EquiFolio

Inspiration

Our shared frustration with traditional investment tools that failed to provide personalized, real-time insights. We noticed that many retail investors, particularly those balancing busy lives, were underserved by static portfolio advice. We wanted to create a solution that combined AI with live market data and sentiment analysis—offering not just numbers, but actionable insights driven by both quantitative data and the qualitative pulse of the market.

What it does

Personalized Portfolio Recommendations By analyzing a user’s investment profile, risk tolerance, and financial goals, EquiFolio suggests optimal portfolio adjustments. Live Market Data Integration Using tools like yfinance and OpenBB, the platform continuously pulls in market data and news, ensuring recommendations are always based on the latest information. Currently, it is connected to Alpaca to use paper trading money to simulate purchases. Sentiment Analysis Leveraging Together AI’s Deep Seek R1, EquiFolio examines market sentiment—from news headlines to social media chatter—to gauge public sentiment around key stocks and sectors.

How we built it

Our development journey was marked by rapid prototyping and agile collaboration. We began by setting up a Conda environment with Python 3.11 for our backend, ensuring compatibility with advanced libraries like PyTorch and FastAPI, while using Next.js to create an interactive and seamless front-end experience. The backend was built using FastAPI, where we developed endpoints for fetching market data, performing sentiment analysis, and triggering notifications. The front end communicates directly with these endpoints to display real-time market information, personalized portfolio insights, and AI-generated recommendations. This modular approach allowed us to start with minimal integrations—such as using LlamaIndex for basic AI parsing.

Challenges we ran into

API Integration Complexity: Merging data from multiple sources (yfinance, OpenBB, Together AI, HappyRobot) required careful handling of different response formats and error scenarios. Real-Time Data Handling: Ensuring that our system could process and display live market data without lag was a significant technical challenge. Security & Credential Management: Safeguarding sensitive API keys and user data, especially when dealing with financial information, necessitated a robust backend strategy. Time Constraints: Developing a comprehensive MVP within a single day meant making strategic trade-offs between ideal functionality and what could be reliably implemented. Team Collaboration: Coordinating tasks between frontend and backend teams in real-time required clear communication and strict version control practices to avoid merge conflicts.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Rapid MVP Delivery We managed to build and deploy a fully functional MVP within a single day, demonstrating the power of agile development and real-time collaboration. Seamless Integration Despite the time constraints, we successfully integrated multiple sponsor tools, showcasing our ability to work with diverse APIs and libraries. Robust Sentiment Analysis Incorporating Together AI’s Deep Seek R1 into our sentiment analysis pipeline provided a nuanced layer of insight that sets EquiFolio apart from traditional investment tools.

What we learned

This project taught us the importance of seamless integration among diverse external tools and reinforced the need for strong collaboration practices under tight deadlines. We learned that even the most advanced algorithms are only as valuable as the user experience they support; our Next.js front end was key to translating backend insights into actionable information for everyday investors.

What's next for EquiFolio

We aim to expand our data sources to increase the accuracy and depth of our insights, while developing more advanced automation features—such as automatic rebalancing and risk alerts through AgentQL and HappyRobot. In the future, we hope to integrate Senso and Alpaca into EquiFolio to further enhance its capabilities. By incorporating Senso, we can provide even deeper sentiment analysis and market insights, enabling our system to better understand and react to emerging market trends. Additionally, integrating Alpaca, a commission-free trading platform, will allow users to directly interact with their portfolios, enabling them to make trades based on the recommendations and insights provided by EquiFolio. This integration will create a seamless end-to-end experience, empowering users to take real-time action on their financial plans.