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…
Category: Python
General, Python
Lego and developing production code
by Saeed Amen •
When I was a kid, my favourite toy was Lego. The fun part was that you could always make something new, once you got bored of whatever you were making. Often, I’d never really plan on what I was going to build. The end result was usually a mess, but that’s probably the point of…
Foreign Exchange, General, Python, TCA
Learn now, rather than later
by Saeed Amen •
I visited Paris several months ago before Christmas. I had been there many times. Despite that, I had never visited Notre-Dame. There was always some excuse why I hadn’t gone. Too far. Too near. Takes time. And so on. However, finally on this last trip I did take the time to visit. It was truly…
Data, General, Python
Build or buy for quant tools
by Saeed Amen •
It’s always tempting to do everything yourself. After all, it’s easy to think I know best. I once tried to make macarons. Once my uneven mess of macarons emerged from the oven, I had a much better understanding of what motivated people to buy macarons from Pierre Hermes. Subsequent attempts at baking them proved more…
Data, Foreign Exchange, General, Python
How to collect market tick data
by Saeed Amen •
A lunch break is probably more of a necessity from a break perspective than anything else. You could make the “break” aspect as short as possible, by getting a ready made takeaway. However, that kind of negates the whole break aspect of it all. I end up going through various cycles of what I have…
Data, General, Python
A few ideas from natural language processing
by Saeed Amen •
We’re all smarter than computers! One area where we have a particular advantage is understanding human language. For computers, human language is, perhaps (excuse the pun) somewhat inhumane. After all, computers like numbers. Humans (well, some of us) also like numbers, but to communicate, unsurprisingly, we stick to using human language. It’s sheer ambiguity is…
General, Python
Is coding in Python useful for traders?
by Saeed Amen •
Years ago, coding was not seen as a necessary universal skill in banks. The people who coded in banks, were developers. On a trading desk, unless you were one of those quants pricing exotic options or working in electronic trading, it was likely that Excel was your main analytic tool of choice. However, today, it…
Data, Foreign Exchange, Python, TCA
Reducing TCA maintenance costs
by Saeed Amen •
I love cars. I always have. The cost of a car is never purely the sticker price in the showroom. Of course there’s the cost of petrol. Despite being wrought of steel, cars have a decidedly human quality, going wrong. The stealth cost is related to that very specific human element of cars, the maintenance…
General, Python
The more you code, the less you know
by Saeed Amen •
I try to avoid cliches. They are just lazy ways to express ideas. Sometimes, however, I must confess laziness gets the better of me and I end up using a cliche. Somehow, even the lazy use of a cliche can actually seem appropriate. Music just strikes a chord, is a both a cliche and a…
Data, General, Python, TCA
Storing time series data
by Saeed Amen •
As regular readers of my posts may have realised, I kind of like burgers. It’s a simple meal, but somehow very satisfying. There’s obviously vast differences between the burgers on sale, in terms of quality. It isn’t necessarily the case that the most expensive burger will be best. In practice, excessively expensive burgers, end up…