Cool feature!

I have one concern -- the Equity Curve Visualizer tab goes away when I do a backtest after setting a symbol in preferences. Is this intentional?

Perhaps there is a bug here. I noticed in the Performance tab there are no results under the "Benchmark Buy & Hold" column. That may be why the Equity Curve visualizer disappeared. I used SPY as the benchmark symbol.

It shouldn't. Could it be restored by re-checking it in the Preferences > Visualizers? If not, we'll need more details: How to report a Problem?

It shouldn't go away even if the symbols is invalid (not present).

All I did was go into Preferences -> Backtest Setting and check "Benchmark Buy & Hold" with SPY as the symbol. I originally had "Update Data on Demand" turned off but I tried turning that on and rerunning a backtest. No difference. I had SPY data on my machine (contained in other datasets) so I did not expect it to matter how "Update Data on Demand" was set.

I can put an entry into support and we can pursue it from there if that would be better.

There's definitely a bug. I just got an unhandled exception after changing Position Size.

1) I had Positions Size set to "20% Equity" for the tests above.
2) I switched it to Fixed Dollar $10,000 and suddenly the Benchmark Buy & Hold column contained data. I did not notice if the Equity Curve visualizer was available.
3) When I attempt to switch it back to "20% Equity" I got an Unhandled Exception. I could click Continue and WLP seemed to run fine. The Equity Curve tab is available now; however there is no Buy and Hold line.

Yes, please do, because I can't duplicate what you're seeing. There must be some error in the calculation of the B&H equity that's causing that.

You might try:
1. a new symbol, and then,
2. a "master reset" (restart)

I can't reproduce it. What's the exception text? Please copy/paste it here, and restarting WLP following that to see if a restart helps.

I restarted the application, but I can consistently reproduce it. It doesn't appear to matter what strategy I use or whether it is a dataset or a single symbol.

I've created a support ticket for this with a link back to this discussion. In the support ticket I put the full details from the exception dialog. When I reproduced the error I got the same null reference exception. Below is the beginning of the details.

QUOTE:

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at WealthLab.SystemResults.BuildEquityCurve(IList`1 barsList, TradingSystemExecutor tse, Boolean master, PosSizer posSizer)
at WealthLab.TradingSystemExecutor.ApplyPositionSize()

Maybe SPY has some invalid data? Have you tried another symbol?

I just tried it with 'QQQQ'. Same unhandled exception behavior.

I put some screen prints with the support ticket. I don't know if those will help reproduce the problem.

I think I found the missing piece of the puzzle. I had "Apply dividends to backtest results when using Portfolio Simulation mode." checked off. When I uncheck this, I can run with Position Sizing "20% Equity" and benchmark buy & hold set to 'QQQQ'.

I think the problem is when "Apply dividends to backtest results when using Portfolio Simulation mode." is turned on and you are using the benchmark buy & hold feature.

Let me know if you have any luck reproducing.

You got it, that's it. Thanks for reporting and isolating the problem!