AIDST has quickly established itself as one of the most important finance based data science conferences in the calendar. I recently attended and presented at the recent AIDST London event in September. The conference featured a mixture of both high-level talks and also more technical sessions. The conference began with a presentation from Manoj Saxena,…
Category: General
Data, General
Value from your internal data
by Saeed Amen •
Going on holiday is fun! As the cliche goes, there are so many places to see. However, in practice, we all end up going to relatively similar places, which are likely easier to get to. If you’re visiting a place, which your friends have been to, my guess is you’ll probably ask them for tips…
Foreign Exchange, General, TCA
Get FX TCA for a one off transparent cost
by Saeed Amen •
Nostalgia. Ah yes, things were always better before. Well, sometimes, but perhaps not always. The key thing which was different in the past, is of course us: we were younger. Perhaps a yearning for past isn’t so much for a world that existed before, but for our younger selves? When it comes to markets,…
Data, General, Python
Your data science stack & baklawa
by Saeed Amen •
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…
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…