Introduction to Python in Trading | Beginners Guide | Quantra Course

Welcome to the section on the basics of Python. If you are familiar with Python and pandas dataframe, then you can skip this section, otherwise, you can start from here.

Let's start with a question of why we choose Python over other available programming languages.
Python is a free, open-source, and cross-platform language, which has a rich library for almost every task imaginable and a specialized research environment.
Python is very easy to learn. It is almost like reading English language, and provides simple and efficient handling of data structures.
It is an excellent choice for automated trading when the trading frequency is low to medium, and for trades which do not last less than a few seconds.
It has multiple APIs and libraries that can be linked to make it optimal, and allow greater exploratory development of multiple trade ideas.

However, there are a couple of things you need to know about Python, which can affect its efficiency.
In Python, every variable is treated as an object, which means Python's variables are almost three times the size of their counterparts from other languages like C.

If you are storing millions of values from large datasets and not managing memory carefully, it will lead to slow execution. Even though the availability oF multiple third-party libraries and packages makes tasks easier, it might also slow down the processes.
So you have to be careful while using third party packages, and efficiently manage memory to take full advantage of what Python as a complete package has to offer.
However, all said, Python is one of the best programming languages for coding intraday trading strategies on the timescale of minutes and above.
On this note, let's start learning Python.

Quantra is an online education portal that specializes in Algorithmic and Quantitative trading. Quantra offers various bite-sized, self-paced and interactive courses that are perfect for busy professionals, seeking implementable knowledge in this domain.