Python skills for trading

What kind of python skills should I have for a trading role at a bank. Not for a strictly quantitative desk, but generally for market making/flow desks.

What kind of work have you done using python to aid the desk and its activities?

5 Comments
 
Most Helpful

If you’re not on a quantitative desk, it could be useful to know how to pull data from excel/bloomberg (there is an api that makes this easy on the job). Once you have the data, it’s useful to be comfortable with pandas and numpy for any cleaning or transformations, then being able to make clean graphs using seaborn/matplotlib from there. If you wanted to get a little more complex, you could try and familiarize yourself with sci kit learn and some basic ML concepts, but this might be overkill.

 

For a trading role on a market-making or flow desk, you’ll want to focus on a few key Python skills. First off, get comfortable with Pandas and NumPy for data analysis—they’re essential for handling and manipulating market data. You’ll be looking at a lot of data, so knowing how to pull insights quickly is super important. You should also know how to visualize data using matplotlib or Seaborn; being able to present your findings clearly can make a big difference. Familiarity with SQL is a plus too, especially for querying databases when you need to pull data for analysis. In terms of what you might actually do, think about automating reporting processes, building models for pricing or risk analysis, or writing scripts to pull real-time market data. If you can work with APIs to grab data from external sources, that’ll definitely set you apart. Ultimately, it’s all about using Python to make workflows smoother and help you make better trading decisions.

 

Aut consequatur consequatur laudantium. Magni doloremque beatae et ullam sit nemo sapiente. Officia rerum rem reprehenderit fuga.

Kcm

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (65) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”