Published in DataDrivenInvestor·Feb 16, 2021Pricing Option Credit Spreads with PythonIn an earlier post I mentioned I was playing around with option trading strategies. Now I have some more progress. First, a quick TL;DR from the previous work. The plan is to sell out of the money call options and then buy them at a higher strike, netting the difference…Finance8 min readFinance8 min read
Published in DataDrivenInvestor·Feb 5, 2021Exploring Option Credit SpreadsThe recent GameStop short squeeze piqued my interest in the world of finance. Back before I started software development in Python, I worked at a hedge fund administrator pricing over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives. This was mostly interest rate swaps, swaptions, and credit default swaps. We never dipped much into equities because…Finance8 min readFinance8 min read
Mar 5, 2020Build Your Own Dystopian Future on AWSBecome the surveillance state leveraging facial recognition software from AWS Rekognition. — Facial recognition is a controversial topic. While the technology itself is impressive, it raises a number of privacy concerns, and it’s ripe for potential abuse from bad actors. In my effort to better understand the current capabilities of facial recognition, I came across AWS Rekognition. I was amazed (and somewhat…Programming9 min readProgramming9 min read
Published in Better Programming·Feb 15, 2020The Death of a Side ProjectThe classic mistake of ruining a hobby by attempting to monetize it — This month, I finally shut down one of my side projects, Professor Dogwood. It was a site built to price decklists for the Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG). Four years ago, I had high hopes and such excitement making and launching it, but it’s clear now that it’s time to…Programming8 min readProgramming8 min read
Published in The Startup·Feb 5, 2020Finding Your First Mechanical KeyboardI did the research on finding your first keyboard so you don’t have to. — After a lot of internal debate and research, I decided to get a mechanical keyboard. I don’t claim to be a keyboard enthusiast and this post isn’t meant to convince you to get one. In fact, you probably don’t need one. A mechanical keyboard won’t make you a better programmer…Productivity8 min readProductivity8 min read
Published in Level Up Coding·Jan 29, 2020Why (and How) I Use VimWhen I started programming, I never imagined myself using vim. As an undergrad, my advisor did everything on the command line and watching him work was mesmerizing. The cursor moved and things happened and I didn’t understand at all how it worked, but there was an elegance to it. I…Programming9 min readProgramming9 min read
Published in The Startup·Jan 18, 2020Designing 3D Printed Board Game Inserts with PythonI love playing board games. I play at least once a week with a regular group and much more than that with my wife after the kids are in bed. More of my most recent hobbies have revolved around gaming, like miniature painting or dabbling back into Magic the Gathering…Python8 min readPython8 min read
Jan 11, 2020My Python Environment SetupI’ve been working with Python for more than a decade now and my local environment setup has gone through numerous iterations over that time. In the past few years I’ve used both Linux (Ubuntu) and OS X for my primary development operation system at work. Recently I setup a new…Programming6 min readProgramming6 min read
