diff --git a/docs/Makefile b/docs/Makefile
index d49ab547..666dc804 100644
--- a/docs/Makefile
+++ b/docs/Makefile
@@ -19,12 +19,13 @@ ALLSPHINXOPTS   = -d $(BUILDDIR)/doctrees $(PAPEROPT_$(PAPER)) $(SPHINXOPTS) sou
 # the i18n builder cannot share the environment and doctrees with the others
 I18NSPHINXOPTS  = $(PAPEROPT_$(PAPER)) $(SPHINXOPTS) source
 
-.PHONY: help build clean html dirhtml singlehtml pickle json htmlhelp qthelp devhelp epub latex latexpdf text man changes linkcheck doctest coverage gettext
+.PHONY: help build clean html livehtml dirhtml singlehtml pickle json htmlhelp qthelp devhelp epub latex latexpdf text man changes linkcheck doctest coverage gettext
 
 help:
 	@echo "Please use \`make <target>' where <target> is one of"
 	@echo "  build      to build the C and Cython extensions for zipline"
 	@echo "  html       to make standalone HTML files"
+	@echo "  livehtml   to run a persistent process that rebuilds the docs"
 	@echo "  dirhtml    to make HTML files named index.html in directories"
 	@echo "  singlehtml to make a single large HTML file"
 	@echo "  pickle     to make pickle files"
@@ -61,6 +62,9 @@ html: build
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished. The HTML pages are in $(BUILDDIR)/html."
 
+livehtml: build
+	sphinx-autobuild -p 9999 -b html $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/html
+
 dirhtml: build
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b dirhtml $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/dirhtml
 	@echo
diff --git a/etc/requirements_docs.txt b/etc/requirements_docs.txt
index 8dc2d5c1..362d4725 100644
--- a/etc/requirements_docs.txt
+++ b/etc/requirements_docs.txt
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 Sphinx>=1.3.2
 numpydoc>=0.5.0
+sphinx-autobuild==0.6.0