Last week, I began my article by extolling the virtues of knafa. This week it is the turn of baklawa, another popular Middle Eastern dessert. It’s made in many countries in that region and it varies somewhat depending on the countries. In Turkey, a much larger amount of syrup is used (and possibly honey, Google…
Author: Saeed Amen
Data, General, Python
Making Python come alive with Jupyter
by Saeed Amen •
I’ll admit something about burgers: I do eat other types of food. One of my favourite desserts is knafa. It’s a noodle type pastry made in many parts of the Middle East. I recently visited Istanbul, and I probably consumed more knafa than I’ve had in total for at least a year. In one of…
Data, General, Python
Making Python work with large datasets
by Saeed Amen •
There are only so many things you can keep up in your head at any time. As humans our bandwidth is fairly limited. We simply can’t get everything done. The only way to get large scale stuff done is to work with others. Management is a special skill in itself. There’s a comedy sketch with…
General, Python
Tips for maintaining Python code
by Saeed Amen •
I like making cookies. It’s kind of fun, but it takes a while, mostly because I’m very slow at weighing. I also insist on chopping up at the chocolate chips myself, which takes me ages: I still haven’t got the knack of chopping quickly. There are of course pre-made chocolate chips available, but the quality…
Data, General
Ideas on pricing alternative data
by Saeed Amen •
We all know fizzy drinks are awful. They’re acidic, thanks to all the CO2. They are usually packed with copious amounts of sugar. Your teeth are unlikely to be fans of either carbonic acid or sugar. Fizzy drinks make it very easy to ingest large amounts of sugar very quickly in a few gulps, which…
Data, General
Why banks should monetise their datasets
by Saeed Amen •
The big news in the data world this month has been the merger between LSE and Refinitiv. It is unlikely to be last such tie up, as @jbaksht puts it in a recent tweet below. One obvious reason is that for exchanges, monetising their dataset is becoming an ever more important revenue source. In many…
General
Six years of startup working: the lessons
by Saeed Amen •
It’s been exactly 6 years since I resigned from Nomura, to embark on the path to working in fintech startup life, initially with my main focus being The Thalesians and over the past three years with my full time focus at Cuemacro. On each anniversary that has passed, I’ve found it a good exercise to…
Data, General
Combining alternative datasets to generate alpha
by Saeed Amen •
I’ve got a car, despite the fact that I rarely drive it. There’s that nagging feeling, that I should keep my car, just in case I need it. On those rare occasions I do drive it into London, I end up moaning about all the traffic, and wish I’d taken the Tube. Not only that,…
Foreign Exchange, General, TCA
Cutting the huge costs of eTrading desks with tcapy
by Saeed Amen •
If you read my column, you’ll probably know I like burgers and make any excuse to mention them. Today is no exception! Let’s say that today, I wanted to open a burger joint. Ok, I’m no chef, but I think I can probably make a burger. Rather than simply buying a ready made building to…
Data, General, TCA
Keep your trade data private for TCA
by Saeed Amen •
It’s been a while since I had my first job at Lehman Brothers. It’s all slightly a blur now. For the first few weeks, we rotated around various desks, in a sort of matchmaking exercise to see where we’d get a job. I remember being thoroughly disappointed at not making the cut for the CDO…