CS50 Finance

This project is a web application built using Flask, Python, and SQL, designed to simulate a stock trading platform. It's part of the CS50x Introduction to Computer Science.

Features

• User Registration and Login: Secure user authentication with password hashing.
• Stock Quotes: Fetches real-time stock quotes using the IEX Cloud API.
• Buy Stocks: Allows users to purchase shares of stocks.
• Sell Stocks: Enables users to sell shares of stocks they own.
• Transaction History: Displays a history of all user transactions.
• Portfolio: Shows the user's current stock holdings and their total value.
• Change Password: Securely allows users to change their passwords.
• Add Cash: Allows users to add additional cash to their account.

Technologies Used

• Flask: Python web framework.
• SQL (SQLite): Database for storing user data and transactions.
• Jinja2: Templating engine for HTML.
• Werkzeug: Password hashing and security.
• IEX Cloud API: For fetching stock quotes.
• Bootstrap: CSS framework for styling.

Setup

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone [your_repository_url]
   cd finance

2. Install Dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Set up IEX Cloud API Key:

   • Create an account on IEX Cloud.

   • Obtain your API key.

   • Set the API_KEY environment variable:

     export API_KEY=[your_api_key]

4. Run the Application:

   flask run

5. Access the Application:

   • Open your web browser and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:5000/.

Database Setup

The application uses an SQLite database (finance.db). The database schema includes tables for:

• users: Stores user registration information (username, password hash, cash).
• transactions: Stores stock transaction records (user ID, symbol, shares, price, date).

The database is created and initialized automatically when the application runs for the first time.

Adding Cash Feature (Additional Implementation)

I've also implemented a feature to allow users to add cash to their accounts. This involves:

• Creating a new route (/add_cash).
• A new HTML template (add_cash.html) with a form for cash input.
• Updating the users table in the database.
• Input validation to ensure the cash amount is a positive number.
• Flash messages to provide user feedback.

Notes

• This project is for educational purposes and is not intended for real-world stock trading.
• Ensure you handle API keys securely and do not expose them in your code.
• The helpers.py file contains helper functions for looking up stock quotes, formatting currency, and other common tasks.
• The layout.html file provides the base layout for all HTML templates.