Summary

Investing effectively is largely a game of information access and analysis. This can involve a substantial amount of research and time spent on finding, validating, and acquiring different information sources. In order to reduce the barrier to entry and provide a powerful framework for amateur and professional investors alike Didier Rodrigues Lopes created the OpenBB Terminal. In this episode he explains how a pandemic project that started as an experiment has led to him founding a new company and dedicating his time to growing and improving the project and its community.

Announcements

• Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python’s role in data and science.
• When you’re ready to launch your next app or want to try a project you hear about on the show, you’ll need somewhere to deploy it, so take a look at our friends over at Linode. With the launch of their managed Kubernetes platform it’s easy to get started with the next generation of deployment and scaling, powered by the battle tested Linode platform, including simple pricing, node balancers, 40Gbit networking, dedicated CPU and GPU instances, and worldwide data centers. Go to pythonpodcast.com/linode and get a $100 credit to try out a Kubernetes cluster of your own. And don’t forget to thank them for their continued support of this show!
• Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Didier Rodrigues Lopes about the OpenBB Terminal, a modern Python-based integrated environment for investment research

Interview

• Introductions
• How did you get introduced to Python?
• Can you describe what OpenBB is and the story behind it?
  • What is the problem that you are trying to address by creating the OpenBB project and providing it as open source?
• What are some of the use cases where someone might need to use this project?
• The elephant in the room for financial data research is the Bloomberg Terminal. What are the other tools or services available for that purpose?
  • What are the differentiating features of the OpenBB Terminal?
• Can you describe how the OpenBB Terminal is implemented?
  • How have the design and goals/scope of the project changed since you started working on it?
• Can you describe a typical workflow for someone who is using the OpenBB Terminal?
  • How have you approached the user experience design, and what are you optimizing for?
  • What kinds of utilities do you offer beyond raw data access?
• What are some examples of data sources that you rely on?
  • What is involved in integrating a new data source?
• What are the extension points and integration capabilities for expanding the functionality of the tool?
• What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen OpenBB Terminal used?
• What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on OpenBB Terminal?
• When is OpenBB Terminal the wrong choice?
• What do you have planned for the future of OpenBB Terminal?

Keep In Touch

• DidierRLopes on GitHub
• LinkedIn
• @didier_lopes on Twitter

Picks

• Tobias
  • Vikings: Valhalla show on Netflix

Closing Announcements

• Thank you for listening! Don’t forget to check out our other show, the Data Engineering Podcast for the latest on modern data management.
• Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.
• If you’ve learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email hosts@podcastinit.com) with your story.
• To help other people find the show please leave a review on iTunes and tell your friends and co-workers

Links

• OpenBB
• Matlab
• Papermill
• Bloomberg Terminal
• Robinhood
• Coinbase

The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA