Python Training Programme for a Trading Firm
Desk staff moved from Excel to reproducible Python workflows, with CPT-tracked certification.
A proprietary trading firm wanted its desk staff to work in Python rather than wrestle with sprawling spreadsheets — but generic coding courses taught syntax in a vacuum, with no connection to markets. We designed and delivered a practitioner-led programme built entirely around the desk's own workflows, and tracked it for certification.
The Challenge
The firm's desk staff relied heavily on Excel for analytics and reporting. Management wanted to move to Python-based workflows for reproducibility, scale, and auditability — but most staff had limited coding experience, and off-the-shelf technical courses didn't speak the language of financial markets.
The risk was a familiar one: send people on a generic Python course, watch them learn list comprehensions they'll never connect to their job, and see nothing change on the desk. The training had to be grounded in the work people actually did.
The Solution
We built a multi-level programme delivered face-to-face in short, modular two-hour sessions — a format that fit around desk responsibilities and kept momentum without taking people off the floor for days at a time. Every module used real market data and practical desk workflows.
1. From data to insight
The curriculum moved deliberately from data ingestion and API access, through analysis and visualisation, to backtesting and risk analytics — mirroring the path a real desk task takes rather than an abstract syllabus.
2. Levelled to the audience
Multiple levels meant beginners and more experienced staff each started in the right place and progressed, rather than the whole group moving at the pace of the middle.
3. Tracked and certified
Sessions were managed through an LMS with attendance records, and certificates contributed toward staff CPT (Continuing Professional Training) requirements — so the programme produced an auditable record, not just informal upskilling.
Tools & Technologies
Python (pandas, NumPy, plotting and backtesting libraries) taught against real market data and APIs, delivered in modular face-to-face sessions and administered through a learning-management system for attendance tracking and certification.
The Results
Desk staff transitioned from spreadsheet-bound processes to reproducible Python workflows they could maintain and re-run. Because the training was tracked through the LMS, the firm had attendance records and certificates that fed directly into its CPT requirements — turning an upskilling exercise into a documented, repeatable capability across the desk.