Let’s cut to the chase then. In September 2021, 2535 Python jobs were posted on Indeed.com.hk while 4601 were posted in October 2021, on JobsDB.com.hk. According to eFinancialCareers, demand for professionals with Python skills shot up three-fold over a year. HackerRank reported in 2018, Python was among the top three most in-demand skills in the financial services industry. eFinancialCareers also noted in 2018, that Python was the second most wanted programming expertise by five major US investment banks. So, it looks safe to say that learning Python will increase your marketability both here and abroad in a fertile area for job opportunities. As for whether you’ll be sufficiently rewarded as a professional with Python skills, the average salary for a Python developer in Hong Kong is $23,125 per month; a Python programmer job was recently advertised by the Virtual Bank Company for a salary of $40,000 per month (indeed.com.hk). To compare, in the US, a Python developer earns around US$108,598 per annum (www.daxx.com). If such levels of remuneration sound good, read on.

What’s Python?

It’s a general-purpose programming language that can be employed to build almost anything. Consequently, Python has wide appeal in its applicability to many tasks, as well as being the easiest, simplest programming language to use. This is true to the extent that even beginners or those who are not conversant with things techie or who are professionals without a Python background, can grasp Python without too much effort. It’s simple structure and easily defined syntax is absent of superfluous symbols such as semi-colons, curly brackets, etc., and it uses indentation to delimit code. This makes Python straightforward to code and read, just like plain English.

Is Python popular among finance companies?  

Of course, you don’t want to waste your time learning Python if it’s not used extensively in the industry you’ve chosen to pursue. Lucky for you, it’s particularly useful for the Finance Industry, and as such Python has seen substantial growth in its popularity and usage there. A great bonus of using this programming language is that it’s simplicity reduces the chances for errors created by developers. In turn, this means programmers don’t have to waste time fixing bugs caused by an accidental ellipsis. Also, Python saves financial companies a lot of time and money since it’s feasible to provide inhouse concise, high value training programmes for their staff. Another benefit is in terms of collaboration between staff of different backgrounds. Python’s simplicity and readability makes this possible and convenient. Furthermore, code reviews are less time consuming, and adjustments based on feedback can be done quickly.  

What specific uses does Python have in the finance sectors?

Let’s defer to those who are working within finance and related industries, to explain to us how Python is used effectively there.

1) The financial industry deals with finance so, “Python is used for quantitative and qualitative analysis. Financial analysts also use this programming to analyze stock markets, predictions, and machine learning in relation to stocks.  Python has extensive libraries, such as, Pandas, NumPy, spicy etc., which can be used for analyzing the finance market. Analysts prefer this language as it is very easy to code and easy to make scripts. It can also be integrated with other languages like ruby etc. This is why Python for finance has become significant.” (Rajnish Sharma, B.Tech.,2017).

2) “If you want to get involved in FinTech, I will advise learning Python and Java…Python is again used as a supporting second language, it’s easy to code and great at automation, which helps it to be coupled with a lot more things than any other languages can handle. The rise in Python in investment banking has been rapid and widespread. Banks use Python for pricing, risk management and trade management platforms. More recently, they’ve been reprogramming their trading systems to run off Python rather than other, clunkier languages.” (Victoria Polyarush, Social Marketing Co-ordinator at AUG.global, 2017).

Other things Python is used for in finance institutions include, software banking, customer service, cryptocurrency, and fraud detection. It’s an optimal technology for financial services competing in a market where they need to develop strategic products that are secure, functional, and compliant with local and international regulations. Python helps them perform operations within their organizations, as well as with the user’s applications. It’s one of the best technologies to handle any development procedures for any type of financial service provider and it has the best open-source libraries. All in all, Python is pretty much a must-have language for finance.

So, go for it! There’s an abundance of courses available to learn Python, especially online. Do the leg work to find which of these best suits your needs. You may even find a finance company that’s willing to sponsor your learning, especially if you already work for them!