Beginner trying to program

kmiklas said:
Welcome! Who is your broker?

Reason I ask is that broker Application Programming Interface (API) vary by broker. Some are much better suited to programming than others.
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I use BMO Investorline and Scotia iTrade, which don't offer API. But in the future I will most likely move to Interactive Brokers.

At my university, I have access to Bloomberg for my market data.

I did some research, the platforms I can use to code are JAVA, C++, and Python, right? (my personal computer is a Mac)
 
@Robby Luca do you already have some programming knowledge? Unrelated to financial applications, or for trading? If you currently have absolutely zero programming knowledge then I would think that it does not matter much which of those three languages you use to make a start. Initially you should learn some programming, independently of your intended trading application. Once you know the basics of one language you could switch to (or add) a second language which you would either like better, or would be more suitable for your intended trading application.
 
@HobbyTrading No, I have no knowledge on programming. I was gonna start by looking for tutorials to get started and buy a book on the topic. Just wondering what book to get, there's so many. Just looking at the "for dummies" series; coding for dummies, beginning programming for dummies, beginning programming with python for dummies, etc.
 
Robby Luca said:
@HobbyTrading No, I have no knowledge on programming. I was gonna start by looking for tutorials to get started and buy a book on the topic. Just wondering what book to get, there's so many. Just looking at the "for dummies" series; coding for dummies, beginning programming for dummies, beginning programming with python for dummies, etc.
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I have the impression that lately Python is the most popular language to start learning how to program. You can buy a "Python for dummies" kind of book. Or find a YouTube tutorial series and follow that along. Suggestion: search for "sentdex Python" on YouTube. Not by passively watching those video's but typing and running the code yourself. You will most likely find that you get creative based on what is shown and do some experiments with the sample code.
 
Robby Luca said:
I never programmed before, but I am interesting in getting started. The thing is, I have no idea where to start! Being a beginner at this is an understatement. I know I am able to teach myself how to code, but I just want to know in which direction to lean towards.

To begin, is a semi-automated trading system something that can only be used for backtesting? rather than compeltely automated, which means it can be used live? If that's correct then I don't mind only having a semi-automated trading system for the time being.

Secondly, what are the tools required? Free preferably, since I am just learning and practicing. I heard that excel can be used, or maybe there's a simpler software that can be used. Is there a way to backtest for free?
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I suggest you take a beginning college course in SQL, Java, Perl, Basic, C#, C++, Python, PHP, or any other popular computer language. Not everyone has the brain cells to become a programmer. If your IQ is less than about 120, you are unlikely to succeed. Sorry, but that's how it is.
 
Robby Luca said:
@HobbyTrading No, I have no knowledge on programming. I was gonna start by looking for tutorials to get started and buy a book on the topic. Just wondering what book to get, there's so many. Just looking at the "for dummies" series; coding for dummies, beginning programming for dummies, beginning programming with python for dummies, etc.
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There's some good apps you can download that test in specific programming languages. That's where I'd start.

Learn Python by Sololearn is a good one.
 
python is good for beginners. you can even do a "machine learning for trading with python" course for free on udacity after you grasp the basics.

if you want to start with R, datacamp has some courses for trading
 
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