Calculating cumulative returns with pandas dataframe
<p>I have this dataframe</p>

<pre><code>Poloniex_DOGE_BTC   Poloniex_XMR_BTC    Daily_rets  perc_ret
172 0.006085    -0.000839   0.003309    0
173 0.006229    0.002111    0.005135    0
174 0.000000    -0.001651   0.004203    0
175 0.000000    0.007743    0.005313    0
176 0.000000    -0.001013   -0.003466   0
177 0.000000    -0.000550   0.000772    0
178 0.000000    -0.009864   0.001764    0
</code></pre>

<p>I'm trying to make a running total of daily_rets in perc_ret </p>

<p>however my code just copies the values from daily_rets</p>

<pre><code>df['perc_ret'] = (  df['Daily_rets'] + df['perc_ret'].shift(1) )


Poloniex_DOGE_BTC   Poloniex_XMR_BTC    Daily_rets  perc_ret
172 0.006085    -0.000839   0.003309    NaN
173 0.006229    0.002111    0.005135    0.005135
174 0.000000    -0.001651   0.004203    0.004203
175 0.000000    0.007743    0.005313    0.005313
176 0.000000    -0.001013   -0.003466   -0.003466
177 0.000000    -0.000550   0.000772    0.000772
178 0.000000    -0.009864   0.001764    0.001764
</code></pre>