Using DataFrames¶

This lesson introduces:

Computing returns (percentage change)
Basic mathematical operations on DataFrames

This first cell load data for use in this lesson.

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# Setup: Load prices
import pandas as pd
prices = pd.read_hdf("data/dataframes.h5", "prices")
sep_04 = pd.read_hdf("data/dataframes.h5", "sep_04")
goog = pd.read_hdf("data/dataframes.h5", "goog")

Problem: Compute Returns¶

Compute returns using

returns = prices.pct_change()

which computes the percentage change.

Additionally, extract returns for each name using

spy_returns = returns["SPY"]

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Problem: Compute Log Returns¶

import numpy as np

log_returns = np.log(prices).diff()

first difference of the natural log of the prices. Mathematically this is $r_{t}=\ln\left(P_{t}\right)-\ln\left(P_{t-1}\right)=\ln\left(\frac{P_{t}}{P_{t-1}}\right)\approx\frac{P_{t}}{P_{t-1}}-1$.

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Basic Mathematical Operations¶

Operation	Symbol	Precedence
Parentheses	()	4
Exponentiation	**	3
Multiplication	*	2
Division	/	2
Floor division	//	2
Modulus	%	2
Matrix multiplication	@	2
Addition	+	1
Subtraction	-	1

Note: Higher precedence operators are evaluated first, and ties are evaluated left to right.

Problem: Scalar Operations¶

Add 1 to all returns
Square the returns
Multiply the price of Google by 2.
Extract the fractional return using floor division and modulus

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Problem: Addition of Series¶

Add the returns on SPY to those of AAPL

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Problem: Combining methods and mathematical operations¶

Using only basic mathematical operations compute the correlation between the returns on AAPL and SPY.

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Problem: Addition of DataFrames¶

Construct a DataFrame that only contains the SPY column from returns and add it to the return DataFrame

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Problem: Non-conformable math¶

Add the prices in sep_04 to the prices of goog. What happens?

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Problem: Constructing portfolio returns¶

Set up a 3-element array of portfolio weights

$$w=\left(\frac{1}{3},\,\frac{1}{3}\,,\frac{1}{3}\right)$$

and compute the return of a portfolio with weight $\frac{1}{3}$ in each security.

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Exercises¶

Exercise: Combine math with function¶

Add 1 to the output of np.arange to produce the sequence 1, 2, ..., 10.

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Exercise: Understand pandas math¶

Use the Series and DataFrame below to compute the sums

a+b
a+c
b+c
a+b+c

to understand how missing values are treated by pandas

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# Setup: Data for exercise
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

rs = np.random.RandomState(19991231)

idx = ["A","a","B",3]
columns = ["A",1,"B",3]
a = pd.Series([1,2,3,4], index=idx)
b = pd.Series([10,9,8,7], index=columns)
values = rs.randint(1, 11, size=(4,4))
c = pd.DataFrame(values, columns=columns, index=idx)

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Exercise: Math with duplicates¶

Add the Series d to a to see what happens with delays.

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# Setup: Data for exercise

d = pd.Series([10, 101], index=["A","A"])

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