FAQ¶

Common questions and troubleshooting.

General¶

What is StratEvo?¶

StratEvo is an AI-powered quantitative finance engine built on pure NumPy. It provides technical analysis, strategy backtesting, paper trading, portfolio optimization, and crypto/DeFi tools — all in a single Python package with zero heavy dependencies.

What markets does StratEvo support?¶

🇺🇸 US Stocks (Yahoo Finance, Polygon, Alpha Vantage, Alpaca)
🇨🇳 China A-Shares (AkShare, BaoStock, Tushare)
🇭🇰 Hong Kong (Yahoo Finance)
🇯🇵 Japan (Yahoo Finance)
🇰🇷 Korea (Yahoo Finance)
🌐 Crypto (Binance, Bybit, OKX, Coinbase, Kraken)

Is StratEvo free?¶

Yes. StratEvo is open-source under AGPL-3.0. Free for personal and open-source use. Commercial use requires a separate license.

Does StratEvo require TA-Lib or pandas?¶

No. All 17 technical indicators are implemented in pure NumPy. No compiled C libraries, no pandas dependency.

Installation¶

`pip install stratevo` fails¶

Make sure you have Python 3.10+:

python --version  # Must be 3.10 or higher
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install stratevo

`ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'yfinance'`¶

pip install yfinance

Or install StratEvo with all dependencies:

pip install stratevo[full]

How do I install from source?¶

git clone https://github.com/NeuZhou/stratevo.git
cd stratevo
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Data¶

Why am I getting empty data?¶

Common causes: 1. Invalid ticker — Check the symbol format (e.g., AAPL for US, 000001.SZ for China) 2. Weekend/holiday — Markets are closed; recent data may not be available 3. API rate limit — Alpha Vantage free tier allows only 25 requests/day 4. Network issue — Check your internet connection

stratevo scan --market china --style buffett

AkShare and BaoStock are free and require no API key. For Tushare, set TUSHARE_TOKEN.

How do I clear the cache?¶

stratevo cache --clear

Strategies¶

Which strategy should I start with?¶

Beginners: Smart DCA or Golden Cross Momentum
Intermediate: RSI Mean Reversion or Bollinger Squeeze
Advanced: Multi-Timeframe Trend or Strategy Combiner

Can I create my own strategy?¶

Yes. See the Plugins guide for creating custom strategies in Python or YAML.

What does the AI Debate Arena do?¶

Multiple AI agents (value, quant, macro, sentiment) analyze a trade opportunity from different angles and debate. The strategy only executes when agents reach consensus above a confidence threshold. This helps avoid trades where technical signals conflict with fundamentals.

Backtesting¶

My backtest shows amazing returns. Should I trust it?¶

Be skeptical. Check for: - Overfitting — StratEvo's deflated Sharpe test can detect this - Look-ahead bias — Walk-forward analysis prevents this - Survivorship bias — Include delisted stocks - Small sample — Need 30+ trades for statistical significance

How long should a backtest be?¶

At minimum 3 years to cover different market regimes (bull, bear, sideways). 5+ years is better.

Why is my backtest slow?¶

Reduce the date range
Use fewer tickers
Enable caching: stratevo cache --stats

Live Trading¶

Can StratEvo trade real money?¶

Paper trading is fully supported. Live broker integration (IBKR, Alpaca) is on the roadmap (v4.0). For now, use StratEvo for signals and execute manually or via Alpaca's API.

How do I set up paper trading?¶

stratevo paper --strategy momentum --ticker BTCUSDT --exchange binance --capital 10000

MCP / AI Integration¶

Which AI clients support StratEvo?¶

Any MCP-compatible client: Claude Desktop, Cursor, OpenClaw, VS Code with MCP extensions.

MCP tools aren't showing up¶

Verify the config path is correct
Ensure StratEvo is installed (pip install -e .)
Restart the AI client after config changes
Check logs for import errors

Contributing¶

How do I run the tests?¶

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

1,100+ tests should all pass.

How do I report a bug?¶

Open an issue at github.com/NeuZhou/stratevo/issues.