Enables traders, quants, portfolio managers and risk managers to rapidly build custom analytics, applications and reports
Vancouver, BC, October 10, 2018 – FINCAD, the leading provider of enterprise solutions for derivative and fixed income portfolios, today announced innovative enhancements to FINCAD F3, an advanced valuation and risk analytics solution. A comprehensive Python toolkit has been added to F3, enabling traders, quants, portfolio managers and risk managers to rapidly generate custom analytics, applications and reports to drive better investment and risk decisions.
Due to its versatility and ease of use, Python has achieved widespread adoption in finance, and has become the multi-purpose tool of choice for quantitative analysts and other financial technologists. However, while it is easy to start projects with Python, deploying them to production can be challenging, and teams often struggle with infrastructure issues such as data management, calculation scaling, version control, admin and security.
The F3 Python toolkit helps clients address this challenge by combining Python’s sophisticated capabilities, FINCAD’s industry-standard analytics library and the enterprise-class technology of F3 Platform, which automatically handles the infrastructure issues. The result is that portfolio managers, traders, and quants can maximize their productivity and focus on creating real business value without the heavy burden of enterprise infrastructure and software concerns. Common use cases cover a wide range, including strategy back-testing, structured product scripting, portfolio optimization, tailored hedging strategies, LDI portfolio construction, cash flow matching, custom pre-trade analytics, risk reports and real-time dashboards.
“Python enables clients to be incredibly productive and it has a rich ecosystem that is ideally suited to portfolio and risk analysis,” said James Church, VP of R&D at FINCAD. “The F3 Python toolkit goes far beyond a simple Python API, and brings together best-of-breed pricing and risk analytics, enterprise scalability, data management and UI tools so that teams can collaborate on ideas, then take them quickly and easily into production.” 
The FINCAD F3 Python toolkit includes an F3 Python SDK, F3 Python MicroServices and F3 Python Trade Scripting which enable users to:
- Rapidly deliver custom analytics: Leverage Numpy, Scipy, pandas, Plotly and other standard Python libraries with the most up-to-date Python features to create custom analytics, such as portfolio optimizers, which can be integrated into other applications.
- Easily create custom applications and reports: Native integration with Jupyter Notebooks and Jupyter Lab, PyCharm, Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code, enable faster report and application development with familiar tools, without needing to learn a new development environment. Also included are tools for building rich, interactive UIs without being a developer; and it comes with a complete set of widgets for reporting, selecting books, trades and models, and for handling many types of financial inputs and outputs.
- Quickly model and script complex payoffs: Use Python’s concise, highly expressive syntax with F3 analytics and data. Complex modeling and scripting can be abstracted away or dealt with using data-driven approaches.
“With enterprise portfolio and risk systems, one size doesn’t fit all,” noted Bob Park, FINCAD President and CEO. “Every investment firm is unique, and their software should be flexible and able to adapt to their specific needs, workflows and requirements. With FINCAD F3, firms don’t have to settle for software that is ‘good enough’, nor do they have to make compromises. They get the unparalleled combination of powerful out-of-the-box functionality and the flexibility for unlimited customization using versatile tools such as Python.”
About FINCAD
FINCAD is the leading provider of valuation and risk solutions for derivative and fixed income portfolios. An industry standard since 1990, our advanced analytics, flexible architecture and patented technology enable better investment and risk management decisions. We are committed to helping our clients solve their toughest challenges, without compromise. Clients include leading global asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies, pension funds, banks and auditors. For more information, visit www.fincad.com.
Media Contact
Rob Garfield
r.garfield@fincad.com
+1 646 217 4572