Market Mentor

technologies

Inspiration

The world of stock trading can be overwhelming, especially for newcomers. We wanted to create a platform where anyone, regardless of experience, can learn about stock markets, practice trading without financial risk, and receive AI-powered guidance to improve their decision-making skills. Our goal was to blend the educational aspect with practical simulation, so users can gain confidence in their investment strategies before diving into the real market.

What it does

Market Mentor provides real-time stock market information and a virtual trading environment where users can practice buying and selling stocks with fake money. It analyzes stock trends using integrated APIs and offers personalized insights based on a user’s preferences and resources. Additionally, an AI-powered chatbot is available to answer questions, offer recommendations, and assist users in understanding complex financial concepts, making the learning process engaging and interactive.

How we built it

We built Market Mentor using React for the frontend to provide a seamless and interactive user experience. The backend is powered by Flask and integrates with financial APIs like Alpaca and Alpha Vantage to pull live stock data. We also integrated Auth0 for secure user authentication. The AI chatbot leverages natural language processing models to assist users in real-time, helping them make informed decisions. Throughout, we used Flask-CORS to handle cross-origin requests effectively, ensuring smooth communication between the frontend and backend.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into countless challenges along the way. One of them was with the AI model acting as a chatbot for our website. We initially wanted to use Hugging Face as our model to process inputs, but the models didn't give us the results that we wanted. So we decided to explore for other options and eventually chose Google Gemini and we got it to work. Another thing is getting familiar to GitHub collaboration and resolving many push conflicts. Overall, the main challenge is to combine everyone's knowledge and skillset to align with our common goals. And we think we did a great job with that.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re particularly proud of building a fully functional virtual trading platform with real-time stock information. The successful integration of the AI chatbot to provide meaningful guidance to users was a major milestone, as was implementing the secure authentication process with Auth0. Another highlight is how we made stock trading approachable for beginners, offering them a risk-free environment to hone their skills while also catering to more experienced traders with advanced insights.

What we learned

Through this project, we learned a lot about integrating various APIs and handling real-time data efficiently. We gained experience with React and Flask for building a full-stack application and deepened our understanding of authentication protocols like OAuth. We also learned about natural language processing techniques and how to make AI models more user-friendly by focusing on delivering clear, concise, and actionable insights. Most importantly, we learned about the challenges and rewards of teamwork.

What's next for Market Mentor

In the future, we plan to expand Market Mentor by offering more advanced trading features, such as stock options and risk assessments. We aim to incorporate machine learning models to provide predictive analytics, helping users understand potential market movements. Additionally, we plan to further improve the AI chatbot’s capabilities, enabling it to offer more in-depth financial education and personalized investment strategies. Finally, we’re looking into integrating social features so users can share insights and strategies with friends or a larger community of traders.