[PufPufPuf]

If that was the case, why use Python in the first place?

[mhh__]

It's not uncommon to have a fast core and then an API that alpha / research teams feed signals into

if you are someone like HRT I presume the bulk of their money comes at very short holding periods so you have e.g. fast signals that work short term and then mid frequency alpha signals that spit out a forecast over a few timeframes i.e. it might not be that they buy (aggressively) really quickly but rather than someone sells to them and then they hold onto the position for longer than they would if they have no opinions.

Similarly this shapes where you post your orders e.g. if you really want it then you want to be top of the book

[kristjansson]

They’re not doing the fast stuff in python; nevertheless it’s worth their engineering to make the parts they do in python fast

[dmoy]

Well there's gonna be people writing code who can't do it in say a high performance C/C++ setup. Not professional programmers, but professional <some finance discipline>.

Sometimes it will be worth the tradeoff to put that person and a programmer together to code up a solution in another language. Sometimes it will be worth it to have the non-programmer write it in Python and then do Herculean things in the background to make it fast enough.

[procaryote]

The gulf between high performance C/C++ and Python is vast and includes most other programming languages, many of which are friendly to write or can be made friendly to write for a limited domain, with significantly less rocket science needed than making python faster.

[instig007]

> Sometimes it will be worth it to have the non-programmer write it in Python and then do Herculean things in the background to make it fast enough.

Nim exists, Crystal exists

[dmoy]

It would not surprise me if some shops end up using less common languages to fill a niche (or hell, invent their own DSL).

But it also wouldn't surprise me if a lot of shops land on python because that's what their hiring pool knows.

[skeledrew]

With insignificant ecosystems, compared to Python.

[pgwhalen]

Even at the speediest trading firms, the large majority of code is not latency sensitive. Systems and algos are structured such that the fast acting stuff is simple and contained.

[dumah]

There’s tons of latency sensitive code outside of the FPGA systems and it is not simple.