You can use python or any other language to do algo trading. I chose python since it is simple and easy and has lot of support from different libraries both for trading and got automating the trading.
Unless you are doing high frequency trading where millisecond execution can make a difference everything can be handled by python.
For example some of my automation send the order within 3-5 seconds and I am very happy with that. I use python programs scanning 3000+ stocks and getting results in under 10 seconds – in python. Sp python is fast enough for 90% of the uses cases.
So unless you are a hedge fund or an investment bank focused on market making and holding your trades for less than a minute you should be good with using python.
But before we dive into the resources I recommend remember this for learning any programmaing language or for learning anything:
Another learning tip: You do not need to read all the books and courses cover to cover. You need to be at introductory level of python and then rest ChatGPT or your favorite LLM can do the heavy lifting. So read the books and and do the courses as needed and try to implement it ASAP
Python Courses
100 days of code by Dr Angela Yu
First 25-30 days of the video are most relevant to learning coding in python and working with APIs.
Python Best Practice: Learn to write clean python code by Estefania
Not needed but good to know
Python Books
I use these books as a reference, but the Udemy courses is more than enough.
- Fluent Python
- Python for Algorithmic Trading: From Idea to Cloud Deployment
- Machine Learning for Algorithmic Trading: Predictive models to extract signals from market and alternative data for systematic trading strategies with Python
- This is a huge book…I have read few chapters here and there as needed. My mistake was getting this as my first python book, and I got demotivated that 90% of the material went over my head. This is very dense but you on need to understand the parts if you are following that strategy
- Also good for idea generation
- https://github.com/stefan-jansen/machine-learning-for-trading (GITHUB code page)
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/1601.00991 (101 formulaic alphas)
- Effective Python: 90 Specific Ways to Write Better Python