Better Ocean

Inspiration: Better Ocean was inspired by a simple problem: most investing tools show a lot of data, but not enough plain-English guidance. We wanted to build a cleaner experience where users can learn what is happening in the market and in their own Schwab account before making decisions.

What it does: Better Ocean is an educational investing workspace that combines Schwab account context, public market data, and AI explanations.

It helps users:

analyze tickers in simple language, monitor market timing with a focused countdown view, discover dividend leaders, and get concise, action-oriented insights instead of long, confusing reports.

How we built it:

We built it as a full-stack web app:

Frontend: HTML, CSS, vanilla JavaScript

Backend: Node.js + Express API service

Hosting: DigitalOcean App Platform

AI layer: DigitalOcean Gradient AI

Data layer: Schwab API + public market/news/SEC sources

Performance: Managed Valkey caching for fast repeated queries and precomputed outputs for time-sensitive views

Challenges we ran into:

Managing Schwab OAuth and account retrieval reliably Handling trading/order edge cases and surfacing real rejection reasons Keeping UI responsive while combining multiple external data sources Preventing stale AI/data output with smart cache invalidation Balancing feature depth with a clean, beginner-friendly interface

Accomplishments that we're proud of:

Successfully integrated Schwab-connected account workflows Built a live Ticker Intel experience with cleaner, more readable output Added a focused Time tab for market-open awareness Launched a Dividend tab for high-yield leaders with live prices Deployed continuously to a production DigitalOcean environment with caching and performance

Improvements:

What we learned Clarity beats complexity in financial UX Caching and background precompute are essential for real-time-feeling apps Prompt structure strongly affects AI output quality Rapid iteration with real user feedback improves product quality much faster than static planning

What's next for Better Ocean

Expand educational account insights (account health, activity story, risk visibility) Improve dividend intelligence with payout calendars and sustainability signals Add stronger portfolio learning tools (allocation/risk coaching) Continue hardening reliability, speed, and data quality Evolve from a smart dashboard into a full investing copilot that remains transparent and easy to understand

Built With

• apis
• built-with-what-languages
• cloud-services
• databases
• frameworks
• or
• other
• platforms
• technologies