PG:
I am playing around with some historical stock option data, and have
decided to use a database to make my life easier. The data is "end-of-
day" for all equitable options, so something like 17 columns and
approximately 200,000 rows a day. I have several months of data in
"csv" format, one file for each trading day.
After some simple experiments, I found it was easier to import this
data directly into postgresql than into mysql, because of the
expiration date format being un-friendly to mysql. I'm using the COPY
command to load the data.
I realize I have a lot of reading to do, but I would like to ask a few
questions to help guide my reading.
1) The data contains the price of the underlying stock, the strike
price of the option, and the option premium. From this I can calculate
the "cost basis" and the "maximum potential profit", which are
elements I would like to be able to SELECT and ORDER. Should I store
the results of these calculation with the data, or is this "business
logic" which doesn't belong in the database. Is this what views are
for?
2) For each underlying stock there are lots of options, each having
unique strike prices and expirations. For example, AAPL (apple
computer) have stock options (calls and puts) that expire in June, at
various strike prices. Lets say that apple stock is trading at $112.
I would like to be able to select the options with strikes just above
and below this price, for example $110 and $115. The data contains
options with strikes from $60 through $125, every $5. Is this
something I need to do programatically, or can I create a complex SQL
query to extract this information?
I have rudimentary python skills, and I'm getting the hang of
psycopg2. After reading the postgresql manual, what should I read
next?
Thanks in advance,
CJL
