Question

Sorry that this question became so big. I started out with a simply question in mind. I have historical quote data. I want to do a simulation of a trading agents and an orderbook agent reacting to the data and each other. Can I use an another agent to control the flow of events so that the first two agents don't have a chance to react to event sooner than they would have in R/T. - But that seemed too vague so I went through

  1. Wall of text (TL:DR)
  2. Two short paragraphs (no one knew what I was asking because there was no question)
  3. Posted my incorrect code and more detail -> too long and too vague again

But when I look at it, I was really still just asking "How do you do this?" which really is not the right format for SO. As Daniel pointed out that is too broad a question, In the end, Phil's hint and a good night sleep allowed me to come up with a solution which I have included below. Hopefully, other will get some benefit from it. I'm still not happy with my approach, but I think I Code Review is a better place to post in regards to that.

Also, thank you to the SO F# community for not voting down my meager rep into oblivion!

open System
open System.IO

let src = __SOURCE_DIRECTORY__
let myPath = Path.Combine(src, "Test_data.txt")

// Create some test data
let makeTestDataFile path lineCount = 
    let now = System.DateTime.Now 
    File.WriteAllLines(path,
     seq { for i in 1 .. lineCount do
           let dt = now.AddSeconds(float i) 
           yield sprintf "%s,%d" (dt.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss.fff tt")) i }) 

makeTestDataFile myPath 10

Thanks to Phil I arrived at a working prototype:

type MsgType = 
        | HistEvent  of DateTime * float
        | AgentEvent of DateTime * float

type DataPoint = {time:DateTime; value:float}

type Agent<'T> = MailboxProcessor<'T>

type EventTrafficAgent () = 

        let event = new Event<DataPoint>()

        let agent = Agent.Start(fun inbox ->
            let rec loop eventQue now () = async {
                let! msg = inbox.Receive()
                // use some form of que managment to decide
                let updatedQue =  
                    match msg with
                    | HistEvent (dt, v) -> 
                        let now = max now dt // log most recent date

                        // check if there are any pending events that can now be sent
                        // if so, send and remove
                        let updatedQue = 
                            eventQue
                            |> List.filter(fun e ->
                                            if e.time <= now then
                                                event.Trigger(e)
                                                let now = e.time 
                                                printfn "\tDequeing & Sending delayed event: {time = %s, value %f}" (e.time.ToString("mm:ss.fff")) e.value
                                                false
                                            else  
                                                true)

                        // just send the historical event as these are never delayed
                        event.Trigger({time = dt; value = v})
                        updatedQue

                    | AgentEvent (dt, v) -> 

                        let tm = dt.AddSeconds(1.5) // time with lag added i.e. "intended time of arrival"
                        let cacheIt = tm >= now

                        // return an updated list of cached orders
                        (if cacheIt then
                            printfn "\tAdding to delayed que: {time = %s, value %f}" (tm.ToString("mm:ss.fff")) v
                            {time = tm; value=v} :: eventQue
                         else 
                            printfn "\tJust sending without delay: {time = %s, value %f}" (tm.ToString("mm:ss.fff")) v
                            event.Trigger({time = tm; value = v})
                            eventQue)

                return! loop updatedQue now () 
                }
            loop  List.empty<DataPoint> DateTime.MinValue () )

        member x.Post  msg = agent.Post msg
        member x.EventProduced = event.Publish  

type OrderBookAgent () =

    let event = new Event<DataPoint>()
    let agent = Agent.Start(fun inbox ->
        let rec loop () = async {
            let! (msg:DataPoint) = inbox.Receive()
            if msg.value = 42. then event.Trigger({time = msg.time; value = 99.})
            return! loop  () 
            }
        loop () )

    member x.Post msg = agent.Post msg
    member x.Publish = event.Publish 

type TradingAgent () =

    let event = new Event<DataPoint>()
    let agent = Agent.Start(fun inbox ->
        let rec loop () = async {
            let! (msg:DataPoint) = inbox.Receive()
            if msg.value = 7. then event.Trigger({time = msg.time; value = 42.})
            return! loop  () 
            }
        loop () )

    member x.Post msg = agent.Post msg
    member x.Publish = event.Publish 


type StreamData(filePath, eventMgr:EventTrafficAgent) =

    let sr = new StreamReader ((filePath:string))

    member x.Reply() =
        async { while not sr.EndOfStream do
                 let line =  sr.ReadLine () 
                 let dtVal = line.Split(char(","))
                 let time =DateTime.Parse (dtVal.[0]) 
                 let value = Double.Parse(dtVal.[1]) 
                 do! Async.Sleep(250) // here to allow you to see it ticking by. set to 1 for full speed
                 do eventMgr.Post (HistEvent(time, value))}
        |> Async.StartImmediate

let eventCop  = new EventTrafficAgent()
let orderBook = new OrderBookAgent()
let tradeBot  = new TradingAgent()


eventCop.EventProduced.Add(fun e -> printfn "event Cop publishing {time = %s, value %3f}" (e.time.ToString("mm:ss.fff")) e.value)
eventCop.EventProduced.Add(fun e -> orderBook.Post e )
eventCop.EventProduced.Add(fun e -> tradeBot.Post e )

orderBook.Publish.Add(fun e -> eventCop.Post  (AgentEvent( e.time, e.value)) )
tradeBot.Publish.Add(fun  e -> eventCop.Post  (AgentEvent( e.time, e.value)) )

let stream = StreamData(myPath, eventCop )

do stream.Reply()

The output is

event Cop publishing {time = 26:23.265, value 3.000000}
event Cop publishing {time = 26:24.265, value 4.000000}
event Cop publishing {time = 26:25.265, value 5.000000}
event Cop publishing {time = 26:26.265, value 6.000000}
event Cop publishing {time = 26:27.265, value 7.000000}
    Adding to delayed que: {time = 26:28.765, value 42.000000}
event Cop publishing {time = 26:28.265, value 8.000000}
event Cop publishing {time = 26:28.765, value 42.000000}
    Dequeing & Sending delayed event: {time = 26:28.765, value 42.000000}
event Cop publishing {time = 26:29.265, value 9.000000}
    Adding to delayed que: {time = 26:30.265, value 99.000000}
event Cop publishing {time = 26:30.265, value 99.000000}
    Dequeing & Sending delayed event: {time = 26:30.265, value 99.000000}
event Cop publishing {time = 26:30.265, value 10.000000}

I guess the only remaining question I have is would it be better to use something like AsyncSeq<'T> to suck in the data to the event mgr rather than push it in as I am doing now.

Was it helpful?

Solution

Not a bad first attempt, I think you're almost there, one thing that stands out is loop should be defined as a function, i.e.

let rec loop () = async {
             ^^

and calls to loop should be using unit as a parameter, i.e.

   do! loop ()
            ^^
   }
loop () )
     ^^

finally I'd recommend using return! over do! for recursion, i.e.

   return! loop ()
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