of the DataFrame's time series. The covariance is normalized by N-ddof. For DataFrames that have Series that are missing data (assuming that data is `missing at random `__) the returned covariance matrix will be an unbiased estimate of the variance and covariance between the member Series. However, for many applications this estimate may not be acceptable because the estimate covariance matrix is not guaranteed to be positive semi-definite. This could lead to estimate correlations having absolute values which are greater than one, and/or a non-invertible covariance matrix. See `Estimation of covariance matrices `__ for more details. Examples -------- >>> df = pd.DataFrame([(1, 2), (0, 3), (2, 0), (1, 1)], ... columns=['dogs', 'cats']) >>> df.cov() dogs cats dogs 0.666667 -1.000000 cats -1.000000 1.666667 >>> np.random.seed(42) >>> df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randn(1000, 5), ... columns=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']) >>> df.cov() a b c d e a 0.998438 -0.020161 0.059277 -0.008943 0.014144 b -0.020161 1.059352 -0.008543 -0.024738 0.009826 c 0.059277 -0.008543 1.010670 -0.001486 -0.000271 d -0.008943 -0.024738 -0.001486 0.921297 -0.013692 e 0.014144 0.009826 -0.000271 -0.013692 0.977795 **Minimum number of periods** This method also supports an optional ``min_periods`` keyword that specifies the required minimum number of non-NA observations for each column pair in order to have a valid result: >>> np.random.seed(42) >>> df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randn(20, 3), ... columns=['a', 'b', 'c']) >>> df.loc[df.index[:5], 'a'] = np.nan >>> df.loc[df.index[5:10], 'b'] = np.nan >>> df.cov(min_periods=12) a b c a 0.316741 NaN -0.150812 b NaN 1.248003 0.191417 c -0.150812 0.191417 0.895202 FrO