Welcome to Zorro! Getting Started

Zorro is an ecosystem for financial research and algorithmic trading. It is not a 'robot' and not a trading platform, but has some elements of both. Technically it's a software development system specialized on analyzing financial data, creating trading strategies, training their machine learning algorithms, optimizing their parameters, backtesting them with several methods, and trading them automated with online brokers. This workflow is reflected in the buttons of Zorro's control panel.

Control panel

We admit: the user interface is not particularly pretty. But you can define your own user interface for your trading tools and scripts, with as many colorful buttons as you want. The default one is designed for minimum space (less than 600 pixels), so several instances can run on any small netbook screen in the background. There is no menu, only a few buttons, scrollboxes, and entry fields for setting up the broker connection and selecting the script and assets to trade.

Broker Account Account type (Demo, Real, or user-specific accounts) and broker connection (f.i. FXCM, IB, Oanda, MTR4, MTR5). Login User ID, account number, password, API token, or other account credentials. Status Broker server status; displays the current server time and asset price in [Trade] mode. The square is green when logged in, and red when the connection was interrupted. Strategy Script The strategy script, or [Change] for changing the folder, or [New] for writing a new script. Scripts are located in the Strategy subfolder. See scripts for what's included, and the tutorial for writing own scripts. Asset Select the asset for trading or testing. With multi-asset scripts, select the asset to be displayed in the log, chart, and server window. Add more assets by editing the asset list.  Action General purpose scrollbox that can be set up in Zorro.ini or in the script. Run Zorro tasks, external programs, or script functions with a mouse click Period Bar period in minutes; the basic heartbeat of the strategy. Slider1..3 General purpose sliders for strategy parameters. Buttons Help Open the help manual and script reference. Edit Open the selected script in the editor. If a special asset list was loaded, open it too. Test Test the strategy with historical price data. Several test modes can be set up in the script, such as single-step, in-sample, out-of-sample, or walk-forward tests. Train Train the strategy by optimizing parameters and/or by generating trade rules or training neural networks. Trade Trade the strategy live. Zorro will connect to the broker and start earning (or losing) money. Click the button again to stop trading or close open positions. Result Open the chart viewer with a plot of the strategy performance, and the editor with the log and the performance analysis. Result Progress State of the trading or backtest. Profits are green, losses red. Info Current account and trade situation, or the result of the backtest. Messages Displays all that Zorro has to tell you. A double click copies it to the clipboard.

What you need

Some traders have a desk full of monitors for an impressive show of indicators and price curves. Good for boasting on trader forums - but for serious trading, only invest in two PCs:

• For live trading, either get a cheap laptop that runs in the background with permanent Internet connection, or rent for a small fee a Windows VPS from Amazon™ or another provider. The trading machine should be dedicated to trading and have no other tasks. Make sure to disable automatic Windows updates for preventing reboots that interrupt the trading session. For setting up Zorro on a VPS, look under VPS.
   
• For training and testing strategies, get a fast desktop computer with several cores, such as an Intel® i7 machine with at least 8 GB RAM. When developing a system you'll be testing it all the time, and for a portfolio strategy with many assets and algorithms the computer can't be fast enough. Often you'll test variants of a strategy in parallel for comparison. Multiple cores, such as 8 or 16, will allow you to run WFO tests much faster, or to run many Zorro instances simultaneously without performance loss. If you're using deep learning for your strategies, get a nVidia® graphics card with CUDA support. If your computer at home has no sufficient power, the alternative is to rent a powerful VPS in the cloud.

Getting started

• Set up Zorro: Download Zorro (it's free) from http://zorro-project.com/download.php, and install it in a folder on your PC and/or on a trading server. For details, see Zorro on a Server.
   
• Let Zorro do something: Select Workshop4 under Script, select EUR/USD under Asset, then click [Test]. After clicking [Result] a chart viewer pops up and displays a chart with the detailed development of your equity. For learning more about strategy development with Zorro, go through the tutorial or get the Black Book. Note that not all scripts are strategies (try Mandelbrot or Pi), and that some won't run directly, as they require first training or additional historical data. Here's a list of included scripts.
      
• Earn virtual money: Open a demo account with your preferred broker. Five minutes later you should have a $50,000 demo account and can log in and start trading. Start Zorro, select the broker, enter your login credentials, select a Z strategy or one of the Workshops, and click [Trade]. Wait a couple of months and observe the money accumulate on your account...
   
• Earn real money: The free Zorro version is fully functional and can trade with real money. But before investing your hard earned money in the included strategies, please read the Z systems chapter from top to bottom. Open a real money account with the broker of your choice; for finding a broker, read the Brokers page. Once the account is established, transfer some money onto it. Start Zorro, select the strategy and begin trading. If you don't own Zorro S, withdraw your profits regularly from the broker account, as the free Zorro version stops trading when the account balance exceeds $7000 (see profit limits for details).
      
• Go from here: Read the main topics of this manual. For developing your own trade strategies, learn in the Tutorial how to code them. For deeper understanding, get a book about algorithmic trading. If you have a question or an issue with Zorro, ask on the user forum. For in-depth support, subscribe a support ticket on the Zorro download page. If you need help with developing a trading strategy, contact our system development service.

See also

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