Machine Learning for Finance - Python Fundamentals

Python Fundamentals Course Overview

Welcome to CFI's Python Fundamentals Course - Machine Learning for Finance Professionals. The world of finance is changing and now is the time to invest. The skillsets of investment bankers, asset managers, sales and trading professionals are all rapidly evolving and developing a skillset in Python is essential if you want to progress.

CFI has partnered with Machine Learning Edge to bring to you a unique course on the foundations of Python for finance professionals. This course will utilize your Excel knowledge to learn Python in an intuitive and easy way!

Python is crucial for analyzing big data, and it’s the foundational software used by data scientists for machine learning. Knowing Excel means you already understand the fundamental concepts of programming and computer science.

In this course, you're going to learn how to apply these Excel concepts to the Python language. We recommend anyone, who is new to excel to take CFI’s Free Excel Crash Course, to ensure a full understanding of the course content.

The course starts by teaching you the basics of Python Programming, which we will use to transition to more advanced topics.

Key concepts the course is going to cover are:

• How to set-up Anaconda and Jupyter Notebooks for Python
• Python Native Data Types (Strings, Booleans, Integers, Lists, Tuples, and Sets)
• Input/output formatting
• How to build custom functions
• For loops and conditional logic
• Using the Numpy and Pandas Package
  
  

Python Fundamentals - Learning Objectives

This Python Fundamentals course will demonstrate the foundations of Python programming and how it is used in the finance industry. Upon completing this course, you will be able to:

• Write and execute basic Python code to perform advanced calculation, generate outputs, create variables, abstract from data, etc.
• Create and manipulate important data structures such as lists, tuples, sets, and dictionaries
• Use for loops and conditional logic to create your own custom functions
• Import external packages including NumPy and Pandas
• Generate random integers and samples
• Filter, segment, and summarize data
  
  

NumPy and Pandas

The course will teach you how to import and use the NumPy and Pandas package. Learn how to access .csv and .xlxs files in Python, how to filter data with Boolean Masks, how to create indicator variables with .astype(), how to manipulate arrays in the NumPy packages. This is an applied course so every concept that is covered will have applied examples so you can try it yourself! 

Who Should Take This Python Fundamentals Course?

This Python course is for finance professionals and is perfect for beginners who are new to programming and want to learn the foundations of Python. This is the first step in your journey of comprehending machine learning. It is designed for professionals in sales and trading, investment banking, capital markets, asset management, treasury management, corporate development, FP&A, or students working towards a career in these areas.

Machine Learning for Finance Program

The Python Fundamentals course is the first of two courses in the Machine Learning for Finance program provided by CFI and Machine Learning Edge. This program will teach you how to use machine learning to solve real-world problems in finance and investing. The projects you’ll complete are modeled after real, patented algorithms that are being used today to advise Fortune 500 companies on investment banking and capital market decisions.

By the end of the program, you’ll be able to recognize opportunities to solve problems using machine learning in your immediate environment. You will be able to determine the best type of machine learning algorithms for any problem. And you will be able to design original applications using machine learning algorithms such as regression algorithms, and classification algorithms.