Learning Excel VBA on my own to prepare for Trading career...

I am from a non-target school with just a 3.5 GPA double-majoring in Applied Math and Finance and really want to find a way to break into trading. I've been getting back in touch with contacts I made last fall/winter before I went abroad and doing that usual networking, but I wanted to take it a step farther to show my dedication to the field. I had an accounting internship previously and currently have a wealth management internship, but have never used VBA in the office. Excel VBA is clearly essential to working as a trader so I wanted to try and learn it on my own so I can put it as a proficiency on my resume and get more on par with the target-school kids who have had BB internships, or at least putt myself ahead of kids who have the same experience as me but are not as dedicated.

Obviously I've YouTubed and Google searched and such, but it's pretty hard to find an explanation/example of how it is used in the world of trading. Yes the actual methods traders at each firm use are probably firm-specific and well-protected, but I'm looking for at least general examples so I can try to develop code myself to my liking. I have had some experience writing Java C++ (just one class in college) and am a math major, so have a very solid idea of coding logic, but need to learn the syntax/subtleties of VBA.

Please let me know if you know of any specific videos I could follow along with to learn coding on my own, or if there is a really good trading-specific site with examples on it. Or most likely if you know of any reasonably-priced (maybe $50-100?) self-teaching guide that is trading-specific (or at least related) that would be excellent to know. I have the passion and the talent I just need to fill in the gaps to let employers know I have it.

 

Not familiar with any trading-specific guide, though I purchased the Excel 2010 Power Programming with VBA guide by John Walkenbach when I was learning VBA. It was excellent and walked me through the object map very well. I learned VBA through that book and posting on a few VBA forums with specific project questions. Took me about 2 months of 3hours/week to get decent at it.

 

I told our intern that he should audit a VBA course if his school offers it. I dont know VBA but it would make my job easier and I would be able to use bloomberg to its complete capability.

"Oh the ladies ever tell you that you look like a fucking optical illusion" - Frank Slaughtery 25th Hour.
 

get a VBA for dummies book and start running through the lessons. then, the best way to learn more is working on projects and searching forums for help with specific road blocks you run into. create trading models for yourself. if you have access to bloomberg, practice pulling in data and running regressions. if you don't have access to bloomberg, practice using the interactive brokers API. The demo is free and a personal account is reasonably priced.

best way to get good is with repetition...

-- sm
 

Not really useful for Sales, but you never know.

To the OP, do not try to learn VBA for Trading before learning VBA. I remember I tried some of the books that apply VBA to trading and you will not learn much.

The best way is to go through Walkenback Power Programming. Its very basic which is good. A lot of the details wont stick but that is ok, you are not going through it to memorize it. What it does give you is an idea of what is possible with VBA, and how to start going about it. Then when you have a project you can say, ok to get the final result I will need to combine this and this. Then with the help of google you can easily come up with workable code that you can tailor. It takes a lot of time to start being able to just sit down and write code. The most important part is that you can figure out which pieces of vba you need to combine to solve the project you are working on.

 
derivstrading:
It takes a lot of time to start being able to just sit down and write code. The most important part is that you can figure out which pieces of vba you need to combine to solve the project you are working on.

Yeah I know some basic C++ and am an applied math major so I have taken classes from logical set/array construction and algorithmic functions to matrix encryption and Markov chains (in lamens terms the best way to quickly explain this is that markov chains are how they determine the probability of landing on any one space in a board game from any other space...they are also used to determine bull/bear/neutral markets in some instances from what I read on the internet). It is more about converting my C++, Mathematica and SAS knowledge to VBA.

I do agree with you I will have to do some basics first is, I guess I'll buy VBA for dummies like someone said above. I was more looking for what to do for the next step (i.e. making my knowledge applicable). Good idea whoever said to audit an advanced excel class I'm definitely going to do that this upcoming semester. I wanted to take one but my school doesn't allow taking >20 credits in a semester, which is probably a good thing for us workaholics....

"Read 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu. Every battle is won before it is ever fought. Think about it." - Gordon Gekko
 
Best Response
TheProphetofProfits:
derivstrading:
It takes a lot of time to start being able to just sit down and write code. The most important part is that you can figure out which pieces of vba you need to combine to solve the project you are working on.

Yeah I know some basic C++ and am an applied math major so I have taken classes from logical set/array construction and algorithmic functions to matrix encryption and Markov chains (in lamens terms the best way to quickly explain this is that markov chains are how they determine the probability of landing on any one space in a board game from any other space...they are also used to determine bull/bear/neutral markets in some instances from what I read on the internet). It is more about converting my C++, Mathematica and SAS knowledge to VBA.

I do agree with you I will have to do some basics first is, I guess I'll buy VBA for dummies like someone said above. I was more looking for what to do for the next step (i.e. making my knowledge applicable). Good idea whoever said to audit an advanced excel class I'm definitely going to do that this upcoming semester. I wanted to take one but my school doesn't allow taking >20 credits in a semester, which is probably a good thing for us workaholics....

Workaholics? Fool we be burnin...

"Some things are believed because they are demonstrably true. But many other things are believed simply because they have been asserted repeatedly—and repetition has been accepted as a substitute for evidence." - Thomas Sowell
 

Is there much modelling in that Investment banking book?

Basically I have a good knowledge of excel. I want to get a good knowledge of VBA and then apply those skills to practical situations.

In that IB book would you build a model from scratch or are the models just put in the background?

Anybody ever try either of these:

Data Analysis And Business Modeling With Excel by W. Winston

or

Building Financial Models with Microsoft Excel: A Guide for Business Professionals by K. Scott Proctor

Thanks guys.

 

I think VBA would not be very difficult to learn if you have a strong grasp of Excel. The most difficult part is learning how Excel wants you to write. There are plenty of books out there that can teach you to write the code, but I suggest just recording random macro's and then going into the VBA editor to see how the recording was written. You will see a ton of "fluff" (like if you scroll over and then select a cell), but will start to learn the basic syntax. I was able to teach myself fairly easily just by learning what the recordings were coding and using forums on any questions. Pick a small and easy project that you want to do, and then work on just coding that into a macro. Eventually, you will start to expand your knowledge and VBA vocabulary.

VBA and macro's are a pretty huge part of everything we do in AM.

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed." Theodore Roosevelt
 

I learned what i know about macro coding through recording and analyzing (and forums!) just like the previous poster. It's all you need to do.

While I almost automated my entire job during a MO SA stint, I find that I almost never use it in my FO HF role now. It's still good to know though.

 
Brady4MVP:
I'm currently going through walkenbach's Excel 2007 VBA for dummies. Pretty helpful because it starts from the most basic and then works its way up to writing basic macros, working with objects, arrays, loops, etc.

But as the previous posters said, recording a macro on excel and then going through the code in visual basic editor is quite helpful.

Thanks, Brady. Good look. I ordered the VBA for dummies from my library yesterday.

 

I'd like to know this too. Particularly if there are any specific functions/codes that are frequently used.

"All I've ever wanted was an honest week's pay for an honest day's work."
 

If you know how to use VBA and manipulate datasets on Excel (call info from other files/BBG, conduct calculations, set alerts etc), then you are fine in terms of your skill set for your internship. Nothing new to learn for trading. In addition, your bank/shop might have internal functions and protocol which vary from shop to shop so no way to learn that without actually being at the job.

 

vba is mainly for automating excel tasks. its useful BC banks are cheap and they primarily use excel. SAS ,you will likely never use, its too expensive and there are free alternatives like R

 

Best way to learn the basics is by recording a macro then pressing Alt+F11 to see the code that underlies it. Change the code a bit and see how it changes the macro. Then try adding a few lines to your macro by googling what you need to know. Continue many, many more times.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

 

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