stock-app

Hello! This is a simple stock app I created to practice using APIs and to familiarize myself with the JSON data format. Over the summer of 2021 I became interested in stocks and investment, so this was a fun way to learn more about the market while learning useful coding skills.

The app is powered by the excellent Alpha Vantage API. There is currently a rate limit of 5 calls per minute and a hard limit of 500 calls per day. Unfortunately the cheapest plan is $49.99 a month, so I think I'll stick to the free option.

Current goals for this project:

Short-term:

• develop the GUI to look nice
• Add functionality for selecting specific days
• incorporate matplotlib or seaborn to display graphical data for specific stocks

Long-term:

• mobile support
• more ticker data
• fundamentals data (PEG, etc) and larger market data (S&P500, Dow Jones)
• algorithm for comparing stock's performance to market trends (overvalued or undervalued?)
• massive disclaimer that the algorithm is made by an amateur and will not beat the market

A small note: the code originally contained my personal API key before I realized the repo was public. The original repo was changed but just to be sure I deleted it (better safe than sorry). You can get a free API key from the Alpha Vantage website and paste it wherever the app requires it.

Update: better GUI framework found

While looking around for a good framework I found PyQt5. It looks pretty well-supported and documented and has cross-platform support, so I'll try to use it for this app. Hopefully this will make it easier to add functionality.

Update 2: I got a crypto account

I got a Kraken account and there is a place to get an API key. Maybe I could use this for that push notification idea I had earlier? Perhaps I could use Kraken's API with this app to get better crypto data than what Alpha Vantage offers.

Update 3: AlphaVantage does not offer real-time data

Apparently Alpha Vantage recently changed their API to no longer support current, real-time data reports. More info can be found at this thread. Alpha Vantage is also directing people who want real-time data to another site, Polygon.io.

This means I might have to choose between Alpha Vantage and Polygon.io. I could use Alpha Vantage for making long-term graphs and identifying trends and Polygon for getting real-time data. Pricing may also be an obstacle.

Here is Polygon.io's python client code. The repo includes example code and generally looks like a great resource.

See more detailed info on Polygon's API here. Polygon does not offer real-time data at the free level. It appears that data, like freedom, doesn't come cheap. Back to the drawing board.

Updated goals:

• Use the Polygon API for faster get times and better data
• read data as a JSON file, not a txt file
• Implement a GUI with an easy-to-use layout
• Integrate matplotlib or pandas to display data