The course will be based on the open-source Python language which provides a wide variety of statistical and graphical techniques, and is well-suited for data manipulation, calculation and graphical display. The first part of the course will be for general introduction to Python, and then use of specific tools like matrix manipulation, optimization, random numbers and simulation, etc. will be illustrated with financial applications. Some familiarity and prior experience with a proper programming language, beyond standard Excel, is recommended.