E DUCATIO NDE D HE EK, NA AN K I NKG N E W YOR K TE CH N O LON GY| |P RE B YMA G ENA O RG YACI S DAYALAN, P E C I AL TO SBPAENCKI AL I N GTO N EBW YOR
BREAKING DOWN THE SILOS:
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Training Analysts to Code and Programmers to Analyze
n spite of the COVID-19 environment, artificial intelligence and machine learning are rapidly spreading through the financial services section. With this in mind, it is important for financial institutions to prioritize training for their people, or they will be left behind. The days when programming could be left to the engineers in the IT department are already gone. Some of the best software applications in finance were developed by people outside of IT. They had a problem, and technology was the tool they used to solve it. Take the story of a stock analyst who decided to learn Python—a skill that is becoming a minimum requirement for people at all levels of finance. As he developed his programming skills, he eventually created an artificial intelligence platform used today to buy and sell fixed-income instruments. He had a problem, saw a solution and used technology as a bridge to get him from Point A to Point B. Basic Understanding Of Programming A basic understanding of programming is crucial for analysts to effectively use the tools they have been given, even if they never create an application of their own. Over the past several years, programming literacy has become an increasingly common core requirement sought by job recruiters in the financial industry. Workers
who do not have this core literacy will soon be outpaced by those who do. Knowing how to create and run a basic query can save time and energy spent on manual research and prevent human errors that work their way into manual processes. Think of it like driving a car. Drivers don’t need to be mechanical engineers, but if they have a basic understanding of how the engine, the transmission and the safety systems work, they will be faster, safer and better drivers. Even the technologically fearful can learn Python, a language so simple it is often taught in elementary schools as an introduction to coding. Reassure employees that artificial intelligence is not some soulless robot coming to take away the vital human element of investment and trading decisions. It is instead the most efficient assistant you can imagine, handling time consuming manual tasks in an instant and providing the research and data points analysts and traders need to do their job. Machine Learning: The Analyst’s Best Friend In markets where data is moving quickly, machine learning platforms are an analyst’s best friend. Machine learning algorithms automatically adjust as the data changes, providing accurate predictions of market behavior and eliminating human foibles like loss aversion
A basic understanding of programming is crucial for analysts to effectively use the tools they have been given, even if they never create an application of their own.
10 | Banking New York | Issue Three 2020
