The code examples in this book have been tested in Python 2.7 but are optimized to run on Python 3. Many of the third-party Python modules mentioned in this book require at least Python 2.7, and some do not have support for Python 3 as yet. To achieve the best compatibility, it is recommended that you install Python 2.7 on your workstation.

If you have not installed Python on your workstation, you can find out more about Python from the official source at https://www.python.org. However, in order to build financial applications from the examples, you are required to use a number of additional third-party Python modules such as NumPy, SciPy, and pandas. It is recommended that you obtain an all-in-one installer to ease the installation procedures. The following are some popular installers that include hundreds of supported packages: