Stock Market Trading with ML & AI Series - Tools of the Trade II

In my last post in the stock market trading series, we established that the python programming language is the way to go. Now we'll describe two tools within the python ecosystem that will be crucial to building our automated trading algorithm - anaconda and a suitable integrated development environment (IDE). Each of these tools have been linked with their respective documentation and the ardent reader is advised to spend some time (if you are unfamiliar with them) studying these tools before we jump in to writing codes using them.

Anaconda

Think of Anaconda as the engine that hosts the productivity enhancing tools you need to run your python code effectively and efficiently. Click on the link above and go ahead to follow the instructions to install the anaconda navigator on your computer (different installations for windows, mac, Linux etc.). Once installed, you can start up anaconda from the main menu and it should look like something like the below figure.

There are so many sub modules within anaconda's home page but for now, we'll only be interested in installing the IDE's you are interested in using which leads to the next tool.

Choice of IDE

There are only 3 IDE's on the anaconda home page that I recommend for now, especially if you are new to python or not an expert programmer. These 3 IDE's include PyCharm, Spyder and Jupyter Notebook. Each of these 3 IDE's are perfect for beginners but the best for rapid prototyping (which we'll need to do as we build our ML/AI based trading algorithm) is the Jupyter Notebook. So just go ahead now and click install under the Jupyter Notebook tab (see below). Once Jupyter Notebook finishes installing, the install button will change to the launch button just like I have in mine.

So that is it for this week. Go ahead and install anaconda and jupyter notebook now (you will thank me later) and be prepared for next week when we deal with another set of tools of the trade. However, if for some reason you can't figure out how to do so, leave me a note on where you are having issues in the comments section and I'll be happy to help.

Thanks for reading and see you next week.

Your's in learning.