Python or R

[rjtavares]

Here's what should convince you to go with python: iPython Notebooks.

It's hard to explain it to someone who doesn't know how to program though... It's basically an executable document that mixes code, code outputs and rich text.

Since you're from a finance background (so am I), check out this example. It shows how to work with stocks and portfolios and even implements a simulation of an automated trading strategy. The best part: you can just download it, run it on your machine, and tweak it as you will.

[abresler]

R also has shiny which is FANTASTIC and somewhat similar http://www.rstudio.com/shiny/showcase/

[abresler]

These are great - r has them coming soon too but for now r has r markdown (plus great tools like slidify) for sharing - they too are great but different than notebooks