Welcome to the Canvas App
The Canvas App provides a visual environment for the Charting System and the Strategy Designer.
Installation (for developers): To install the Canvas App, you need to install AAWeb, following this guide.
Trading System Automation Demo
Use the latest Chrome version to access the Demo, sign up, log in and click on the CHARTS link in the Menu.
Overview
The first time you access the Charts, you will see the following screen, split in half. The top half features the space used by the Charting System and the bottom half features the Strategy Designer.
Use the control in the center of the turquoise bar to pull the bar up and down in order to make more room to either application.
Pulling the bar to the very top of the screen causes the Charting System to stop consuming resources in your local machine, and gives you an ample view of the Strategy Designer.
The Strategy Designer allows you to manage your Trading System. The structure represented by the various icons nested in a hierarchy of elements is the representation of the logic behind your Strategies.
Pulling the bar to the very bottom of the screen causes the Strategy Designer to stop consuming resources from your local machine, and offers a full-screen view of the Charting System.
The Charting System plots indicators data along with the actions taken by the Strategy Engine and the Executor, integrated with market data.
The Superalgos Protocol (also refered to as the protocol) determines the structure in which all the information regarding a trading system is stored and—at the same time—provides a clear guidance on how traders using the various tools developed and distributed by the Superalgos Project shall create and automate their strategies.
You don't really need to know this, but for the sake of context...
The Strategy Engine backtests and forward tests the instructions defined on its protocol file input. In coordination with the Strategy Executor, the engine can also live trade.
The Strategy Executor interprets the execution instructions embedded at a protocol file. The instructions determine the type of order to use, and what to do in every possible situation that could emerge during the placement and management of exchange orders.
Charts Interface
Layers Panel
This panel includes different layers you may visualize by toggling them on and off with a single mouse clicks. The layer title bar can have 3 possible background colors:
- Red: layer is off.
- Green: layer is on.
- Yellow: layer is loading. If it stays yellow, it means it can't load fully.
Main Elements
Notice the following three elements relative to the position of the mouse pointer:
- Above, the current datetime. This is the date and time at the mouse pointer position.
- To the right, the current rate. This is the rate (in this case USDT per BTC) at the mouse pointer position.
- Below, the current time period (or candle size if you wish). This is the currently displayed time period—not only for candles, but for any other object plotted across available layers.
Mouse Wheel Operations
There are many things you can do with your mouse wheel.
- Scroll over the Layers Panel to access layers that may be out of reach downwards.
- Scroll on top of or next to the datetime to produce a horizontal scaling.
- Scroll on top of or next to the displayed rate to produce a vertical scaling.
- Scroll on top of or next to the time period to change the time period to available values.
- Scroll elsewhere over the chart to zoom in and out. The App will not only zoom in and out of the chart, but also automatically adjust the time period to the most convenient one (for the current zoom level).
Minimizing & Moving Floating Panels
To minimize a panel, click on the small triangle on the right of their title bar. This will automatically position the panel at the bottom of the screen. Clicking again restores the panel to its previous position.
You may also drag and drop the panels by right-clicking on the title bar.
Layers
Superalgos is an open system, meaning anyone can build layers for the Charting System. So far—with our current limited manpower—we have created 8 public layers (available without logging in) and 2 private layers (available to logged-in users):
Public Layers
- Candles: Typical candlesticks.
2. Volumes: I innovated a bit placing the buy volume at the bottom (in green), and the sell volume at the top (in red).
- Candle Stairs Patterns: This is an unusual pattern proving any dataset may be plotted on the charts (and by extension, that anything can be added to the system). A Stair Pattern is defined as a set of candles going in the same direction, either up or down. You can think of these patterns as "Candle Channels", as they represent channels with an up or down direction based on underlying candles direction.
4. Volume Stairs Patterns: A similar concept, this time with volumes. Whenever a sequence of volume bars is found where each one is bigger than the previous one, they are bundled together in a "Stair". The same applies when they are going down (the next is smaller than the previous one). For a trading bot, this serves to identify if sell or buy volumes are raising or declining, if any.
5. Bollinger Bands: This is the traditional Bollinger Bands indicator. Bollinger Bands have a moving average, in our case calculated with the last 20 periods (the line in the middle of the bands). We are plotting the moving average with one color when it is going up, and with a different color when it's going down. The upper band is at 2 Standard Deviations from the center, pretty much like the lower band, also at 2 Standard Deviations. These are the most widely used Bollinger Bands settings.
6. Percentage Bandwidth or %B: This is a well-known indicator that derives from the Bollinger Bands. In a nutshell it tells you how close the price is either to the upper band or the lower band at any point in time. When the price is in the middle of the bands (it is calculated with the close value of each candle), then %B is in the middle of its chart, at value 50. When the price touches the upper band, then %B is at 100, and finally when the price is at the lower band, then %B is at 0.
The chart features lines at %B value 30 and 70 since those are the most common values for traders to forecast when a reversal may happen. In our chart, %B is the one represented at #1. I've found useful to add a moving average in order to smooth volatility a bit, and to be able to ask—at any time—if it is going up or down. The moving average calculated with the last 5 %B values is plotted as line #2. Finally I also added a property called Bandwidth, which represents the separation of the upper band from the lower band. It is a measure of the volatility and is plotted at #3.
7. Bollinger Channels: This is a non-standard indicator derived from the Bollinger Bands. These types of channels are calculated using the Bollinger Bands moving average. Essentially an upward channel begins when the moving average turns from going down to going up, and the channel finishes when it turns from going up to down. A downward channel starts when the Bollinger Band moving average turns from going up to down, and it finishes when it starts going up again. Upward channels are plotted in green, while downward channels in red. Additional information can be found at the indicator's panel, like the number of periods contained at the channel.
8. Bollinger Sub-Channels: If we consider that one Bollinger Channel can have sub-channels with the same direction (up or down) but different slopes, then we get to the concept of Bollinger Sub-Channels. The most important property of a sub-channel is its slope. The possible values are: side, gentle, medium, high and extreme. With this information, a trading bot could easily ask if it is in a sub-channel with a certain slope and for how many periods.
Private Layers
- Trading Simulation: The Trading Simulation layer displays a backtest + fordwardtest (paper trading) of whatever strategies you have created in the system. At sign up, you are provided with an initial set of strategies so that you can be up and running as quickly as possible. By activating the Trading Simulation layer you should be able to see something like this:
Notice Asset Balances in the bottom left corner of the screen. Asset A is your base asset.
The dashed line represents the duration of the trade at the price of the take position event. Notice how the base asset is exchanged for Asset B and back to the base asset as the trade closes.
Notice the green horizontal bars indicating the take profit value for each period (candle). Take profit is managed in phases, marked with the corresponding icons.
Notice the red horizontal bars indicating the stop value for each period (candle). Stop is managed in phases, marked with the corresponding icons.
2. Trading Conditions: The Trading Conditions layer helps identify which conditions are met at each candle. Notice how conditions are highlighted as the cursor moves through different candles.
3. Simulation Strategies: The Simulation Strategies layer identifies trigger on and trigger off events, signaling the activation and deactivation of strategies.
4. Simulation Trades: The Simulation Trades layer marks trades with a triangle whose hypotenuse connects the price at the take position event with the exit price. When the trade is profitable, the triangle is green; when the exit happens at a loss, the triangle is red.
