
> > system, a 9800GT. The newer 260 and 280 cards are 3 to 4 times
> > faster. The 260 can be found at best buy for $300. Some laptops
> > have compatible cards as well.
> >
> > The video card has its own memory, mine has 512MB, some have as
> much
> > as 1GB. This memory is very fast, once it is loaded from the
main
> > system. Nvidia has a professional line of products that have
much
> > more memory.
> >
> > Get get the best performance, my AFL code makes one pass over the
> > data, calling a Dll. The Dll takes all of the data needed by the
> > calculation and loads a copy to the video card. This upload is
> slow,
> > the entire upload takes about 45 seconds for all 1000 symbols.
> >
> > Once all of the data is uploaded, the Dll loads a "kernel" into
the
> > graphics cores that perform the actual computation and generates
> the
> > trade list. This part is very fast and performs all of the same
> > functions that my AFL version does. The resulting trade list is
> the
> > same.
> >
> > Because the data loaded into video memory, it can be resused for
> many
> > passes over the data with different optimization values. So,
> > hundreds of combinations of optimization values can be tried per
> > second.
> >
> > For non optimization runs, the Dll just loads one symbol into
video
> > memory and processes it. Counting the overhead of moving data to
> the
> > video card and extracting the trade list for a single symbol, the
> > result is similar to AFL code alone. This lets me test the code
> and
> > make sure it is correct.
> >
> > This approach works best when the data only needs to be loaded
> once,
> > then "resused" many times. It also works best when there is a
lot
> of
> > data to work with.
> >
> > What is more interesting to me and what would be more useful for
> > others would be a general drive that requires no Dll changes to
> > modify the system. The performance would not be as good as hand
> > optimized code, but would still be much better than AFL code
> alone.
> > It would take trading system design to a whole new level. It
would
> > provide enough performance to make working with Intra day data as
> > easy as daily data is today.
> >
> > Writing such a driver would be hard, but I have already done some
> > prototypes and design work. I am tempted to do it for my own
use.
> > If I made it available to others supporting it would be a PITA.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Paul Ho" <paul.tsho@> wrote:
> > >
> > > I'm very interested
> > > could you elaborate a bit more
> > > What model of Nvidia chipset are you using, and with how much
> > memory?
> > > Not sure exactly what you mean when you say
> > > It uses AmiBroker to load the symbol data and perform
> calculations
> > > that do not depend on the optimization parameters. Once loaded
> into
> > > video memory, repeated passes can be made with different
> > parameters,
> > > avoiding any overhead.
> > > Can you give me some examples. I presume when your dll is
called.
> > AB passes
> > > one or more arrays of data belonging to 1 symbol, is that true?
> > > Not sure exactly what the rest mean either. How many functions
> are
> > you
> > > running in your dll, and what does each of the do?
> > > Great of you to share your insight.
> > > Cheers
> > > Paul.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _____
> > >
> > > From: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> > On Behalf
> > > Of dloyer123
> > > Sent: Tuesday, 5 August 2008 9:19 AM
> > > To: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Subject: [amibroker] Freakishly fast backtest using 64 cores
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Greetings,
> > >
> > > I ported part of my AFL backtest code to a plugin, that takes
> > > advantage of the graphics math cores on the video card that are
> > > normally used for 3d graphics.
> > >
> > > I was able to get a several thousand fold performance
improvement
> > > over AFL code alone.
> > >
> > > My goal was to reduce the 25 seconds AFL code alone uses for a
> > single
> > > portfolio level back test to less than 1 second, allowing multi
> day
> > > optimization and walkforward runs to complete in a more
> reasonable
> > > time, and also just to see how fast I could get it to run.
> > >
> > > The backtest runs over 1 year of 5 minute bars for about 1000
> > > symbols. 1 year of data normally takes 25 seconds for AmiBroker
> > > alone, or 18 seconds for 6 months of data. A typical
optimization
> > > run takes hundreds of these passes per walk forward step,
taking
> > > hours.
> > >
> > > Using the Nvidia CUDA API, running on my mid range video card.
It
> > > was much faster. Much, much, much faster. How fast?
> > >
> > > It reduced the run time from 25s to... 4.4ms. That is more than
> > > 200/s!
> > >
> > > I didnt believe the timing when I saw it at first. So, I put
> 1,000
> > > runs in a loop and sure enough, it ran 1,000 iterations in
about
> 4
> > > 1/2 seconds. This far exceeded my gaol or expectations.
> > >
> > > The resulting trade list matches that obtained by the AFL
version
> > of
> > > this code.
> > >
> > > I estimate that it is processing 32GB of bar data/sec.
> > >
> > > Getting this to work at peak performance was tricky. Most of
what
> I
> > > have learned about code optimization does not apply.
> > >
> > > It uses AmiBroker to load the symbol data and perform
> calculations
> > > that do not depend on the optimization parameters. Once loaded
> into
> > > video memory, repeated passes can be made with different
> > parameters,
> > > avoiding any overhead.
> > >
> > > For non backtest/optimization runs, the code just evaluates one
> > > symbol and passes the data back to AmiBroker
buy/sell/short/cover
> > > arrays, making it easy to test, validate and visualize the
> trades.
> > > There is very little performance gain in this case.
> > >
> > > There are problems, however. To run optimizations at peak
speed,
> I
> > > can not use AmiBroker to calculate the optimization goal
> function.
> > > So, I am in the process of writing code to match signals and
> > > calculate the portfolio fitness function. Once I do this, I
will
> be
> > > able to perform full optimizations and walk forwards at 3
orders
> of
> > > magnitude faster than is possible with AmiBroker alone.
> > >
> > > Also, this is not general purpose code. Changing the system
code
> > > means changing a dll written in C. However, there is no reason
> that
> > > this could not be made more general.
> > >
> > > I have made some prototypes of "Cuda" versions of basic AFL
> > > functions. The idea is to queue the function calls into a
> > definition
> > > executed by a micro kernel running on the graphics cores. The
> > result
> > > would be the ability to use the full power of the graphics
cores
> by
> > > modifying AFL code to use Cuda aware versions with no changes
to
> C
> > > code. It would be an interesting, but big project.
> > >
> >
>
------------------------------------
Please note that this group is for discussion between users only.
To get support from AmiBroker please send an e-mail directly to
SUPPORT {at} amibroker.com
For NEW RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENTS and other news always check DEVLOG:
http://www.amibroker.com/devlog/
For other support material please check also:
http://www.amibroker.com/support.html
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amibroker/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amibroker/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:amibroker-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
mailto:amibroker-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
amibroker-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|