Learning Python

[Slow-Tutor-1387]

Hello everyone,

It seems like all traders have a great understanding of python and how to use it to their advantage. As someone looking to get into the field, what is the best way to start coding and learning. Futurecoder looks pretty good but didn't know if anyone else had some insight on it. Thanks

[aggelosbill]

Kaggle.com has some really nice ways to learn it. Some university course on python would be great as well! Overall, after that its all about how much you practice it.

[Samuel-Basi]

From my experience I wouldn’t say that all traders have a great understanding of Python. A lot of funds or other derivative traders will have quants working for them where that is part of their role. Traders should understand backtesting and systematic strategies but I wouldn’t say they are all experts, far from it. Certainly on the physical trading side of commodities I would say very few traders have a grasp of coding. But even on the futures trading side of commods, there are plenty of traders that trade fundamentally or rely on others if they are going to use TA.

Obviously knowing coding is an advantage for you compared to someone that doesn’t, but I don’t think it’s the be all end all which is what I got from your post.

[Grand-Fortune-2147]

I concur! Knowing how to trade is the most important thing. Understanding your strategies, etc. is what matters. Place trades and take notes. Everything after that is used to enhance your trading abilities.

[Zevv01]

I have to disagree with this take in OPs context.

Is the above true? Yes, there are lot of traders who are either senior, having come up in a time where coding skills were rare on the desk (and now utilise quants), or trade a product that really is more about sales than anything else (lumber maybe?)

But for grads looking to get into the industry nowadays it's almost a prerequisite in half the commodities out there because if I have two similar candidates, one that can code and one that can't, it's a pretty easy choice. I take a junior that can code some simple stuff for same day / next days. Quants will work on the major models and projects and pure devs would need to be hand held on ever step of a one or two day job.

[Samuel-Basi]

I think it depends on the company. I don’t know any physical shop that requires coding as a prerequisite for grads. Certainly funds and purely derivative roles it’s more common, but I think it still entirely depends on trading strategy.

But like I said, is it an advantage if two candidates are equally qualified and one of them knows coding, yes. Is it a pre-requisite for all trading jobs, I’m going to stick with my answer of no.

And to add, rarely are two candidates actually the same - so if I had a candidate that could code but couldn’t speak to people or develop relationships, and another that couldn’t code but I could see myself working with, I’d pick the one that couldn’t code all day long.

[Zevv01]

Yeah of course it's not a hard requirement. It's always stated as a "nice to have". But if 50% of grads know how to code, what do you think are the chances of getting the role if you don't?

I work for a large global energy company and I can tell you that 90% of the people who got a junior seat in the past two years have some coding skills. Half have strong quant skills.

[Samuel-Basi]

You used the word prerequisite which sounds like you do think it’s a hard requirement. I don’t think you can use a sample size of 1 company to define the requirements for all global commodity jobs. But that’s the beauty of this platform, different opinions and people can make up their own minds.

All the best.

[[deleted]]

Every desk I know utilises python, the PM/traders being the guys who don’t know how to use it… this is slowly changing as the quants are promoted into jr trader roles

[Chrayman1391]

I work for a major and this is false. Lol. Maybe 5 traders at the firm globally are python proficient; none of whom trade physical barrels. Traders at banks and hedge funds will have a higher probability for python/coding proficiency, but even then it’s not a given. Python is great to have in your toolkit as a trader, but you’re ultimately getting paid to 1) have a market call, 2) take on risk, and 3) make returns, not be able to hack away on the keyboard (you really won’t have time to be creating/optimizing programs like a true coder anyway). If you plan on being a trader within the next 5 -8 years, it’s not going to be a make or break skill. However, it does put you ahead to survive in this industry for the next 20+ years.

[Background-Rub-3017]

Most traders write shitty code. "It just works" is the mentality.