I've read some great books from Packt, this wasn't really one of them. When the first thread was on HN, I got excited because I love Python and had been looking into starting some investments. Namely, I want to implement a low-risk, low-frequency automated trade strategy. Naively, I assumed this book would be for people who knew Python and were interested in learning finance, but it was the opposite. A lot of concepts were thrown out there with little to no explanation. I gave up reading it until I actually know finance, and can use it as a cookbook.
The code in the book is also shoddy. I don't have it with me, but two examples come to mind. I didn't run any of the examples, but eyeballing them I some of them wouldn't run because of syntax errors -- rather unfortunate for a beginner's text. The section of naming conventions. To write a program using a financial expression like P(1+r)n (exponential growth/decay), the book recommends against using confusing variables like p... in favor of P. P stands for Principal in this case, and I doubt many of you knew that off hand.
For those looking to do finance in Python, I recommend looking into QuantLib[1]. I'm also watching a series of videos from the University of Michigan's online Intro to Finance class on YouTube[2]; however I realized a few days ago that they're probably pirated. That makes me feel bad, but its still a good reference.
If any quants on HN have some better book recs, they would be strongly appreciated.
Edited to add; To be fair, I haven't really touched the section on Monte Carlo simulations, which seems to be the bulk of the value.
Comments
I've read some great books from Packt, this wasn't really one of them. When the first thread was on HN, I got excited because I love Python and had been looking into starting some investments. Namely, I want to implement a low-risk, low-frequency automated trade strategy. Naively, I assumed this book would be for people who knew Python and were interested in learning finance, but it was the opposite. A lot of concepts were thrown out there with little to no explanation. I gave up reading it until I actually know finance, and can use it as a cookbook.
The code in the book is also shoddy. I don't have it with me, but two examples come to mind. I didn't run any of the examples, but eyeballing them I some of them wouldn't run because of syntax errors -- rather unfortunate for a beginner's text. The section of naming conventions. To write a program using a financial expression like P(1+r)n (exponential growth/decay), the book recommends against using confusing variables like p... in favor of P. P stands for Principal in this case, and I doubt many of you knew that off hand.
For those looking to do finance in Python, I recommend looking into QuantLib[1]. I'm also watching a series of videos from the University of Michigan's online Intro to Finance class on YouTube[2]; however I realized a few days ago that they're probably pirated. That makes me feel bad, but its still a good reference.
If any quants on HN have some better book recs, they would be strongly appreciated.
Edited to add; To be fair, I haven't really touched the section on Monte Carlo simulations, which seems to be the bulk of the value.
[1] quantlib.org
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQeZqn-8yM8&list=PL07D40483B...