Stata command execution symbol doesn't move - Frozen?

[Marc Pelow]

Hi,

1.5 days ago I started to run an event study using eventstudy2. The model used is the BHAR model. Considering the amount of events (>2,500) the time it takes to finish may be appropriate. I am also using parallel computing. However, I am a bit worried as the small loading symbol in the bottom right corner doesn't move and seems to be frozen since a couple of hours. Does this indicate that State is frozen and the program won't finish at all?
Thank you

[Jared Greathouse]

Let me tell you as someone who works with similar commands that demand cross-validation/complex machinations: unless Stata issues an error, your command is running perfectly fine. I've met professors in my department who have literally left their office computers running code for days, sometimes weeks, in order for their analyses to finish running. I've never had to do this, but I've left my laptop running overnight under my bed as it sweats through the calculations. Right now, I'm running an analysis as I type this- it's 1pm my time, and I don't imagine it'll be done until 4ish.

The reason it appears to be frozen is because the job eats up lots of computer memory/time (surely I'm simplifying), but my advice to you honestly is... Go binge watch a TV show. Make dinner or lunch, find something else to do, because with 2500 events, you're in this for the long haul, unless of course you decide to kill the job and do an analysis that'll run in a quicker amount of time.

[Thomas Kaspereit]

Dear Marc,

Jared is generally right in saying that some tasks sometimes takes hours or days. That also applies to my command eventstudy2.

The problem I see with Jared's approach is that it sometimes literally could Stata take years to finish a job.

Therefore, I recommend to simply start small on subsamples of 10, 100, 200, 500... events and stop the clock during each run, then plot calculation time on number of events and try to extrapolate to 2500. Then you have a much better idea of how much binge watching you can do in the meantime, and a better feeling that you get your results in time rather than in 2063 with the invention of warp drive.

Please see my 2021 Stata Journal article where I apply this strategy and where you can find useful information on calculation time. Also always keep an eye on RAM in your task manager. If you are hitting the 100% there and it stays there, 2063 would even be an optimistic forecast.
Best
Thomas

[Jared Greathouse]

Admittedly I was partly kidding. I know we all don't have time to wait until 2100 for our jobs to finish, so it's a constant balance. An hour ish might be normal for me, but if that or more is too great for some, we must kill the job and start fresh.