alice analysis — Quant Calculator (v2)

A bounded, side-effect-free expression language for technical analysis. You write a short script; it fetches K-lines by barId and returns a value (or a panel of values). Get barIds from alice analysis search-bars first.

The loop

alice analysis search-bars --query AAPL
# Pick a broker barId if one came back (realtime, matches your fills); fall back to a vendor only if not.
alice analysis quant --script $'s = bars("alpaca-paper|AAPL", "1d", count=250)\nsma(s.close, 50)'

Choosing a source

search-bars federates broker bars and vendor bars (freshest-first). Pick in this order:

1. A broker you actually trade (barCapability: "realtime") — freshest, and the chart matches your fills. Always prefer this when it's in the results.
2. A paid vendor (fmp, …) when no broker source exists.
3. yfinance — free fallback only. Its end-of-day bars can lag a day or two, so never use it for anything time-sensitive (a fresh signal, an entry check) or to chart a live position when a broker source is available.

Vendor barIds (yfinance|…, fmp|…) need asset=; broker barIds infer it. Keyless exchange data sources such as binance-readonly are opt-in in Trading settings, so do not assume they exist before search-bars returns them.

No candidates for a non-US symbol? search-bars only fans out over the vendors that are on. A Taiwan or CN A-share searched by its native name can come back empty just because its vendor is off — alice market vendors to see what's available, alice market vendor-set --vendor twse --enabled true to add it (live immediately), then re-run search-bars. See the alice skill.

Language

A script is zero or more name = ... bindings, then a final result expression:

s = bars("alpaca-paper|AAPL", "1d", count=250)
sma(s.close, 50) - sma(s.close, 200)        # +ve = 50 above 200 (uptrend)

bars(barId, interval, count=, asOf=, start=, end=, asset=)

• barId: "{source}|{symbol}" from search-bars. Broker (alpaca-paper|AAPL) or opt-in keyless exchange data (binance-readonly|BTC/USDT) needs NO asset=; vendor (yfinance|AAPL, fmp|AAPL) needs asset="equity"|"crypto"|"currency"|"commodity".
• interval: 1m 5m 15m 30m 1h 4h 1d 1w.
• Window: count=N (most-recent N bars — the natural window for indicators), OR start=/end= (YYYY-MM-DD date range), OR end=+count= (point-in-time backtest).

Columns of a bars() series: s.open / s.high / s.low / s.close / s.volume.

Indexing: raw columns are series — index them: s.close[-1] (latest), s.close[-2] (one back). Indicators already return the latest scalar — do NOT index them (sma(s.close, 50), not sma(...)[-1]).

Arithmetic: + - * /, parentheses, unary minus.

Panels — batch many computations in one call

The result can be a labeled dict or a positional list (each entry a single value, max 200). Use this instead of calling the tool N times:

h1 = bars("yfinance|BTC-USD", "1h", count=250, asset="crypto")
h4 = bars("yfinance|BTC-USD", "4h", count=250, asset="crypto")
d1 = bars("yfinance|BTC-USD", "1d", count=250, asset="crypto")
{ "1h": rsi(h1.close, 14), "4h": rsi(h4.close, 14), "1d": rsi(d1.close, 14) }

→ { "1h": 53.2, "4h": 48.9, "1d": 61.4 }

Sibling verbs — dated reads & backtests

quant returns latest scalars with no dates. When you need the time axis or a hypothetical trade, reach for these instead (see the retrospective skill for the full workflow):

• alice analysis snapshot --query XLE [--asOf YYYY-MM-DD] — the honest as-of read: DATED bars (never past asOf — no lookahead), the latest print (close + vs-prevClose + day high/low + amplitude), compact levels, and a freshness contract (isLatestActual / staleTradingDays). Use this for "what does/did X look like", not a hand-rolled quant dump.
• alice analysis simulate --query XLE --entryDate … --exitRule … — backtest one entry + one exit (trailing_stop/ma_break/stop/target/ hold); returns entry/exit, returnPct, MFE/MAE.
• alice analysis quant … --dates — opt-in date axis on a quant result (dates[barId] for one interval; dates["barId@interval"] when the same barId is used at multiple intervals), to map a dumped series back to days.

Function catalog

Records: bbands → {upper, middle, lower}; macd → {macd, signal, histogram}.

Examples

Examples below use yfinance|… for brevity (it's always available without a broker). When you have a broker source for the symbol, swap its barId in — see Choosing a source.

# Momentum % over the last 20 bars
s = bars("yfinance|AAPL", "1d", count=60, asset="equity")
roc(s.close, 20)

# How overbought/oversold vs the trailing 20 sessions
s = bars("yfinance|TSLA", "1d", count=60, asset="equity")
zscore(s.close, 20)

# Does this token move with BTC? (relative strength)
btc = bars("yfinance|BTC-USD", "1d", count=90, asset="crypto")
sui = bars("yfinance|SUI-USD", "1d", count=90, asset="crypto")
correlation(btc.close, sui.close)

# A one-call dashboard
s = bars("yfinance|NVDA", "1d", count=250, asset="equity")
{
  "rsi":        rsi(s.close, 14),
  "roc_20d_%":  roc(s.close, 20),
  "vs_200ma":   s.close[-1] - sma(s.close, 200),
  "trend":      slope(s.close, 50),
  "z_20d":      zscore(s.close, 20),
  "atr_14":     atr(s.high, s.low, s.close, 14),
}

Self-correction

On failure the tool returns { error: { kind, message, suggestion } }, not a crash — read it and fix the script. It pinpoints the problem: unknown function (with "did you mean"), wrong arity/type, insufficient bars (raise count=), undeclared name, and common Python reflexes (s.close.rolling(50).mean() → "use sma(s.close, 50)"; sma(...)[-1] → "drop the [-1]"; slices/if → not supported here).

Gotchas

• Indicators return the latest scalar — never [-1] them; only raw columns are series.
• Vendor barIds need asset=; broker barIds infer it.
• Source freshness: yfinance/fmp are delayed (yfinance EOD can lag a day or two). Prefer a broker barId for anything you trade or anything time-sensitive.
• No conditionals/booleans (no if, no crossover operator) — compute the parts and compare in your own reasoning, or return them in a panel.
• For arbitrary/looping logic beyond these primitives, spawn a separate Auto-Quant workspace, not this tool.