Part of the course Getting Started With Algorithmic Trading:
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Welcome to this course on Getting started with Algorithmic trading. If you are totally new to trading using algorithmic systems this is the course for you. It will help you learn the basics and terminologies associated with algorithmic trading.

What is Algorithmic trading?

Algorithmic Trading is the process of converting a trading logic or strategy into an algorithm or computer code. This strategy takes as input data, processes it and generates trading signals. An order is placed based on these signals in an automated fashion. Algo trading also involves checking the performance of the strategy by backtesting on the historical data. These trading logics can be based on price change, sentiment and volatility levels.

Why Algorithmic Trading?

Let’s suppose you usually use a simple strategy to trade. You buy or sell a stock based on the positive or negative news around the stock. Over a period of time you realise the shortcoming of this approach. There are plenty of stocks. And each stock has a lot of information and news. Analysing such huge information is very difficult. And as a result, you miss the opportunity to leverage on this news for most stocks each day.

What if there is a system which can find and analyse news for you?
What if this system could identify the trading direction and then automatically place buy or sell orders to your broker?
What if the system could do this for 100s of stocks?

In another scenario, suppose you own Apple shares. Somewhere in the middle of the day, Apple announces that it’s quarterly sales have fallen. Factoring in this news, the stock price begins to fall. By the time you analyze the earnings and come to the conclusion to exit the position, the stock has already fallen more.

Wouldn’t it be great if you had a system in place which would quickly analyse and decide the action to take?

In both these scenarios, you can greatly improve your profits and cut your losses if you have an intelligent algo trading system in place. After completing this course you will be able to list out the requirements for setting up your own Algorithmic trading desk in terms of capital, technology, infrastructure, skillset and regulatory environment. You will be able to choose the appropriate algorithmic trading platform depending on the problem at hand. You will also be able to list out different strategy paradigms used for trading algorithmically. After this course, you will appreciate the advantages of algorithmic trading over traditional training techniques.

What is out of scope for this course?

This is an introductory course which will get you started in your journey to become an algorithmic trader. It is a fundamental course, which is part of the learning track “Algorithmic Trading for Everyone”. It will provide you the essential bird’s eye view of various important topics in algorithmic trading and quantitative analysis.

You will get a glimpse of a sample trading strategy in Python, but actual implementation of algorithmic trading in live markets is out of the scope of this course. To implement the concepts introduced in this course, you would need to complete the entire learning track.

How will the course be taught?

You will learn all the topics in a detailed and simple manner through interactive exercises, animated videos and Jupyter Notebooks. We use Python to teach you a simple moving average crossover strategy and backtest it. If you are new to Python, you can refer to the Python basics section in the course to get familiar with pandas dataframe, data visualisation and data importing.

This way you build skills to write your own strategies and backtest it. So let’s jump right into the world of algorithmic trading.

At the end of this course, you will have a good idea of the steps involved and available options for all requirements related to algorithmic trading. This is a one-stop shop for all the information that you will need to set up your own algo trading desk. You would also get an opportunity to get a certification by MCX and QuantInsti by taking an online exam.

We hope you enjoy this course. Good luck!

Quantra is an online education portal that specializes in Algorithmic and Quantitative trading. Quantra offers various bite-sized, self-paced and interactive courses that are perfect for busy professionals, seeking implementable knowledge in this domain.

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