Fun, Fast, Free, with Friends.

Inspiration

Inspired by a recent video in which a goldfish outperformed all of the r/WallStreetBets subreddit, we wondered if the collective knowledge of a group of friends could do any better.

What it does

Groups can create and join community portfolios where the group as a whole can decide their financial future together. Each period, the group is presented with a choice of two stocks or cryptocurrencies. During this period, each member of the group can vote on which asset they would like to buy. At the conclusion of the period, the asset with more votes is purchased with all of the funds in the portfolio. This is repeated with two new random assets each period, and the performance of the portfolio is tracked for every trade.

How we built it

We used Python and Django to create the backend that manages the portfolios and interfaces with the Alpaca API. Additionally, we created the frontend using JavaScript and React with the Mantine component library.

Challenges we ran into

Our main challenges occurred during deployment. Nginx gave us continual trouble when trying to deploy the backend Django project. Additionally, when we transitioned our frontend to AWS Amplify, it required that all requests go through HTTPS, but our backend was hosted on AWS EC2 and did not have SSL. To overcome this, we had to disable the security privileges of our web browser.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We have integration with a real Alpaca paper trading portfolio, which means that we can track the real performance of a group. This allows the users to see the true performance of their combined intellect in real time! Additionally, our polished frontend gives our users a professional experience and allows them to see the performance of the group’s combined intellect with every trade. This interfaces nicely with the REST API we developed on the backend.

What's next for Idiots Invest

Future development will add a text chat feature so that members of a community can share their ideas about the current vote and the portfolio’s overall performance. We want to emphasize scalability and customizability, adding features such as allowing communities to tweak the trading frequency of their portfolio, new power ups, seasonal events, and more events to bring the community together.