The Python Podcast.init

By Tobias MaceyTechnology Education

The Python Podcast.init episodes

January 08, 2016Yves Hilpisch on Quantitative Finance
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, join our community Discourse, support the show, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
Yves Hilpisch is a founder of The Python Quants, a consultancy that offers services in the space of quantitative financial analysis. In addition, they have created open source libraries to help with that analysis. In this episode we spoke with him about what quantitative finance is, how Python is used in that domain, and what kinds of knowledge are necessary to do these kinds of analysis.
Brief Introduction
Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or RSS
Follow us on Twitter or Google+
Give us feedback! Leave a review on iTunes, Tweet to us, send us an email or leave us a message on Google+
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
I would also like to thank Hired, a job marketplace for developers, for sponsoring this episode of Podcast.__init__. Use the link hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus to $4,000.
We are recording today on December 30th, 2015 and your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing Yves Hilpisch about Quantitative Finance
On Hired software engineers & designers can get 5+ interview requests in a week and each offer has salary and equity upfront. With full time and contract opportunities available, users can view the offers and accept or reject them before talking to any company. Work with over 2,500 companies from startups to large public companies hailing from 12 major tech hubs in North America and Europe. Hired is totally free for users and If you get a job you’ll get a $2,000 “thank you” bonus. If you use our special link to signup, then that bonus will double to $4,000 when you accept a job. If you’re not looking for a job but know someone who is, you can refer them to Hired and get a $1,337 bonus when they accept a job.
Interview with Yves Hilpisch
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
Can you explain what Quantitative Finance is? – Tobias
How common is it for Python to be used in an investment bank or hedge fund? – Tobias
What factors contribute to the choice of whether or not to use Python in a Quantitative Finance role? – Tobias
Are there any performance bottle necks or other considerations inherent in using Python for quantitative finance? – Chris
What kind of background is necessary for getting started in Quantitative Finance? – Tobias
What kinds of libraries or algorithms in Python are useful for the day-to-day work of a quant? – Tobias
Is Python actually used to enact the trades? What protocols, APis, and libraries are used in this process? – Chris
Could you please walk us through how a simple analysis using DXAnalytics might work? – Chris
You work for a company called ‘The Python Quants‘. What kinds of services do you provide and what kinds of organizations typically hire you? – Tobias
Picks
Tobias
Kraken by China Miéville
Heroes in Training series
Olympians Graphic Novels
Data Elixir Newsletter

Chris
Hill Farmstead – Edward
Long Trail – Brush & Barrel Series – Culmination Chocolate Porter
Long Trail – Spaaaaaace Juice Double IPA
Flask-RESTLess

Yves
The Willpower Instinct
The Way of the Seal
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Python High Performance Computing

Keep In Touch
Twitter
Website
Links
Quandl
Yahoo Finance Market Data
Ravenpack
DX Analytics
DataPark.io
Python for Finance
Derivatives Analytics With Python
Python Quants Conference
Open Source for Quant Finance
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
1 hr 11 min
January 03, 2016 Scott Sanderson on Algorithmic Trading
Because of its easy learning curve and broad extensibility Python has found its way into the realm of algorithmic trading at Quantopian. In this episode we spoke with Scott Sanderson about what algorithmic trading is, how it differs from high frequency trading, and how they leverage Python for empowering everyone to try their hand at it.
1 hr 28 min
January 03, 2016Scott Sanderson on Algorithmic Trading
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
Because of its easy learning curve and broad extensibility Python has found its way into the realm of algorithmic trading at Quantopian. In this episode we spoke with Scott Sanderson about what algorithmic trading is, how it differs from high frequency trading, and how they leverage Python for empowering everyone to try their hand at it.
Brief Introduction
Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or RSS
Follow us on Twitter or Google+
Give us feedback! Leave a review on iTunes, Tweet to us, send us an email or leave us a message on Google+
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
We are recording today on December 16th, 2015 and your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing Scott Sanderson on Algorithmic Trading
Interview with Scott Sanderson
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
Can you explain what algorithmic trading is and how it differs from high frequency trading? – Tobias
What kinds of algorithms and libraries are commonly leveraged for algorithmic trading? – Tobias
Quantopian aims to make algorithmic trading accessible to everyone. What do people need to know in order to get started? Is it necessary to have a background in mathematics or data analysis? – Tobias
Does the Quantopian platform build in any safe guards to prevent user’s algorithms from spiraling out of control and creating or contributing to a market crash? – Chris
How is Python used within Quantopian and when do you leverage other languages? – Tobias
What Pypi packages does Quantopian leverage in its platform? – Chris
How do the financial returns compare between algorithmic vs human trading on the stock market? – Tobias
Can you speak about any trends you see in the trading algorithms people are creating for the Quantopian platform? – Chris
Picks
Tobias
Kinetic Sand
Trivium
Thrift Books

Chris
Threes
Jessica Jones)
Serial

Scott
Dota 2
Philosophical Investigations
Logicomix
Infinite Jest

Keep In Touch
Twitter
Email
GitHub
Links
QGrid
SlickGrid
Jupyter Hub
Light Table
CodeMirror
Cython
PyData NYC Talk by Scott
Blaze
Dask
Theano
TensorFlow
Zipline
Pyfolio
PGContents
SQLAlchemy
Gevent
quantopian.com/lectures
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
1 hr 28 min
December 27, 2015 The PEP Talk
The Python language is built by and for its community. In order to add a new feature, change the specification, or create a new policy the first step is to submit a proposal for consideration. Those proposals are called PEPs, or Python Enhancement Proposals. In this episode we had the great pleasure of speaking with three of the people who act as stewards for this process to learn more about how it got started, how it works, and what impacts it has had.
1 hr 46 min
December 27, 2015The PEP Talk
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
The Python language is built by and for its community. In order to add a new feature, change the specification, or create a new policy the first step is to submit a proposal for consideration. Those proposals are called PEPs, or Python Enhancement Proposals. In this episode we had the great pleasure of speaking with three of the people who act as stewards for this process to learn more about how it got started, how it works, and what impacts it has had.
Brief Introduction
Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or RSS
Follow us on Twitter or Google+
Give us feedback! Leave a review on iTunes, Tweet to us, send us an email or leave us a message on Google+
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
This episode is sponsored by Zato – Microservices, ESB, SOA, REST, API, and Cloud Integrations in Python. Visitzato.io to learn more about how to integrate smarter in the modern world.
I would also like to thank Hired, a job marketplace for developers, for sponsoring this episode of Podcast.__init__. Use the link hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus.
Searching for Pythonistas with Disabilities
We are recording today on December 7th, 2015 and your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing some of the PEP editors
Interview with PEP editors
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
For anyone who isn’t familiar with them, can you explain what a PEP is and how they influence the Python language? – Tobias
What are the requirements for a PEP to be considered for approval and what does the overall process look like to get it finalized? – Tobias
How has the PEP process evolved to meet challenges posed by changes in the Python community? – Chris
How many reviewers are there and how did each of you end up in that role? Is there a set number of editors that must be maintained and if so how did you arrive at that number? – Tobias
What mistakes have other communities made when creating similar processes, and how has PEP learned from those mistakes? – Chris
There are different categories for PEPs. Can you describe what those are and how you arrived at that ontology? – Tobias
Is there any significance to the numbering system used for identifying different PEPs? – Tobias
How does the PEP process maintain its sense of humor (e.g. PEP 20) while being sure to be taken seriously where it really counts? – Chris
Along the lines of humorous PEPs, can you share the story of PEP 401? – Tobias
How does the PEP process strive to prevent an undesirable level of control by any one company or other special interest group? – Chris
How much control does Guido have over the PEP process? Has a PEP ever directly countered Guido’s wishes? How did it turn out? – Chris
What is your favorite PEP and why? – Tobias
Barry: PEP 20
Chris: PEP 479
David: PEP 20

What, in your opinion, has been the most important or far-reaching PEP, whether it was approved or not? – Tobias
David: PEP 20
Chris: PEP 466
Barry: PEP 8

What was the strangest / most extreme PEP proposal you’ve ever seen? – Chris
Chris: PEP 501
Barry: PEP 507
David: PEP 666

Picks
Tobias
Wagtail CMS
Inside Out
Spark Podcast
Hymn for Atheists

Chris
Trumbo
Kivy Crash Course
Jihadology Podcast

Barry
Tox
Nose2
Jessica Jones
The Joy of Science

Chris
The Git Manpage Generator
Daily MTG

David
Tim’s Vermeer
Ready Player One
The Aristocrats
Scientific Songs of Praise
Hollywood Babble On

Keep In Touch
Barry
Blog

Chris
Blog
GitHub

David
Website
Blog

Links
Monty Python – All the Words
Monty Python – On YouTube
PEP 404
PEP 666
Raymond Hettinger PyCon 2015 PEP8 talk
Python Dev Mailing List
Python Ideas Mailing List
Python Bug Mailing List
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
1 hr 46 min
December 20, 2015 Eric Holscher on Documentation and Read The Docs
The first place we all go for learning about new libraries is the documentation. Lack of effective documentation can limit the adoption of an otherwise excellent project. In this episode we spoke with Eric Holscher, co-creator of Read The Docs, about why documentation is important and how we can all work to make it better.
1 hr 6 min
December 20, 2015Eric Holscher on Documentation and Read The Docs
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
The first place we all go for learning about new libraries is the documentation. Lack of effective documentation can limit the adoption of an otherwise excellent project. In this episode we spoke with Eric Holscher, co-creator of Read The Docs, about why documentation is important and how we can all work to make it better.
Brief Introduction
Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or RSS
Follow us on Twitter or Google+
Give us feedback! Leave a review on iTunes, Tweet to us, send us an email or leave us a message on Google+
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
I would also like to thank Hired, a job marketplace for developers, for sponsoring this episode of Podcast.__init__. Use the link hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus.
Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $10 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
We are recording today on November 30th, 2015 and your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing Eric Holscher about Documentation
Use the promo code podcastinit10 to get a $10 credit when you sign up!
On Hired software engineers & designers can get 5+ interview requests in a week and each offer has salary and equity upfront. With full time and contract opportunities available, users can view the offers and accept or reject them before talking to any company. Work with over 2,500 companies from startups to large public companies hailing from 12 major tech hubs in North America and Europe. Hired is totally free for users and If you get a job you’ll get a $2,000 “thank you” bonus. If you use our special link to signup, then that bonus will double to $4,000 when you accept a job. If you’re not looking for a job but know someone who is, you can refer them to Hired and get a $1,337 bonus when they accept a job.
Interview with Eric Holscher
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
You are one of the people behind the Read The Docs project. What was your inspiration for creating that platform and why is documentation so important in software? – Tobias
What makes Read The Docs different from other static sources for documentation? – Chris
The Python community seems to have a stronger focus on well-documented projects than some other languages. Do you have any theories as to why that is the case? – Tobias
Can you outline the landscape of projects that leverage the documentation capabilities that are built in to the Python language? – Tobias
Can you estimate the overall user base for Read The Docs? – Chris
Do you have any advice around methods or approaches that can help developers create and maintain effective documentation? – Tobias
Can you list some projects that you have found to provide the best documentation and what was remarkable about them? – Tobias
Newcomers to open source are often encouraged to submit improvements to a projects documentation as a way to get started and become involved with the community. Do you have any general advice on how to find and understand undocumented features? – Tobias
Do you have any statistics on the languages represented among the projects that host their documentation with you? – Tobias
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced and overcome in maintaining such a large repository of documentation from so many projects? – Chris
How can our listeners contribute to the project? – Chris
Picks
Tobias
The Man from Uncle
Minute Physics

Chris
SigAvdi
Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS
Veritassium

Eric
Khao Soi
Climate Change
Gardening & healthy eating – Classic

Keep In Touch
Twitter
@ericholscher
@readthedocs
@writethedocs

Links
Stripe docs
Django Girls Tutorial
Write The Docs
Write The Docs Meetup Talk
Write The Docs Slack Channel
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
1 hr 6 min
December 12, 2015 Sylvain Thénault on ASTroid
The Python AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) is a powerful abstraction that allows for a number of innovative projects. ASTroid is a library that provides additional convenience methods to simplify working with the AST. In this episode we spoke with Sylvain Thénault from Logilab about his work on ASTroid and how it is used to power the popular PyLint static analysis tool.
48 min
December 12, 2015Sylvain Thénault on ASTroid
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
The Python AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) is a powerful abstraction that allows for a number of innovative projects. ASTroid is a library that provides additional convenience methods to simplify working with the AST. In this episode we spoke with Sylvain Thénault from Logilab about his work on ASTroid and how it is used to power the popular PyLint static analysis tool.
Brief Introduction
Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or RSS
Follow us on Twitter or Google+
Give us feedback! Leave a review on iTunes, Tweet to us, send us an email or leave us a message on Google+
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
I would also like to thank Hired, a job marketplace for developers, for sponsoring this episode of Podcast.__init__. Use the link hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus.
Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $10 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
We are recording today on November 23rd, 2015 and your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing Sylvain Thénault about ASTroid
On Hired software engineers & designers can get 5+ interview requests in a week and each offer has salary and equity upfront. With full time and contract opportunities available, users can view the offers and accept or reject them before talking to any company. Work with over 2,500 companies from startups to large public companies hailing from 12 major tech hubs in North America and Europe. Hired is totally free for users and If you get a job you’ll get a $2,000 “thank you” bonus. If you use our special link to signup, then that bonus will double to $4,000 when you accept a job. If you’re not looking for a job but know someone who is, you can refer them to Hired and get a $1,337 bonus when they accept a job.
Use the promo code podcastinit10 to get a $10 credit when you sign up!
Interview with Sylvain Thénault
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
Can you explain what an Abstract Syntax Tree is and why it is a useful language feature? – Tobias
What was your inspiration for creating ASTroid? – Chris
What features does ASTroid offer over Python’s standard AST package, and what makes those features important? – Chris
I know that the ASTroid package is used in Pylint which is also maintained by Logilab. How does the AST facilitate static analysis of Python projects and are there cases where you have to fall back to text parsing? – Tobias
Beyond static analysis, what are some of the other possible uses for the Python AST? – Tobias
The documentation for the AST package in Python mentions that the specific syntax objects in the tree are subject to change between releases. Does the ASTroid package provide any abstractions to maintain a consistent API between versions or does it just provide a pass-through? – Tobias
Have you encountered any challenges in testing ASTroid given that it operates at such a low level in the language? – Chris
Do you have trouble attracting contributors given the great understanding of Python’s inner working required? – Chris
Does the implementation or representation of the AST differ between different distributions of Python such as CPython, PyPy and Jython? – Tobias
What are some of the most interesting applications ASTroid has been used in? – Chris
Picks
Tobias
Pre-Commit
Existential Comics
htmlPy

Chris
Pretty Things – Fluffy White Rabbits
Fallout 4

Sylvain
PyReverse
CubicWeb

Keep In Touch
Code Quality Mailing List
PyLint Dev Mailing List
Twitter
@sythenault
@logilab

Logilab

Links
Visitor pattern
Pylint
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
48 min
December 04, 2015 Stuart Mumford on SunPy
What is Solar Physics? How does it differ from AstroPhysics? What does this all have to do with Python? In this episode we answer all of those questions when we interview Stuart Mumford about his work on SunPy. So put on your sunglasses and learn about how to use Python to decipher the secrets of our closest star.
41 min