The Python Podcast.__init__

The Python Podcast.__init__



The podcast about Python and the people who make it great


17 June 2019

Algorithmic Trading In Python Using Open Tools And Open Data - E216

Rewind 10 seconds
1X
Skip 30 seconds ahead
0:00/0:00

Share on social media:


Summary

Algorithmic trading is a field that has grown in recent years due to the availability of cheap computing and platforms that grant access to historical financial data. QuantConnect is a business that has focused on community engagement and open data access to grant opportunities for learning and growth to their users. In this episode CEO Jared Broad and senior engineer Alex Catarino explain how they have built an open source engine for testing and running algorithmic trading strategies in multiple languages, the challenges of collecting and serving currrent and historical financial data, and how they provide training and opportunity to their community members. If you are curious about the financial industry and want to try it out for yourself then be sure to listen to this episode and experiment with the QuantConnect platform for free.

Announcements

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • When you’re ready to launch your next app or want to try a project you hear about on the show, you’ll need somewhere to deploy it, so take a look at our friends over at Linode. With 200 Gbit/s private networking, scalable shared block storage, node balancers, and a 40 Gbit/s public network, all controlled by a brand new API you’ve got everything you need to scale up. And for your tasks that need fast computation, such as training machine learning models, they just launched dedicated CPU instances. Go to pythonpodcast.com/linode to get a $20 credit and launch a new server in under a minute. And don’t forget to thank them for their continued support of this show!
  • And to keep track of how your team is progressing on building new features and squashing bugs, you need a project management system designed by software engineers, for software engineers. Clubhouse lets you craft a workflow that fits your style, including per-team tasks, cross-project epics, a large suite of pre-built integrations, and a simple API for crafting your own. With such an intuitive tool it’s easy to make sure that everyone in the business is on the same page. Podcast.init listeners get 2 months free on any plan by going to pythonpodcast.com/clubhouse today and signing up for a trial.
  • You listen to this show to learn and stay up to date with the ways that Python is being used, including the latest in machine learning and data analysis. For even more opportunities to meet, listen, and learn from your peers you don’t want to miss out on this year’s conference season. We have partnered with organizations such as O’Reilly Media, Dataversity, and the Open Data Science Conference. Coming up this fall is the combined events of Graphorum and the Data Architecture Summit. The agendas have been announced and super early bird registration for up to $300 off is available until July 26th, with early bird pricing for up to $200 off through August 30th. Use the code BNLLC to get an additional 10% off any pass when you register. Go to pythonpodcast.com/conferences to learn more and take advantage of our partner discounts when you register.
  • The Python Software Foundation is the lifeblood of the community, supporting all of us who want to run workshops and conferences, run development sprints or meetups, and ensuring that PyCon is a success every year. They have extended the deadline for their 2019 fundraiser until June 30th and they need help to make sure they reach their goal. Go to pythonpodcast.com/psf today to make a donation. If you’re listening to this after June 30th of 2019 then consider making a donation anyway!
  • Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the newsletter, and read the show notes. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions I would love to hear them. You can reach me on Twitter at @Podcast__init__ or email hosts@podcastinit.com)
  • To help other people find the show please leave a review on iTunes and tell your friends and co-workers
  • Join the community in the new Zulip chat workspace at pythonpodcast.com/chat
  • Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Jared Broad and Alex Catarino about QuantConnect, a platform for building and testing algorithmic trading strategies on open data and cloud resources

Interview

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python?
  • Can you start by explaining what QuantConnect is and how the business got started?
  • What is your mission for the company?
  • I know that there are a few other entrants in this market. Can you briefly outline how you compare to the other platforms and maybe characterize the state of the industry?
  • What are the main ways that you and your customers use Python?
  • For someone who is new to the space can you talk through what is involved in writing and testing a trading algorithm?
  • Can you talk through how QuantConnect itself is architected and some of the products and components that comprise your overall platform?
  • I noticed that your trading engine is open source. What was your motivation for making that freely available and how has it influenced your design and development of the project?
  • I know that the core product is built in C# and offers a bridge to Python. Can you talk through how that is implemented?
    • How do you address latency and performance when bridging those two runtimes given the time sensitivity of the problem domain?
  • What are the benefits of using Python for algorithmic trading and what are its shortcomings?
    • How useful and practical are machine learning techniques in this domain?
  • Can you also talk through what Alpha Streams is, including what makes it unique and how it benefits the users of your platform?
  • I appreciate the work that you are doing to foster a community around your platform. What are your strategies for building and supporting that interaction and how does it play into your product design?
  • What are the categories of users who tend to join and engage with your community?
  • What are some of the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected tactics that you have seen your users employ?
  • For someone who is interested in getting started on QuantConnect what is the onboarding process like?
    • What are some resources that you would recommend for someone who is interested in digging deeper into this domain?
  • What are the trends in quantitative finance and algorithmic trading that you find most exciting and most concerning?
  • What do you have planned for the future of QuantConnect?

Keep In Touch

Picks

Links

The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA


Share on social media:


Listen in your favorite app:



More options

Here are shows you might like

See show recommendations
Data Engineering Podcast
Tobias Macey
AI Engineering Podcast
Tobias Macey