Zazu

Increasing financial literacy by providing customizing portfolios to fit the needs of our clients.

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Inspiration

A 2017 Gallup poll found that 46% of Americans don't own stocks. By making smart investment choices you can grow your savings and start planning for the future. Most savings accounts offer between 1-2% annual returns, while the S&P500 has returned around 8% on average over the last 40 years. A 2017 survey conducted by Ally Invest found that 61% of adults find the stock market "scary or intimidating." We decided to develop Zazu to help people start investing by providing them with an optimized portfolio breakdown.

What it does

With just two simple questions - investment horizon and risk tolerance, Zazu calculates a custom investment portfolio for the user complete with asset allocations optimized to maximize Sharpe ratio. Zazu also provides users with a tool-tip that explain financial terms, making it simple enough for anyone to use.

How we built it

The back-end is built with Flask. It uses Numpy, Pandas, and Scipy to calculate optimized asset allocations for a portfolio. The front-end is composed of a React.js web app that communicates with the flask server through API calls. The core of the project is the BlackRock Aladdin API. Aladdin provides comprehensive statistics and portfolio analysis across many asset classes, so it was ideal for our application.

Challenges we ran into

Financial data is dirty by nature, so filling in the gaps while still making accurate calculations was a problem we had to overcome.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

A clean and simple user experience built on top of advanced portfolio insights accessible to anyone.

What we learned

Furthered financial knowledge, mobile development, collaborative coding practices.

What's next for Zazu

Adding more options such as sector exposure to further customize the portfolio to the user's needs.

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