python xlrd VS Quantopian

• Simplicity
  xlrd provides a straightforward and easy-to-use API for reading Excel files, making it accessible for beginners and quick implementations.
• Widely Used
  xlrd has been a popular choice for handling Excel files in Python, which means there is a lot of available documentation and community support.
• Efficient Reading
  It is optimized for reading data from Excel files without loading entire data into memory, which is beneficial for handling large files.

Possible disadvantages

• No Write Support
  xlrd is designed solely for reading, and it does not support writing or modifying Excel files.
• Limited to Older Excel Formats
  With version 2.0 and above, xlrd only supports the older .xls Excel file format and does not support .xlsx files.
• Deprecated Features
  Due to changes in dependencies and updates to Excel formats, some features in xlrd have become deprecated or removed, which can limit its functionality.

• Community Collaboration
  Quantopian provided a platform for users to share and collaborate on trading algorithms, enabling users to learn from each other and improve their strategies.
• Access to Data
  Quantopian offered access to a wide range of financial data sets, which allowed users to develop and back-test their algorithms using historical data.
• Comprehensive Development Environment
  It featured an integrated development environment (IDE) with tools for coding, testing, and back-testing trading strategies in Python, which was user-friendly and powerful.
• Educational Resources
  Quantopian provided various educational resources, including lectures, tutorials, and a supportive community forum, which were beneficial for both beginners and experienced traders.
• Competition and Incentives
  Quantopian organized contests that incentivized users to develop successful trading algorithms, with the potential to receive a live trading allocation from the company.

Possible disadvantages

• Shutting Down Services
  Quantopian shut down its retail offering in 2020, which meant that users could no longer use their platform for developing and testing new algorithms.
• Limited Live Trading Options
  Users found limited options for deploying their strategies into live trading. Quantopian allowed this only for algorithms selected for allocation, which reduced accessibility for many users.
• Dependence on Platform
  Users who developed algorithms on Quantopian's platform were heavily dependent on it, and when it shut down, they had to transition to other platforms, which could be challenging.
• Resource Limitations
  There were computational and resource limitations for users, which could restrict the complexity of the algorithms and back-testing users could perform without additional infrastructure.
• Portfolio Selection Process
  The selection process for having algorithms licenced for live trading allocation was competitive and not transparent to many users, which could lead to frustration.

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Algorithmic Trading with Python and Quantopian p. 1

More videos

• I need to read multiple excel files, extract a column from each and compose a new file

  So to get this out of the way first, xlrd has less features than openpyxl and in addition only works with the old '.xls' format, not the newer '.xlsx' format. Even on the xlrd's Github repo it says: 'Please use openpyxl where you can... '. Source: over 4 years ago

• Sending Bulk SMS using Africas Talking, Python and Excel

  There are few alternative libraries for reading and writing excel files: Pandas, Xlrd , openpyxl among others. In the end I settled for openpyxl as I had the most experience Using it and it had support for .xlsx files. - Source: dev.to / over 5 years ago

Tracking Quantopian since Mar 2021.