Learning Python?

Quantopian's community platform is shutting down. Please read this post for more information and download your code.

Back to Community

Learning Python?

posted Jul 3, 2013

I'm a finance guy who knows visual basic well enough to create lots of macros in Excel (and knew FORTRAN and COBOL ages ago in college), but not Python. I'd like to learn Python well enough to use Quantopian. I'd appreciate suggestions, especially books, on the subject. Thanks.

9 responses

Seconded!

My kids are using the free opensource books at http://inventwithpython.com/

Sam Van Ryssegem

http://learnpythonthehardway.org/

This website is an excellent resource.

I found diveintopython a great intro to python. Now I'm wading through Mark Lutz's "Learning Python" - also very good. Wes McKinley's "Python for Data Analysis" is a must for Quantopian.

Think Python This website has several free books on python that are all downloadable as a PDF or viewable online. Other books of interest include Think Statistics and Think Complexity which uses python for various topics explored.

You may also find ActiveState's Python Recipes useful for some more example code.

The official Python site has good tutorials: http://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/

Vincentius Primaditya

Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science
John M. Zelle

A good book on programming using python as language

http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/python
just started these free tutorials...

You've successfully submitted a support ticket.

Our support team will be in touch soon.

Need help? Contact support.

The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation or endorsement for any security or strategy, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services by Quantopian.

In addition, the material offers no opinion with respect to the suitability of any security or specific investment. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action as none of Quantopian nor any of its affiliates is undertaking to provide investment advice, act as an adviser to any plan or entity subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity, or give advice in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the materials presented herein. If you are an individual retirement or other investor, contact your financial advisor or other fiduciary unrelated to Quantopian about whether any given investment idea, strategy, product or service described herein may be appropriate for your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Quantopian makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the views expressed in the website. The views are subject to change, and may have become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.

About Quantopian

The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation or endorsement for any security or strategy, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services by Quantopian.

In addition, the material offers no opinion with respect to the suitability of any security or specific investment. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action as none of Quantopian nor any of its affiliates is undertaking to provide investment advice, act as an adviser to any plan or entity subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity, or give advice in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the materials presented herein. If you are an individual retirement or other investor, contact your financial advisor or other fiduciary unrelated to Quantopian about whether any given investment idea, strategy, product or service described herein may be appropriate for your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Quantopian makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the views expressed in the website. The views are subject to change, and may have become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.