Packt Algorithmic Short Selling with Python: Refine your algorithmic trading edge, consistently generate investment ideas, and build a robust long/short product

If you're trading for your own account or managing portfolios for other investors, the insights in this book are priceless. As a short seller, Bernut's methods shine in market crashes especially. But long only managers have much to learn from what's in this book.As Ken Grant noted in "Trading Risk," every manager needs to make sure at least some part of the portfolio does better when the benchmark sinks. And that's a big part of what is addressed here.About two thirds of the book is NOT about short-selling, but about making any trading system better. Bernut provides a set of rational, step by step methods for developing, deploying, monitoring and improving your best ideas for trading systems.Here are a few highlights:If you ask 10 traders what their edge is, 8 of them will tell you a story instead. Winners and professionals quantify that edge and their strategy (pp 109 - 133)I liked the refreshingly frank talk about what your stops should be and how they should be enforced. Operational Risk (the chance of a manager making a mistake) is the largest risk among individuals and you'll find solid measures here to shore up weaknesses to improve your results quantifiably (pp134-169).If you're still using the "2% risk per trade heuristic," you really need to understand your peril better. Especially true in times of market chaos, position sizing is the link between your financial and your emotional capital. (pp171-202)ABOUT THE PROGRAMMING PART: I have only a passing knowledge of Python, therefore much of the real gold is hidden from me so far. The narrative itself is enough to provide a good guide. However, if you have been moved, as I have, to study and learn to program in order to automate what can be automated, there is even more value here with code supplied through GitHub and color graphics available through the publishers website.

Insightful and enjoyable read. I am Groot.

I've been in algorithmic trading for a few years now and more than doubled my skills from reading the first three chapters of this book alone. The writing style is a breeze to read, and Laurents code examples are to the point.This book is an opportunity to take a shortcut and spoon-feed yourself years of knowledge in a matter of days to refine your skills to the next level.(NOTE: If you have a few programming skills, you could also use the code examples for most other languages with no problem).

As I embark on my entrepreneurial journey, this book has proved to be incredibly timely and useful. It aligns perfectly with one of the modules I was seeking guidance on. The book itself is highly detailed and provides clear explanations on the importance of testing scenarios and how to execute them effectively.

This book has taken me a while to read and digest but was well worth the effort. Laurent's years of experience are clear as he provides real insights into the inner truths of markets and short selling as well as dispelling common myths about shorting. The Python programming examples provide extra depth but an understanding of programming is not needed to get some real value from this book.