Debra Ray

Debra holds an M.S. in Applied Economics from the University of Maryland. She is also the founder of Código Ecuador, a nonprofit organization promoting computer programming skills among high school students in Ecuador. Her favorite economist is Joseph Stiglitz for his work on globalization. She has also enjoyed books by Michael Pettis, a professor of finance at a university in China who writes on macroeconomics.  

[debra-ray-posts]

The Biggest Community Event Since New Years in Southern Ecuador

It’s always wise to raise questions about the most obvious and simple assumptions. — C. West Churchman, Professor of Peace Studies . . .

Just last week, I attended a much-anticipated community debate on the actual shape of the earth. For one month leading up to the scheduled day, the unconventional debate was the most-discussed event among English-speaking foreigners in Southern Ecuador.

What captured my attention wasn’t about whether the earth is flat, round, or spherical. The brilliance of the age-old question regarding the shape of the earth lies in the simple act of challenging assumptions about which people normally never think twice.

[debra-ray-posts]

What I Learned from a Retired Wall Street Quant in Ecuador

A retired quantitative trader walked me through his $800,000 automated trading platform and this is what I learned.

I meet the most interesting people travelling in Ecuador. My dream came true yesterday when I met a retired quantitative trader and finance engineer who used to work on Wall Street.

[debra-ray-posts]

How to Python Web Scrape the Nasdaq Stock Ex-Dividend Calendar

Web scrape a list of stocks with upcoming ex-dividend dates from the Nasdaq API using the Python pandas, requests, datetime, and calendar…

How to Python Web Scrape the Nasdaq Stock Ex-Dividend Calendar

Web scrape a list of stocks with upcoming ex-dividend dates from the Nasdaq API using the Python pandas, requests, datetime, and calendar modules.

[debra-ray-posts]

How to Scrape Cryptocurrency Data: Prices, Volume, Percent Change

Easily scrape the historical cryptocurrency exchange data from the Yahoo Finance website using the Python coding language.

How to Scrape Cryptocurrency Data: Prices, Volume, Percent Change

Easily scrape historical cryptocurrency exchange data from the Yahoo Finance website using the Python coding language.

[debra-ray-posts]

How To Define Yahoo Finance Request Headers With Python

This article is the first in a series going over how to scrape Yahoo Finance for stock price history data using the Python coding language.

This article is the first in a series going over how to scrape Yahoo Finance for stock price history data using the Python coding language. In this lesson, you will learn how to define a request header, pass arguments into URLs, and use the datetime and time modules to convert datetime objects to a timetuple and then epoch time. You can read the other articles in the series here.

[debra-ray-posts]

How To Install External Python Libraries Using Pip

This article is the second in a series going over how to scrape Yahoo Finance for stock price history data using the Python coding…

This article is the second in a series going over how to scrape Yahoo Finance for stock price history data using the Python coding language. In this lesson, you will learn about open-source repositories, security risks of external packages, and how to install the external Python libraries using the Anaconda Prompt command-line interface. You can read the other articles in the series here.

[debra-ray-posts]

How To Scrape Yahoo Stock Price History with Python

This article is the third in a series going over how to scrape Yahoo Finance for stock price history data using the Python coding language.

This article is the third in a series going over how to scrape Yahoo Finance for stock price history data using the Python coding language. In this lesson, you will learn how to use the requests, lxml and pandas modules to build a function to scrape the price history table from Yahoo Finance. You can read the other articles in the series here.

[debra-ray-posts]

Python Web Scraping: Yahoo Finance Stock Dividend History

Step by step instructions to scrape up to 25 years of a stock’s dividend history from Yahoo Finance using the datetime, requests, lxml and…

Step by step instructions to scrape up to 25 years of a stock’s dividend history from Yahoo Finance using the datetime, requests, lxml and pandas Python modules.

[debra-ray-posts]

New Year 2020: Widowed Drag Queens and Burning Man

New Year 2020 around the world: In Ecuador, men dress up in drag like widows and burn puppets of naughty husbands to celebrate Año Nuevo.

New Year 2020 around the world: In Ecuador, men dress up in drag like widows and burn puppets of naughty husbands to celebrate Año Nuevo.

[debra-ray-posts]

Immigration: My Experiences With Global Discrimination

Immigrants everywhere regardless of their country of origin or socioeconomic status deserve dignity.

Immigrants everywhere regardless of their country of origin or socioeconomic status deserve dignity.

[debra-ray-posts]

Iran & Venezuela Have A lot in Common With Honduras

U.S. foreign energy policy in Iran and Venezuela: A political activist from Honduras asks the U.S. Congress two crucial questions.

U.S. foreign energy policy in Iran and Venezuela: A political activist from Honduras asks the U.S. Congress two crucial questions.