Use MATLAB to double a parameter until a certain value - matlab

I want to double a parameter (population size) until it reaches a certain value, regardless of the number of loops (generations). Say I have the following loop:
population_size = 10; %initial population size
for i = 0:10, %no. of generations
%(*call function for model*)
population_size = (population_size*2);
gene_frequency = (gene_frequency*population_size)/population_size;
end
How would I do this in MATLAB?

As Yvon has suggested, use a while loop that will keep looping until you meet a certain condition. I can see that your population size is doubling, and so you want to make the while loop until is it equal to, or exceeds this number.
I do have one question though: Your gene_frequency call seems useless. You are taking the variable, multiplying by population_size, then dividing by population_size.... and you'll just get the same number as you did last time. I'm going to leave this statement out as it doesn't contribute anything meaningful to your question.
As such:
population_size = 10; %initial population size
target_population = ... ;%// You place the population you want met here
while population_size < target_population %// NEW
%//(*call function for model*)
population_size = (population_size*2);
end
Edit - July 30th, 2014
You have mentioned in your comments that you want to run this for 15 generations, but when the population size reaches its limit, it will remain the same for the rest of the generations. You can combine this with a for loop and an if statement. We will go through each generation, then check to see what the population size is. As long as the population size is less than the target population, we will double the size. Once it finally exceeds the population size, this will no longer double but the loop will keep going until go through the rest of the generations.
You can do this like so:
population_size = 10; %initial population size
target_population = ... ;%// You place the population you want met here
for gen = 1 : 15
%//(*call function for model*)
if (population_size <= target_population)
population_size = (population_size*2);
end
end

Related

Repeated option pricing with Sobol Sequence (Matlab)

Trying to calculate the variance of a European option using repeated trial (instead of 1 trial). I want to compare the variance using the standard randn function and the sobolset. I'm not quite sure how to draw repeated samples from the latter.
Generating from randn is easy:
num_steps = 100;
num_paths = 10;
z = rand(num_steps, mum_paths); % 100 paths, for 10 trials
Once I have this, I can loop through all the 10 columns of the z matrix, and can also repeat the experiment many times, as the randn function will provide a new random variable set everytime.
for exp_num = 1: 20
for col = 1: 10
price_vec = z(:, col);
end
end
I'm not quite sure how to do this with the sobolset. I understand I can create a matrix of dimensions to start with (say 100* 10). I can loop through as above through all the columns for the first experiment. However, when I try the next experiment (#2), the loop starts from the beginning and all the numbers are the same. Meaning I don't get any variation in my pricing. It seems I will need to find a way to randomize the column selection at the start of every experiment number. Is there a better way to do this??
data1 = sobolset(1000, 'Skip', 1000, 'Leap', 100)
data2 = net(test1, 10)
for exp_num = 1: 20
% how do I change the start of the column selection here, so that the next data3 is different from %the one in the previous exp_num?
for col = 1:10
data3(:, col) = data(2:, col)
% perform calculations
end
end
I hope this is making sense....
Thanks for the help!
Update: 8/21
I tried the following:
num_runs = 100
num_samples = 1000
for j = 1: num_runs
for i = 1 : num_samples
sobol_set = sobolset(num_samples,'Skip',j*50,'Leap',1e2);
sobol_set = net(sobol_set, 5);
sobol_seq = sobol_set(:, i)';
z_uncorr = norminv(sobol_seq, 0, 1)
% do pricing with z_uncorr through some function F
end
end
After generating 100 prices (through some function F, mentioned above), I find that the variance of the 100 prices is higher than that I get from the standard pseudo random numbers. This should not be the case. I think I'm still not sampling correctly from the sobolset. Any advice would be appreciated.

On histogram equalization

So I'd like to do it without histeq, but my code seems to get out a rather peculiar, really whited out image, and doesn't seem all too much improved from the original picture. Is there a better way to apply the proper histogram?
Cumlative=zeros(256,1);
CumHisty=uint8(zeros(ROWS,COLS));
% First we need to find the probabilities and the frequencies
freq = zeros(256,1);
probab = zeros(256,1);
for i=1:ROWS
for j=1:COLS
value=I1(i,j);
freq(value+1)=freq(value+1)+1;
probab(value+1)=freq(value+1)/(ROWS*COLS);
end
end
count=0;
cumprobab=zeros(256,1);
distrib=zeros(256,1);
for i=1:size(probab)
count=count+freq(i);
Cumlative(i)=count;
cumprobab(i)=Cumlative(i)/(ROWS*COLS);
distrib(i)=round(cumprobab(i)*(ROWS*COLS));
end
for i=1:ROWS
for j=1:COLS
CumHisty(i,j)=distrib(I1(i,j)+1);
end
You probably want to do:
distrib(i) = round(cumprobab(i)*255);
EDIT:
Here is a version of your code without the redundant computations, and simplified looping:
freq = zeros(256,1);
for i = 1:numel(I1)
index = I1(i) + 1;
freq(index) = freq(index)+1;
end
count = 0;
distrib = zeros(256,1);
for i = 1:length(freq)
count = count + freq(i);
cumprobab = count/numel(I1);
distrib(i) = round(cumprobab*255);
end
CumHisty = zeros(size(I1),'uint8');
for i = 1:numel(I1)
CumHisty(i) = distrib(I1(i)+1);
end
I use linear indexing above, it's simpler (one loop instead of 2) and automatically helps you access the pixels in the same order that they are stored in. The way you looped (over rows in the outer loop, and columns in the inner loop) means that you are not accessing pixels in the optimal order, since arrays are stored column-wise (column-major order). Accessing data in the order in which it is stored in memory allows for an optimal cache usage (i.e. is faster).
The above can also be written as:
freq = histcounts(I1,0:256);
distrib = round(cumsum(freq)*(255/numel(I1)));
distrib = uint8(distrib);
CumHisty = distrib(I1+1);
This is faster than the loop code, but within the same order of magnitude. Recent versions of MATLAB are no longer terribly slow doing loops.
I clocked your code at 40 ms, with simplified loops at 19.5 ms, and without loops at 5.8 ms, using an image of size 1280x1024.

dynamically fill vector without assigning empty matrix

Oftentimes I need to dynamically fill a vector in Matlab. However this is sligtly annoying since you first have to define an empty variable first, e.g.:
[a,b,c]=deal([]);
for ind=1:10
if rand>.5 %some random condition to emphasize the dynamical fill of vector
a=[a, randi(5)];
end
end
a %display result
Is there a better way to implement this 'push' function, so that you do not have to define an empty vector beforehand? People tell me this is nonsensical in Matlab- if you think this is the case please explain why.
related: Push a variable in a vector in Matlab, is-there-an-elegant-way-to-create-dynamic-array-in-matlab
In MATLAB, pre-allocation is the way to go. From the docs:
for and while loops that incrementally increase the size of a data structure each time through the loop can adversely affect performance and memory use.
As pointed out in the comments by m7913d, there is a question on MathWorks' answers section which addresses this same point, read it here.
I would suggest "over-allocating" memory, then reducing the size of the array after your loop.
numloops = 10;
a = nan(numloops, 1);
for ind = 1:numloops
if rand > 0.5
a(ind) = 1; % assign some value to the current loop index
end
end
a = a(~isnan(a)); % Get rid of values which weren't used (and remain NaN)
No, this doesn't decrease the amount you have to write before your loop, it's even worse than having to write a = []! However, you're better off spending a few extra keystrokes and minutes writing well structured code than making that saving and having worse code.
It is (as for as I known) not possible in MATLAB to omit the initialisation of your variable before using it in the right hand side of an expression. Moreover it is not desirable to omit it as preallocating an array is almost always the right way to go.
As mentioned in this post, it is even desirable to preallocate a matrix even if the exact number of elements is not known. To demonstrate it, a small benchmark is desirable:
Ns = [1 10 100 1000 10000 100000];
timeEmpty = zeros(size(Ns));
timePreallocate = zeros(size(Ns));
for i=1:length(Ns)
N = Ns(i);
timeEmpty(i) = timeit(#() testEmpty(N));
timePreallocate(i) = timeit(#() testPreallocate(N));
end
figure
semilogx(Ns, timeEmpty ./ timePreallocate);
xlabel('N')
ylabel('time_{empty}/time_{preallocate}');
% do not preallocate memory
function a = testEmpty (N)
a = [];
for ind=1:N
if rand>.5 %some random condition to emphasize the dynamical fill of vector
a=[a, randi(5)];
end
end
end
% preallocate memory with the largest possible return size
function a = testPreallocate (N)
last = 0;
a = zeros(N, 1);
for ind=1:N
if rand>.5 %some random condition to emphasize the dynamical fill of vector
last = last + 1;
a(last) = randi(5);
end
end
a = a(1:last);
end
This figure shows how much time the method without preallocating is slower than preallocating a matrix based on the largest possible return size. Note that preallocating is especially important for large matrices due the the exponential behaviour.

A moving average with different functions and varying time-frames

I have a matrix time-series data for 8 variables with about 2500 points (~10 years of mon-fri) and would like to calculate the mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis on a 'moving average' basis.
Lets say frames = [100 252 504 756] - I would like calculate the four functions above on over each of the (time-)frames, on a daily basis - so the return for day 300 in the case with 100 day-frame, would be [mean variance skewness kurtosis] from the period day201-day300 (100 days in total)... and so on.
I know this means I would get an array output, and the the first frame number of days would be NaNs, but I can't figure out the required indexing to get this done...
This is an interesting question because I think the optimal solution is different for the mean than it is for the other sample statistics.
I've provided a simulation example below that you can work through.
First, choose some arbitrary parameters and simulate some data:
%#Set some arbitrary parameters
T = 100; N = 5;
WindowLength = 10;
%#Simulate some data
X = randn(T, N);
For the mean, use filter to obtain a moving average:
MeanMA = filter(ones(1, WindowLength) / WindowLength, 1, X);
MeanMA(1:WindowLength-1, :) = nan;
I had originally thought to solve this problem using conv as follows:
MeanMA = nan(T, N);
for n = 1:N
MeanMA(WindowLength:T, n) = conv(X(:, n), ones(WindowLength, 1), 'valid');
end
MeanMA = (1/WindowLength) * MeanMA;
But as #PhilGoddard pointed out in the comments, the filter approach avoids the need for the loop.
Also note that I've chosen to make the dates in the output matrix correspond to the dates in X so in later work you can use the same subscripts for both. Thus, the first WindowLength-1 observations in MeanMA will be nan.
For the variance, I can't see how to use either filter or conv or even a running sum to make things more efficient, so instead I perform the calculation manually at each iteration:
VarianceMA = nan(T, N);
for t = WindowLength:T
VarianceMA(t, :) = var(X(t-WindowLength+1:t, :));
end
We could speed things up slightly by exploiting the fact that we have already calculated the mean moving average. Simply replace the within loop line in the above with:
VarianceMA(t, :) = (1/(WindowLength-1)) * sum((bsxfun(#minus, X(t-WindowLength+1:t, :), MeanMA(t, :))).^2);
However, I doubt this will make much difference.
If anyone else can see a clever way to use filter or conv to get the moving window variance I'd be very interested to see it.
I leave the case of skewness and kurtosis to the OP, since they are essentially just the same as the variance example, but with the appropriate function.
A final point: if you were converting the above into a general function, you could pass in an anonymous function as one of the arguments, then you would have a moving average routine that works for arbitrary choice of transformations.
Final, final point: For a sequence of window lengths, simply loop over the entire code block for each window length.
I have managed to produce a solution, which only uses basic functions within MATLAB and can also be expanded to include other functions, (for finance: e.g. a moving Sharpe Ratio, or a moving Sortino Ratio). The code below shows this and contains hopefully sufficient commentary.
I am using a time series of Hedge Fund data, with ca. 10 years worth of daily returns (which were checked to be stationary - not shown in the code). Unfortunately I haven't got the corresponding dates in the example so the x-axis in the plots would be 'no. of days'.
% start by importing the data you need - here it is a selection out of an
% excel spreadsheet
returnsHF = xlsread('HFRXIndices_Final.xlsx','EquityHedgeMarketNeutral','D1:D2742');
% two years to be used for the moving average. (250 business days in one year)
window = 500;
% create zero-matrices to fill with the MA values at each point in time.
mean_avg = zeros(length(returnsHF)-window,1);
st_dev = zeros(length(returnsHF)-window,1);
skew = zeros(length(returnsHF)-window,1);
kurt = zeros(length(returnsHF)-window,1);
% Now work through the time-series with each of the functions (one can add
% any other functions required), assinging the values to the zero-matrices
for count = window:length(returnsHF)
% This is the most tricky part of the script, the indexing in this section
% The TwoYearReturn is what is shifted along one period at a time with the
% for-loop.
TwoYearReturn = returnsHF(count-window+1:count);
mean_avg(count-window+1) = mean(TwoYearReturn);
st_dev(count-window+1) = std(TwoYearReturn);
skew(count-window+1) = skewness(TwoYearReturn);
kurt(count-window +1) = kurtosis(TwoYearReturn);
end
% Plot the MAs
subplot(4,1,1), plot(mean_avg)
title('2yr mean')
subplot(4,1,2), plot(st_dev)
title('2yr stdv')
subplot(4,1,3), plot(skew)
title('2yr skewness')
subplot(4,1,4), plot(kurt)
title('2yr kurtosis')

Is there any way to add perturbation to a variable in Matlab?

I have a 101x82 size matrix called A. I am trying to minimize an objective function obj_fun, whose value is computed indirectly using A.
Now in order to minimize this objective function obj_fun, I need to perturb the values of A. I want to check if obj_fun is going down in values or not. If not, then I need to do perturb/change values of A to a certain percentage such that it minimizes obj_fun. Keep on perturbing/changing values of A until we get minimum obj_fun. My average value of A before any perturbation is ~ 1.1529e+003.
Does any one have suggestion how can I do this? Also, I care a bit about speed i.e. the method/algorithm should not be too slow. Thanks.
You can add random Gaussian noise to A:
A = 0; % seed value for A with something more interesting than 0
best = obj_fun(A);
for iter = 1:max_iter % max_iter should be the maximum number of iterations
newA = A + normrnd(0, 1, size(A));
newObj = obj_fun(A);
if( newObj < best )
best = newObj;
A = newA;
end
end