What you need for this book
This book assumes that you have some familiarity with programming concepts, but even those without programming, or specifically Python programming, experience, will be comfortable with the examples as they focus on pandas constructs more than Python or programming. The examples are based on Anaconda Python 2.7 and pandas 0.15.1. If you do not have either installed, guidance is provided in Chapter 1, Getting Started with pandas Using Wakari.io, on installing both on Windows, OS X, and Ubuntu systems. For those interested in not installing any software, instructions are also given on using the Wakari.io online Python data analysis service. Data is either provided with the text or is available for download via pandas from data services such as Yahoo! Finance. We will also use several open source software packages such as Zipline and Mibian, the retrieval, installation, and usage of which will be explained during the appropriate chapters.