Needle & Hay

Needle & Hay hero image
Sample report on TSLA
15 rules report on TSLA

Inspiration

Needle & Hay was born in r/CountryDumb — a small but sharp community that loves sharing practical, no-nonsense ways to spot value stocks. The subreddit’s 15 Tools for Stock Picking is the backbone: clear rules, plain English, no hype. We wanted a simple, open tool that runs those same rules live, so more people can gut-check a stock without spreadsheets or guesswork.

What it does

You punch in a ticker. Needle & Hay runs it through 15 rules: book value, P/E, debt vs. cash, insider buys, margins, macro headwinds — all the boring-but-important stuff. Each rule shows Pass, Fail, or N/A with a reason and source. Export it as Markdown for sharing back to r/CountryDumb, or grab JSON/PDF for your own notes.

How we built it

Frontend: React + Tailwind for a clean, fast UI.
Backend: Node.js, live stock data from Polygon.io.
AI Assist: OpenAI GPT for fallback context when data is missing or stale.
Transparency: Every rule links to its r/CountryDumb explainer — because we believe you should always see why.

Challenges we ran into

Stock data is messy. Small caps and biotech companies can have patchy coverage. Combining real-time numbers with AI summaries (without confusing the user) took some wrangling. Also, keeping the tone honest — not salesy — was important but tricky.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

It’s dead simple, yet fully transparent.
You can check a stock and share your notes with a single click.
The tool feels like the community that inspired it — not another black-box stock screener.

What we learned

Community-built rules hold up surprisingly well when turned into a live checklist. Clarity beats complexity. And sometimes the best thing software can do is get out of the way.