Feature Engineering for Trading ML

Feature engineering is the single highest-leverage activity in building ML trading models. Model selection (XGBoost vs. neural net vs. logistic regression) matters far less than the quality and diversity of input features. A simple model on great features will outperform a complex model on raw prices every time.

This skill covers constructing, validating, and selecting features from market data for use in classification (signal-classification) and regression models targeting crypto/Solana token trading.

Why Features Beat Models

Raw OHLCV data is non-stationary, noisy, and high-dimensional. Models trained directly on price series will overfit. Feature engineering transforms raw data into stationary, informative signals that capture distinct aspects of market behavior:

• Compression: Reduce thousands of price bars to dozens of descriptive statistics
• Stationarity: Convert non-stationary prices into stationary returns and ratios