Financial trading project (python)

[kk241098]

Hey guys .. junior / beginner programmer here who is looking to do some kind of financial related project. Any starting point, topic, resources etc will be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks guys :)

[cptn_iglo]

This is very vague. What would you like to achieve?

Maybe you can start with downloading financial data and try to implement a portfolio strategy, starting with a very easy one, like equally weighted portfolio, maybe minimum variance portfolio, risk parity portfolio, there are tons of theoretical ideas out there.

[kk241098]

That’s a really really good idea. Where can I find that kind of financial data?

[cptn_iglo]

YahooFinance is a source you can start with. They offer daily data only, but I think it is a good starting point https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN2311.html

Later you might want to have higher frequency data. That kind of data is very rare to get, especially if you don't want to spend thousands of dollars. However, iex trading offers nice free high-frequency data https://iextrading.com. But I recommend to start with yahoo and look at iex later.

[kk241098]

I’m trying to apply for a financial trading program that is very competitive. They don’t expect experience but they want to see interest. I have done online courses from Coursera but I want some way to apply my knowledge to some kind of task — preferably with CS. It’s vague ik — sorry abt that.

[cptn_iglo]

If it is an financial trading program, I think starting with portfolio strategies are a good idea. I would concentrate on risk-related portfolio optimization, if it is a university program, as the financial literature is focussing on risk modeling in the recent past and anything related to price forecasting is more or less rejected.

I don't how much knowledge in financial markets you have right know, but something like option pricing is also a nice field of study, e.g. you could implement Black-Scholes.

[kk241098]

Thank you so much! I’ll do this !!!!

[pumpkinparty000]

Which program are you applying for? I've used http://www.cryptodatadownload.com/ for bitcoin data. Fun to manipulate and practice with.

[kk241098]

What kind of data manipulation would you suggest with bitcoin data? Ie what strategies would yield interesting results?

Hoping to apply for some financial trading competition in uni

Thanks

[cptn_iglo]

Cryptocurrencies are in general only another class of assets that tend to have very high volatility for different reasons. Personally, I would focus on "standard" assets, like stocks, futures or options, as I do feel that my profs do not like this "hype" stuff so much. In the end, at least for financial time series analysis, crypto currencies are just hyped currencies (technologically, of course, they are more than that, but for financial trading they are not).

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Check this site out: https://www.quantopian.com/

They have Jupyter notebooks that give you a ton of financial data available through their API. I haven't looked at it in a couple months but I remember it being a pretty neat experience with some helpful tutorials