Ah. That makes more sense. And yes, you're right. I felt more confused earlier. It seems clear to me now that Python will be a good first choice. Would anyone here happen to have any resources to recommend on how to proceed? It would be nice with some tutoring for once. Some people recommended Udemy to me once and they do seem to have some courses that are fairly cheap. Not sure if they're good though, but they're certainly cheap enough that I can risk figuring out myself.
I use Udemy a lot and it is a good place to start. Typically, Udemy courses don't deep dive into the fine details. But it will get you to learn the most common and useful functions of the language. If you are on a tight budget, wait for a sale before you pay for a course. Udemy sales happen quite regularly, and you can get good courses for as little as $10-$20. I also google for free Python texts.
I'm sure you will find the good books on Amazon, but I found for trading applications the typical beginner books are of limited use. I recommend one good beginner book and then once you can understand documentation get smart on pandas. Maybe Python for Data Analysis(author created pandas), but that is not a good entry level book.
This is a series of short videos in a logical order for the absolute beginner. The style is quite unique, I think it is well produced. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi01XoE8jYohWFPpC17Z-wWhPOSuh8Er- H.
Great stuff, guys. Thanks a lot! Mind me asking what you guys are all using Python and similar for? Automated strategies? Statistics? If it's a business secret, that's of course perfectly okay.
Check out the ACD thread. I use it for scoring. I also use it for various statistics like correlation, variance, price change data. I use it to populate a bunch of excel files for various stock sectors to check out the components and also to compare sectors to each other. Also to track my portfolio volatility target vs actual. In the future I hope to automate some of my trading but I have a LONG way to go there. My next big project will be to create something that updates in real time as a step towards that.
Python is just the language, it's the various modules that do the actual specific work like data analysis, broker connectivity etc. For data analysis Pandas is almost mandatory as it's many many multiples faster than native Python solutions and also has some decent tools for stats. I use Python for all now, from keeping an up to date custom list of equities, getting the data, generating signals and talking to the broker.
My suggestion is both. Some projects are suitable for Python on developing, some are suitable for C++. You will develop more tools that fit your needs if you know both languages. I use C#, Java, C++ on developing trading tools, use R on my statistical analysis, use Excel + VBA on cross market trading and MC on directional trading strategies.