Book Image

Getting Started with Forex Trading Using Python

By : Alex Krishtop
Book Image

Getting Started with Forex Trading Using Python

By: Alex Krishtop

Overview of this book

Algorithm-based trading is a popular choice for Python programmers due to its apparent simplicity. However, very few traders get the results they want, partly because they aren’t able to capture the complexity of the factors that influence the market. Getting Started with Forex Trading Using Python helps you understand the market and build an application that reaps desirable results. The book is a comprehensive guide to everything that is market-related: data, orders, trading venues, and risk. From the programming side, you’ll learn the general architecture of trading applications, systemic risk management, de-facto industry standards such as FIX protocol, and practical examples of using simple Python codes. You’ll gain an understanding of how to connect to data sources and brokers, implement trading logic, and perform realistic tests. Throughout the book, you’ll be encouraged to further study the intricacies of algo trading with the help of code snippets. By the end of this book, you’ll have a deep understanding of the fx market from the perspective of a professional trader. You’ll learn to retrieve market data, clean it, filter it, compress it into various formats, apply trading logic, emulate the execution of orders, and test the trading app before trading live.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Introduction to FX Trading Strategy Development
5
Part 2: General Architecture of a Trading Application and A Detailed Study of Its Components
11
Part 3: Orders, Trading Strategies, and Their Performance
15
Part 4: Strategies, Performance Analysis, and Vistas

Using Python for Trading Strategies

Python has gained a reputation as the language of choice for the development of a wide range of applications in the financial industry and has become a de facto industry standard for the research phase of trading strategy development. However, as with any other language or, better put, programming ecosystem, it has its advantages and disadvantages. So, as with any tool, it is essential to understand its strong and weak points to use the tool properly (not trying to hammer nails with a microscope, so to say).

In this chapter, not only will we consider using Python for algorithmic trading strategy development but we will also learn about the essential steps in the research and development process, discuss the difference between market modeling and event-based trading, and point to the mistakes most typically made in the research and development process. Finally, we will see the limitations of using Python for algo trading so our expectations always...