Trade on Fed (FOMC) Announcement Dates - Wealth Lab Forum

Trade on Fed (FOMC) Announcement Dates

Author: gbullr

Creation Date: 5/1/2013 2:08 PM

Wealth Lab » Trading Strategies » Trade on Fed (FOMC) Announcement Dates

gbullr

#1

5/1/2013 2:08 PM

How does one create a list/table that checks whether trading on FED Announcement dates can be profitable?

So for example 2 days before to two days after or something like that.

Fed release dates are pre announced so you know when they are going to be but it cannot be programmed like ekections. 1st tuesday in nov of every 4th year etc.

Here are upcoming and hisrtorical fed fund dates:

http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomccalendars.htm
2013
April/May 30-1
June 18-19*
July 30-31
September 17-18*
October 29-30
December 17-18*

Eugene

#2

5/1/2013 2:34 PM

From bird's-eye view, one creates a program that downloads the FRB meeting calendar webpage, parses its HTML contents, extracts the list of Fed events and their dates. That's feasible. When I have free time from other projects, I'd like to take it.

gbullr

#3

5/1/2013 7:15 PM

You are a gift from the gods.

On a more general basis:

How does one create a list (that one can manipulate) of specific dates that one can then use in WL to backtest around.

Thanks.

Eugene

#4

5/2/2013 1:43 AM

QUOTE:
How does one create a list (that one can manipulate) of specific dates that one can then use in WL to backtest around.

One could, for instance, create a List<DateTime> and put them into. See C# List for more insight, and you might find a quick illustration below useful:

CODE:
Please log in to see this code.

Eugene

#5

5/3/2013 5:49 AM

Yikes, it took me quite some time to figure out the proper XPath for that FOMC page! But there you have it - a demo strategy that retrieves past and future FOMC meeting dates from that web data source and illustrates how to use them in a trading system.

What's going on under the hood is pretty complex. But C# 4.0 features like anonymous classes together with XPath traversal and LINQ-to-HTML comforts powered by HtmlAgilityPack make the whole strategy under 150 lines.

Prerequisites:

1. Installed Community Components 2012.12 or higher - just because it includes the required HtmlAgilityPack.dll v1.4.6
2. In Strategy Editor, click "References...", scroll down and check: System.Xml and System.Core
3. Until the Editor gets upgraded in WL 6.? to support C#4.0 out of the box, you need to add a reference to System.Core v4.0. Switch to "Other assemblies to reference...", click "Add a reference", find the file called System.Core.dll, highlight it and confirm. The file's placement depends on your OS and WLP "bitness". For 64-bit WLP, choose c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework64\v4.0.30319, for 32-bit WLP it's c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v4.0.30319

CODE:
Please log in to see this code.

You should see the following output on a Wealth-Lab chart. Meetings that took a single day are greeenish, multi-day events are green/red:

Buys 2 days before a meeting and exits 2 days after (configurable). Hope that helps.

fomc-meetings.png

Size:

Color:

Yikes, it took me quite some time to figure out the proper XPath for that FOMC page! But there you have it - a demo strategy that retrieves past and future FOMC meeting dates from that web data source and illustrates how to use them in a trading system.

What's going on under the hood is pretty complex. But C# 4.0 features like anonymous classes together with XPath traversal and LINQ-to-HTML comforts powered by HtmlAgilityPack make the whole strategy under 150 lines.

[b]Prerequisites[/b]:

1. Installed [link=http://www.wealth-lab.com/Extensions/Details/10]Community Components[/link] [b]2012.12[/b] or higher - just because it includes the required [b]HtmlAgilityPack.dll[/b] v1.4.6
2. In Strategy Editor, click "References...", scroll down and check: [b]System.Xml[/b] and [b]System.Core[/b]
[s]3. Until the Editor gets upgraded in WL 6.? to support C#4.0 out of the box, you need to add a reference to System.Core v4.0. Switch to "Other assemblies to reference...", click "Add a reference", find the file called [b]System.Core.dll[/b], highlight it and confirm. The file's placement depends on your OS and WLP "bitness". For 64-bit WLP, choose [color=#fa00d0]c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework[b]64[/b]\v4.0.30319[/color], for 32-bit WLP it's [color=#fa00d0]c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v4.0.30319[/color][/s]

[code]
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Drawing;
using WealthLab;
using WealthLab.Indicators;
using System.Xml;
using HtmlAgilityPack;
using System.Net;
using System.Linq;
using System.Globalization;

namespace WealthLab.Strategies
{
	public class FOMCMeetingStrategy : WealthScript
	{
		private StrategyParameter paramDays;
		
		public FOMCMeetingStrategy()
		{
			paramDays = CreateParameter("Days before/after", 2, 1, 7, 1);
		}
		
		protected override void Execute()
		{
			int days = paramDays.ValueInt;
			
			if( FedEventDownloader.Meetings == null )
				FedEventDownloader.BuildList();
			
			PrintDebug( "FOMC Meetings: " + FedEventDownloader.Meetings.Count );
			foreach( var m in FedEventDownloader.Meetings ) {
				PrintDebug( string.Format( "{0}/{1}/{2} to {3}/{4}/{5}",
					m.StartDate.Year, m.StartDate.Month, m.StartDate.Day,
					m.EndDate.Year, m.EndDate.Month, m.EndDate.Day ) );
			}
			
			for(int bar = days + 1; bar < Bars.Count; bar++)
			{
				DateTime cd = Date[bar].Date;
				
				// Plotting
				foreach( var m in FedEventDownloader.Meetings ) {
					if( cd == m.StartDate ) {
						SetBackgroundColor( bar, Color.FromArgb( 50, Color.Green ) ); break;
					}
					if( cd == m.EndDate ) {
						SetBackgroundColor( bar, Color.FromArgb( 50, Color.Red ) ); break;
					}
				}
				
				if (IsLastPositionActive)
				{
					DateTime exit = (DateTime)LastPosition.Tag;
					if( bar + days - 1 == DateTimeToBar( exit, false ) )
						SellAtMarket(bar + 1, LastPosition);
				}
				else
				{
					// Finding out the closest FOMC meeting's start/end dates
					FedMeeting nearestStart = FedEventDownloader.Meetings.OrderBy(u => Math.Abs((cd.Date - u.StartDate).TotalSeconds)).First();
					FedMeeting nearestEnd = FedEventDownloader.Meetings.OrderBy(u => Math.Abs((cd.Date - u.EndDate).TotalSeconds)).First();
					
					if( bar + days + 1 == DateTimeToBar( nearestStart.StartDate, false ) )
						if( BuyAtMarket(bar + 1) != null )
							LastPosition.Tag = nearestEnd.EndDate.AddDays( days );
				}	
			}
		}
	}
	
	#region [ u g l y   i n t e r n a l s ]
	
	public class FedMeeting
	{
		public DateTime StartDate { get; set; }
		public DateTime EndDate { get; set; }
		
		public FedMeeting(){}
		
		public FedMeeting( DateTime start, DateTime end ){ StartDate = start; EndDate = end; }
	}
	
	public static class FedEventDownloader
	{
		public static List<FedMeeting> Meetings = null;
		const string url = @"https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomccalendars.htm";
		
		static string DownloadPage()
		{
ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = SecurityProtocolType.Ssl3 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls | SecurityProtocolType.Tls11 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls12;

string result = null;
			try  {	        
				using (WebClient client = new WebClient()) {
					result = client.DownloadString(url);
				}
			}
			catch { }

return result;
		}
		
		public static void BuildList()
		{
			Meetings = new List<FedMeeting>();		
			Meetings.Clear();
			HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlDocument doc = new HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlDocument();
			doc.LoadHtml(DownloadPage());
			
			if (doc.DocumentNode != null) {
				
var md = doc.DocumentNode.SelectNodes("//div[@id='article']/div[contains(@class,'panel')]/div[contains(@class,'row')]").ToList().Select(n =>
                   new {
                       Year = Convert.ToInt16(n.SelectSingleNode("../div[@class='panel-heading']//a").InnerText.Split(' ')[0]),
                       Month = n.ChildNodes[1].InnerText.TrimEnd(),
                       Span = n.ChildNodes[3].InnerText.Split(' ')[0].TrimEnd('*'), //n.SelectSingleNode("following-sibling::td[@class='day']").InnerText.Split(' ')[0].TrimEnd('*'),
                   });
				
				if (md.ToArray().Count() > 0)
				{
					foreach( var t in md.ToArray() ) {
						try {
							CultureInfo ci = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US");
							string d = t.Span.ToString(); string mo = t.Month.ToString();
							bool multiDay = d.Contains('-');
							bool multiMonth = mo.Contains('/');
							int d1 = multiDay ? Convert.ToInt16( d.Split('-')[0] ) : Convert.ToInt16( d );
							int d2 = multiDay ? Convert.ToInt16( d.Split('-')[1] ) : Convert.ToInt16( d );
							string mo1 = multiMonth ? mo.Split('/')[0] : mo;
							string mo2 = multiMonth ? mo.Split('/')[1] : string.Empty;
							string[] formats= { "MMM", "MMMM" };
							int m1 = DateTime.ParseExact(mo1, formats, ci, DateTimeStyles.None).Month;
							int m2 = multiMonth ? DateTime.ParseExact(mo2, formats, ci, DateTimeStyles.None).Month : m1;
							
							Meetings.Add( new FedMeeting( new DateTime( t.Year, m1, d1 ), new DateTime( t.Year, m2, d2 ) ) );							
						}
						catch (Exception ex) {
							System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(t.ToString());
							break;
						}
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
	
	#endregion
}
[/code]

You should see the following output on a Wealth-Lab chart. Meetings that took a single day are greeenish, multi-day events are green/red:

[img]http://www.wealth-lab.com/handlers/DownloadHandler.ashx?id=2590&password=3452498d1bcf41c[/img]

Buys 2 days before a meeting and exits 2 days after (configurable). Hope that helps.

Eugene

#6

5/3/2013 8:36 AM

With trading rules applied:

P.S. The strategy can have a problem should FOMC decide to start a meeting in December and finish next January; but since that's hardly ever going to happen, I'm not going to fix this potential "issue".

trading-fomc.png

gbullr

#7

7/11/2013 9:01 PM

Would you please help me find a more elegant way of coding what I have done here which is sort of a brute force attack on the problem.

I have the list of fed meeting dates and want to trade 2 days ahead of them in this example (4). I just dont know how to add or subtract valid dates from a datetime list and I have brute forced it.

Thank you.

CODE:
Please log in to see this code.

Size:

Color:

Would you please help me find a more elegant way of coding what I have done here which is sort of a brute force attack on the problem.

I have the list of fed meeting dates and want to trade 2 days ahead of them in this example (4). I just dont know how to add or subtract valid dates from a datetime list and I have brute forced it.

Thank you.

[code]using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Drawing;
using WealthLab;
using WealthLab.Indicators;

namespace WealthLab.Strategies
{
	public class MyStrategy : WealthScript
	{
		protected override void Execute()
		{
			List<DateTime> lst = new List<DateTime>();
			lst.Add( new DateTime(1994,9,27 ).Date);
			lst.Add( new DateTime(1994,11,15 ).Date );
			lst.Add( new DateTime(1994,12,20 ).Date );
			lst.Add( new DateTime(1995,2,1 ).Date );
			lst.Add( new DateTime(1995,3,28 ).Date );
			lst.Add( new DateTime(1995,5,23 ).Date );
			lst.Add( new DateTime(1995,7,6 ).Date );
			lst.Add( new DateTime(1995,8,22 ).Date );
			lst.Add( new DateTime(1995,9,26 ).Date );
			lst.Add( new DateTime(1995,11,15 ).Date );
			lst.Add( new DateTime(1995,12,19 ).Date );
			lst.Add( new DateTime(1996,1,31 ).Date );

for(int bar = 100; bar < Bars.Count-4; bar++)
			{
				DateTime cd = Date[bar+4].Date;
            
				if (IsLastPositionActive)
				{
					/*if( lst.Contains( cd.AddDays(2) ) ) {
						SellAtMarket(bar+1, LastPosition);
						lst.Remove( cd );*/
					if (bar - LastPosition.EntryBar > 1)
						SellAtMarket(bar+1,LastPosition,"SAM");
					
					
				}
				else
				{
					if( lst.Contains ( cd ) ) {
						BuyAtMarket(bar+1);
						lst.Remove( cd );
					}
				}
			}
			}
	}
}[/code]

Eugene

#8

7/12/2013 12:51 AM

On subtracting dates, you will find it among resources mentioned in this FAQ: How do I start with C# ?, in particular on dotnetperls.com.

For the ready-made and elegant solution to this problem that exists for over two months now, don't look no further: see my post #6 and follow instructions there. Thank you for saying thank you.

steve3

#9

8/31/2014 4:36 PM

Hello all-

I just read over an interesting paper which suggests a 5 days after fed meeting buy and 10 days after fed meeting sell for high-beta stocks is an alpha-producing strategy. I was looking over the code and it looks like there's only one parameter (days) -- which is symmetric around the FOMC meeting date. I'm wondering if anyone can help me understand how to change the code to enable two parameters (a "days_after_buy" and "days_after_sell") into this code.

Any help or pointers appreciated.

Here is the paper:

http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/vissing/CieslakMorseVissing.pdf
I'm primarily fixed on Figure 2 and Table 3.

Steve

Eugene

#10

9/1/2014 1:57 AM

Steve,

Here is a system variation with two parameters including "exit after Y days". It should work smoothly assuming you have WLP 6.7 (otherwise you may wish to follow installation instructions in post #6):

CODE:
Please log in to see this code.

Size:

Color:

Steve,

Here is a system variation with two parameters including "exit after Y days". It should work smoothly assuming you have WLP 6.7 (otherwise you may wish to follow installation instructions in post #6):

[code]using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Drawing;
using WealthLab;
using WealthLab.Indicators;
using System.Xml;
using HtmlAgilityPack;
using System.Net;
using System.Linq;
using System.Globalization;

namespace WealthLab.Strategies
{
	public class FOMCMeetingStrategy : WealthScript
	{
		private StrategyParameter paramDays;
		private StrategyParameter paramDaysExit;
		
		public FOMCMeetingStrategy()
		{
			paramDays = CreateParameter("Days before", 5, 1, 7, 1);
			paramDaysExit  = CreateParameter("Days after", 10, 1, 10, 1);
		}
		
		protected override void Execute()
		{
			int days = paramDays.ValueInt;
			int daysExit = paramDaysExit.ValueInt;
			
			if( FedEventDownloader.Meetings == null )
				FedEventDownloader.BuildList();
			
			PrintDebug( "FOMC Meetings: " + FedEventDownloader.Meetings.Count );
			foreach( var m in FedEventDownloader.Meetings ) {
				PrintDebug( string.Format( "{0}/{1}/{2} to {3}/{4}/{5}",
					m.StartDate.Year, m.StartDate.Month, m.StartDate.Day,
					m.EndDate.Year, m.EndDate.Month, m.EndDate.Day ) );
			}
			
			for(int bar = days + 1; bar < Bars.Count; bar++)
			{
				DateTime cd = Date[bar].Date;
				
				// Plotting
				foreach( var m in FedEventDownloader.Meetings ) {
					if( cd == m.StartDate ) {
						SetBackgroundColor( bar, Color.FromArgb( 50, Color.Green ) ); break;
					}
					if( cd == m.EndDate ) {
						SetBackgroundColor( bar, Color.FromArgb( 50, Color.Red ) ); break;
					}
				}
				
				if (IsLastPositionActive)
				{
					int exitBar = (int)LastPosition.Tag;					
					if( bar >= exitBar )
						SellAtMarket(bar + 1, LastPosition, exitBar.ToString());
				}
				else
				{
					// Finding out the closest FOMC meeting's start/end dates
					FedMeeting nearestStart = FedEventDownloader.Meetings.OrderBy(u => Math.Abs((cd.Date - u.StartDate).TotalSeconds)).First();
					FedMeeting nearestEnd = FedEventDownloader.Meetings.OrderBy(u => Math.Abs((cd.Date - u.EndDate).TotalSeconds)).First();
					
					if( bar + days + 1 == DateTimeToBar( nearestStart.StartDate, false ) )
						if( BuyAtMarket(bar + 1) != null )							
							LastPosition.Tag = DateTimeToBar( nearestEnd.EndDate.AddDays( daysExit ), false );
				}	
			}
		}
	}
	
	#region [ u g l y   i n t e r n a l s ]
	
	public class FedMeeting
	{
		public DateTime StartDate { get; set; }
		public DateTime EndDate { get; set; }
		
		public FedMeeting(){}
		
		public FedMeeting( DateTime start, DateTime end ){ StartDate = start; EndDate = end; }
	}
	
	public static class FedEventDownloader
	{
		public static List<FedMeeting> Meetings = null;
		const string url = @"https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomccalendars.htm";
		
		static string DownloadPage()
		{
ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = SecurityProtocolType.Ssl3 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls | SecurityProtocolType.Tls11 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls12;

string result = null;
			try  {	        
				using (WebClient client = new WebClient()) {
					result = client.DownloadString(url);
				}
			}
			catch { }

return result;
		}
		
		public static void BuildList()
		{
			Meetings = new List<FedMeeting>();		
			Meetings.Clear();
			HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlDocument doc = new HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlDocument();
			doc.LoadHtml(DownloadPage());
			
			if (doc.DocumentNode != null) {
				
var md = doc.DocumentNode.SelectNodes("//div[@id='article']/div[contains(@class,'panel')]/div[contains(@class,'row')]").ToList().Select(n =>
                   new {
                       Year = Convert.ToInt16(n.SelectSingleNode("../div[@class='panel-heading']//a").InnerText.Split(' ')[0]),
                       Month = n.ChildNodes[1].InnerText.TrimEnd(),
                       Span = n.ChildNodes[3].InnerText.Split(' ')[0].TrimEnd('*'), //n.SelectSingleNode("following-sibling::td[@class='day']").InnerText.Split(' ')[0].TrimEnd('*'),
                   });
				
				if (md.ToArray().Count() > 0)
				{
					foreach( var t in md.ToArray() ) {
						try {
							CultureInfo ci = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US");
							string d = t.Span.ToString(); string mo = t.Month.ToString();
							bool multiDay = d.Contains('-');
							bool multiMonth = mo.Contains('/');
							int d1 = multiDay ? Convert.ToInt16( d.Split('-')[0] ) : Convert.ToInt16( d );
							int d2 = multiDay ? Convert.ToInt16( d.Split('-')[1] ) : Convert.ToInt16( d );
							string mo1 = multiMonth ? mo.Split('/')[0] : mo;
							string mo2 = multiMonth ? mo.Split('/')[1] : string.Empty;
							string[] formats= { "MMM", "MMMM" };
							int m1 = DateTime.ParseExact(mo1, formats, ci, DateTimeStyles.None).Month;
							int m2 = multiMonth ? DateTime.ParseExact(mo2, formats, ci, DateTimeStyles.None).Month : m1;
							
							Meetings.Add( new FedMeeting( new DateTime( t.Year, m1, d1 ), new DateTime( t.Year, m2, d2 ) ) );							
						}
						catch (Exception ex) {
							System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(t.ToString());
							break;
						}
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
	
	#endregion
}[/code]

steve3

#11

9/1/2014 9:06 AM

Eugene,

This is excellent. Thanks for your diligence on this.

One additional change: It looks like the best returns involve a buy 5 days *after* the meeting and a sell 10 days after. But it's not letting me use negative numbers of the "Days before" parameter. What changes need to be made to enable this?

Thanks again. Good stuff.

Steve

Eugene

#12

9/1/2014 10:47 AM

This should do it: now are supported "before" (negative numbers) or "after" for both start/end dates. (Not sure if exiting before a meeting would make sense). Anyway:

CODE:
Please log in to see this code.

Size:

Color:

This should do it: now are supported "before" (negative numbers) or "after" for both start/end dates. (Not sure if exiting before a meeting would make sense). Anyway:

[code]using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Drawing;
using WealthLab;
using WealthLab.Indicators;
using System.Xml;
using HtmlAgilityPack;
using System.Net;
using System.Linq;
using System.Globalization;

namespace WealthLab.Strategies
{
	public class FOMCMeetingStrategy : WealthScript
	{
		private StrategyParameter paramDays;
		private StrategyParameter paramDaysExit;
		
		public FOMCMeetingStrategy()
		{
			paramDays = CreateParameter("Before/after start", 5, -10, 7, 1);
			paramDaysExit  = CreateParameter("Before/after end", -10, -10, 10, 1);
		}
		
		protected override void Execute()
		{
			int days = paramDays.ValueInt;
			int daysExit = paramDaysExit.ValueInt;
			
			if( FedEventDownloader.Meetings == null )
				FedEventDownloader.BuildList();
			
			PrintDebug( "FOMC Meetings: " + FedEventDownloader.Meetings.Count );
			foreach( var m in FedEventDownloader.Meetings ) {
				PrintDebug( string.Format( "{0}/{1}/{2} to {3}/{4}/{5}",
					m.StartDate.Year, m.StartDate.Month, m.StartDate.Day,
					m.EndDate.Year, m.EndDate.Month, m.EndDate.Day ) );
			}
			
			for(int bar = Math.Abs(days) + 1; bar < Bars.Count; bar++)
			{
				DateTime cd = Date[bar].Date;
				
				// Plotting
				foreach( var m in FedEventDownloader.Meetings ) {
					if( cd == m.StartDate ) {
						SetBackgroundColor( bar, Color.FromArgb( 50, Color.Green ) ); break;
					}
					if( cd == m.EndDate ) {
						SetBackgroundColor( bar, Color.FromArgb( 50, Color.Red ) ); break;
					}
				}
				
				if (IsLastPositionActive)
				{
					int exitBar = (int)LastPosition.Tag;					
					if( bar >= exitBar )
						SellAtMarket(bar + 1, LastPosition, exitBar.ToString());
				}
				else
				{
					// Finding out the closest FOMC meeting's start/end dates
					FedMeeting nearestStart = FedEventDownloader.Meetings.OrderBy(u => Math.Abs((cd.Date - u.StartDate).TotalSeconds)).First();
					FedMeeting nearestEnd = FedEventDownloader.Meetings.OrderBy(u => Math.Abs((cd.Date - u.EndDate).TotalSeconds)).First();
					
					if( bar + days + 1 == DateTimeToBar( nearestStart.StartDate, false ) )
						if( BuyAtMarket(bar + 1) != null )							
							LastPosition.Tag = DateTimeToBar( nearestEnd.EndDate.AddDays( daysExit ), false );
				}	
			}
		}
	}
	
	#region [ u g l y   i n t e r n a l s ]
	
	public class FedMeeting
	{
		public DateTime StartDate { get; set; }
		public DateTime EndDate { get; set; }
		
		public FedMeeting(){}
		
		public FedMeeting( DateTime start, DateTime end ){ StartDate = start; EndDate = end; }
	}
	
	public static class FedEventDownloader
	{
		public static List<FedMeeting> Meetings = null;
		const string url = @"https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomccalendars.htm";
		
		static string DownloadPage()
		{
ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = SecurityProtocolType.Ssl3 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls | SecurityProtocolType.Tls11 | SecurityProtocolType.Tls12;

string result = null;
			try  {	        
				using (WebClient client = new WebClient()) {
					result = client.DownloadString(url);
				}
			}
			catch { }

return result;
		}
		
		public static void BuildList()
		{
			Meetings = new List<FedMeeting>();		
			Meetings.Clear();
			HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlDocument doc = new HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlDocument();
			doc.LoadHtml(DownloadPage());
			
			if (doc.DocumentNode != null) {
				
var md = doc.DocumentNode.SelectNodes("//div[@id='article']/div[contains(@class,'panel')]/div[contains(@class,'row')]").ToList().Select(n =>
                   new {
                       Year = Convert.ToInt16(n.SelectSingleNode("../div[@class='panel-heading']//a").InnerText.Split(' ')[0]),
                       Month = n.ChildNodes[1].InnerText.TrimEnd(),
                       Span = n.ChildNodes[3].InnerText.Split(' ')[0].TrimEnd('*'), //n.SelectSingleNode("following-sibling::td[@class='day']").InnerText.Split(' ')[0].TrimEnd('*'),
                   });
				
				if (md.ToArray().Count() > 0)
				{
					foreach( var t in md.ToArray() ) {
						try {
							CultureInfo ci = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US");
							string d = t.Span.ToString(); string mo = t.Month.ToString();
							bool multiDay = d.Contains('-');
							bool multiMonth = mo.Contains('/');
							int d1 = multiDay ? Convert.ToInt16( d.Split('-')[0] ) : Convert.ToInt16( d );
							int d2 = multiDay ? Convert.ToInt16( d.Split('-')[1] ) : Convert.ToInt16( d );
							string mo1 = multiMonth ? mo.Split('/')[0] : mo;
							string mo2 = multiMonth ? mo.Split('/')[1] : string.Empty;
							string[] formats= { "MMM", "MMMM" };
							int m1 = DateTime.ParseExact(mo1, formats, ci, DateTimeStyles.None).Month;
							int m2 = multiMonth ? DateTime.ParseExact(mo2, formats, ci, DateTimeStyles.None).Month : m1;
							
							Meetings.Add( new FedMeeting( new DateTime( t.Year, m1, d1 ), new DateTime( t.Year, m2, d2 ) ) );							
						}
						catch (Exception ex) {
							System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(t.ToString());
							break;
						}
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
	
	#endregion
}[/code]

mikesblack

#13

7/11/2015 3:11 PM

Greetings,
I have been trying to make this code run, but have been unsuccessful. Nothing happens, including getting the Debug and Error window. I believe I followed the prerequisites as posted before in this thread other than being able to find references in the strategy monitor to select System.Xml.

I am running WL 6.8 on a Win 7 X64 machine. All extensions are up to date.

Can you help me figure this out?

Thanks,

Mike

Eugene

#14

7/11/2015 3:14 PM

Still working perfectly on Daily data in Strategy window mode after adding references to System.Xml and System.Core.

gbullr

#15

1/26/2016 3:51 PM

Strategy no longer works post Sept 2015. what am I doing wrong. Thanks and sorry. Just super strage.

CODE:
Please log in to see this code.

Thanks a lot for help

Eugene

#16

1/26/2016 4:08 PM

Wow, what a persistence (in the wrong direction)!

Not sure why you insist on using this primitive hard-coded kludge (with constructs like "Bars.Count-4") and disregard my completely automated strategy that has been working for years (fortunately, the Fed is conservative enough and doesn't change its website's HTML layout) and my effort to help you (as it was your request).

But if you're looking for help on this, just see post #9. Nothing has changed since 2013!

gbullr

#17

1/26/2016 6:28 PM

I can't get yours to work. That is why.. while mine works just fine until sept 2015 for some damned reason which post 9 does not resolve. On my computer your code generates no trades.

Where do I get system.xml where do I get system.linq

Furthermore when the fed chooses to change the format / of the page my thing would still work and yours may not; therefore I'd rather have the retarded version that I understand cause it is idiot proof (me) vs the y2k version that blows up when you actually need it.

And finally your thing does not have data older than 2011 which does not make for good backtests.

Eugene

#18

1/27/2016 1:06 AM

QUOTE:
Where do I get system.xml where do I get system.linq

Post #6, steps 1 and 2. There's no need to "get it to work": all it takes is to follow the brief instruction and make a few extra clicks. It's super easy.

QUOTE:
On my computer your code generates no trades.

Sure, because there's a compiler error in the Editor that you get due to not following the instruction.

QUOTE:
Furthermore when the fed chooses to change the format / of the page my thing would still work and yours may not

At least in about three months that code will be working 3 years w/o modification.

QUOTE:
And finally your thing does not have data older than 2011 which does not make for good backtests.

I had to work with the link that you provided in post #1.

hefrei

#19

1/16/2017 4:08 PM

It seems as if the fed webpage has changed and the algo is unable to scrape the dates anymore. Is anybody else having these issues?

Potentially this could be a more "stable" source of fed meeting data?

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/677#!535298

Eugene

#20

1/16/2017 5:45 PM

Thanks for the heads-up Heiko.

Previously (2012-2016), the Fed has never abbreviated the months like "Jan/Feb" in 2017. It was like "April/May" in 2013. Although this change came unexpected to the strategy, it's trivial to fix. I've updated it so all it takes for you is to download it.

To do it, click "Download..." in Wealth-Lab's "Open Strategy" dialog and make sure that "Download public strategies" is checked. After downloading and opening the "...[Rev.A]" version, references to required components (System.Core and System.Xml) should be picked up automatically. You're all set.

P.S. I've updated the code above just in case someone else stumbles on them here but it's highly suggested to avoid copy/paste from the older forum posts with required reference manipulations. Instead just download the strategies directly from Wealth-Lab.

hefrei

#21

1/16/2017 7:15 PM

Wow - that was quick. Thanks a lot for your help.

Eugene

#22

8/10/2017 6:21 PM

Attention: Due to a breaking change to HTML layout on Fed's website, Strategy stopped working. I've fixed both the code in this thread and uploaded a "Revision B". To grab it, click "Download" in Wealth-Lab's "Open Strategy" dialog.

Eugene

#23

1/23/2018 11:12 AM

Kudos to our community member hefrei for sharing this link which covers all the meetings since 1933!

The Strategy "FOMC Meetings" has been upgraded to "Revision C" which I've just uploaded. Grab it by clicking "Download" in Wealth-Lab's "Open Strategy" dialog.

FOMC Meetings (Rev.C)

Eugene

#24

10/29/2019 4:47 PM

There are a couple of novelties on St.Louis's Fed website that broke the strategy "Rev.C" if executed with a parameter slider set to "FRED" mode.

The Strategy "FOMC Meetings" has been upgraded to "Revision D". Grab it by clicking "Download" in Wealth-Lab's "Open Strategy" dialog.

FOMC Meetings (Rev.D)

Eugene

#25

3/9/2020 1:06 PM

Another breaking change at the FRED website broke the strategy "Rev.D" if executed with a parameter slider set to "FRED" mode.

The Strategy "FOMC Meetings" has been upgraded to "Revision E". Grab it by clicking "Download" in Wealth-Lab's "Open Strategy" dialog.

FOMC Meetings (Rev.E)

Eugene

#26

9/28/2020 4:24 PM

Breaking change at the FRED website: forced pagination. Update to "Rev.F" to keep using the strategy in "FRED" mode.

The Strategy "FOMC Meetings" has been upgraded to "Revision F". Grab it by clicking "Download" in Wealth-Lab's "Open Strategy" dialog.

FOMC Meetings (Rev.F)

Eugene

#27

10/1/2020 10:40 AM

Fixed bug in "Rev.F" (missing data for the 1990s):

The Strategy "FOMC Meetings" has been upgraded to "Revision G". Grab it by clicking "Download" in Wealth-Lab's "Open Strategy" dialog.

FOMC Meetings (Rev.G)

Wealth Lab » Trading Strategies » Trade on Fed (FOMC) Announcement Dates

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with that, but you can opt-out if you wish (Read more).