Inspiration
As 19-year-olds, we developed an interest in managing our finances, specifically in the area of investment and trading, but with this newfound interest, we've realized that the stock market is a lot more complex and difficult to understand than we had originally thought. One of the things we wish we could have had when starting our investment portfolio was guidance. Which is what inspired us to create StockWise.
What it does
Tool geared towards supporting beginner investors who don't have comprehensive experience dealing with financial markets. For a long time, the stock market has been closed off to those without financial literacy, so our goal is to help change that and make the process less daunting.
Our tool tracks the stock market, providing up-to-date information on stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), along with offering the most relevant and current news about each stock in their portfolio to help users make the best and most informed decisions. Besides just tracking and informing users on the stocks, we also intend to teach our users about the stock market and how it is operated, using quizzes as well as an AI chatbot that is readily available to answer any questions the user may have.
How we built it
We built StockWise as a full-stack web app using Python and Flask for the backend and clean HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the frontend, focusing on simplicity for beginners. We integrated Yahoo Finance to power real-time stock data, charts, and news, and used the Gemini API to generate clear, beginner-friendly explanations, summaries, and personalized insights. The app stores user portfolios and watchlists in session for a lightweight experience, while features like interactive charts, AI-powered news breakdowns, and trade retrospectives work together to turn complex financial data into simple, meaningful learning moments.
Challenges we ran into
We initially ran into issues when trying to implement the Finnhub API into our website. The graphs, which we were using to provide visuals for each individual stock, were not loading. To overcome this, we switched over to Yahoo Finance, which caused no issues and was seamlessly integrated into our code.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
As beginner hackers, we are mainly just proud of being able to produce a working prototype of an original idea. As this is our first hackathon, we came to Conestoga College unsure of the path we would take and how this experience would play out, but now we'll be leaving with a sense of accomplishment and pride because at the end of the day, we created something that we are passionate about.
What we learned
As first-time hackathon participants, building StockWise pushed us to quickly learn essential tools like GitHub and VS Code. We learned how to manage code with branches, commits, and merges, while using VS Code to organize and debug our project. We also gained hands-on experience working with APIs by integrating NewsCatcher for stock information and Gemini for AI features, turning our new skills into a fully functional app.
What's next for StockWise
We want to build on our prototype's foundation by adding real user accounts and a database so users can securely save their progress and track their growth over time. We plan to expand our AI features to provide deeper, more personalized insights and lessons based on each user’s behaviour, as well as introduce smarter portfolio analytics and goal tracking. We also want to refine the user experience with a more polished, mobile-first design and continue improving the accuracy and clarity of our explanations. Ultimately, our goal is to evolve StockWise from a beginner tool into a long-term learning companion that grows with users as they become more confident investors.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.