calculate dataframe column based on two rows in another column

Question

I have a dataframe, containing one column with prices. whats the best way to create a column calculating the rate of return between two rows (leaving the first or last Null).

For example the data frame looks as follows:

    Date        Price
2008-11-21    23.400000
2008-11-24    26.990000
2008-11-25    28.000000
2008-11-26    25.830000

Trying to add a column as follows:

    Date        Price       Return
2008-11-21    23.400000     0.1534
2008-11-24    26.990000     0.0374
2008-11-25    28.000000    -0.0775
2008-11-26    25.830000      NaN

Where the calculation of return column as follows:

Return Row 0 = Price Row 1 / Price Row 0 - 1

Should i for loop, or is there a better way?

Answer 1

You can use shift to shift the rows and then div to divide the Series against itself shifted:

In [44]:
df['Return'] = (df['Price'].shift(-1).div(df['Price']) - 1)
df

Out[44]:
         Date  Price    Return
0  2008-11-21  23.40  0.153419
1  2008-11-24  26.99  0.037421
2  2008-11-25  28.00 -0.077500
3  2008-11-26  25.83       NaN