Inspiration
This project was inspired by the BlackRock sponsor challenge to assist individual investors in financial planning and the market. We are also inspired by the "Cheat Code" tracks, building extensions off of many established services to provide an easier method for getting started in investing.
Many individuals today are being encouraged to save and invest in the stock market and the economy. However, many individuals - especially younger adults - find the complex investing process to be quite daunting, which repels many from starting funds and investment portfolios. We hope to provide greater accessibility to smart saving and spending with We feel that it's really important for everyone to understand the market and start investing early, so we hope that we can help people get started with good investment practices.
What it does
It's a good rule of thumb that if one is having trouble choosing which companies to invest in, they can look at the companies and product types that they buy, and invest in those same companies for which they are customers.
With Dexity we took this two steps farther; Dexity looks through user transaction data to find the publicly-trading companies that our customers frequent. Then, Dexity compiles an index fund catered to the user's purchasing patterns and interests, providing a cohesive set of investment recommendations for our customers to follow.
How we built it
Our website uses several frameworks:
- ReactJS: Our Website's Front End
- Express/Node JS: Our Website's Back End API
- MongoDB: Our Database
We also connect to multiple APIs and use other tools to:
- Get Stock Tickers and Basic Price Information with NASDAQ and alphavantage
- Authenticate our users' accounts with Firebase
- Connect our users' bank transaction information via Plaid API tools
Challenges we ran into
One major challenge we encountered was finding a stock API that would provide necessary data, such that we could easily get different historical metrics as well as current live prices. However, with thorough research, we found two API endpoints from which we could combine data to get all of our historical and our live data.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- Establishing complex networks and flows of data among a multitude of different frameworks, APIs, and tools
- Integrating with powerful and widely-used platforms, such as Plaid and NASDAQ
- Creating a project that provides real-world value by assisting beginners in the investment process
What we learned
Developing Dexity encouraged us to learn and develop so many different technologies and gain new experiences. Here are just a few of our biggest learning experiences:
- We familiarized ourselves with the MERN (MongoDB, Express, React, Node) web development stack
- We practiced
fetchrequests to receive data and connect with external services using REST APIs - We learned about how to use
gitfor version control, as well as how to configure packages for JavaScript application development - We learned the practice of visualizing actionable data
What's next for Dexity
Currently, we have a solid platform for our customers to see a customized suggestion of stocks to include in an index fund. We see a future of expanding on this by allowing customers to further customize their suggestions with extra input. We also would like to expand the app by providing other layers of stock analysis to easily convey good investment choices to our customers. Lastly, we feel that connecting to services such as Stripe or RobinHood for setting up bank payments to actually perform the investing as well. In all, there are many routes for expansion, and this team believes that the foundation for Dexity developed here at HackGT will strongly benefit future customers.
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