The Problem
I am a casual but long term investor in the stock market and have a very simple strategy. I like to find technology stocks that I have high conviction in (long term) and try to buy them when they are discounted. Hold on to it for as long as possible and hopefully one day be able to use the funds to pay for my children’s education expenses in ~20 years. In the investing world, this is a form of “Buying the Dip” strategy. For example, I have a lot of conviction in the long term prospects of Apple. Every time, Apple stock drops 20% from a recent high, as per my strategy I should buy more Apple as I believe that in the long run Apple’s value will rebound.
As simple as this strategy is, I found it difficult and time consuming to identify these dips in an efficient way. Moreover, I found myself feeling stressed about missing out on investment opportunities in my favorite companies.
The MVP
To solve this problem, I did what most product managers would do: build a Minimum Valuable/Viable Product. I created a spreadsheet! I tried both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets and I ended up going with Google Sheets because surprisingly GoogleFinance’s capabilities has more functions for what I was looking to do vs Excel. In case you aren’t aware, both Excel and Sheets let you pull in near real time stats about stocks with easy built-in functions. For example, Google Sheets allows you to specify the date range for the price you want to return. I couldn’t find a way in Excel to do that. The downside to Google Sheets is that the API is glitchy sometimes and sometimes returns empty results. In any case, the spreadsheet looked something like this.
The Tools
I shared the spreadsheet with some close friends and immediately received feedback that this was helpful to them. I also found myself checking in every morning to see which cells had turned green. Given this initial interest, I decided it would be more user friendly to transform the spreadsheet into an app that can be used on the go. In addition, I wanted to do this without writing a single line of code.
I considered 3 different no-code app builders: Appsheet (owned by Google), Adalo, and Glide. I absolutely loved Appsheet’s customizations into different ways of slicing and dicing the data. However, it required me download an app in order to use on my mobile which was a dealbreaker for me. Adalo also looked great in terms of customization and has a PWA (progressive web app) option but it didn’t connect with Google Sheets. Glide doesnt have all the UX customizations that I would have liked but it was super fast to get set up. It also plugs in seamlessly with Google Sheets for the data. In the end, I picked Glide for its ease of distribution (PWA). It has enough customization in terms of UX and different types of layouts for my needs.
The Solution
Now that I have my tool picked, it was time to build. To recap, I am trying to build a tool that helps long term investors easily identify high conviction companies that are priced at a discount from a recent high.
After about 1-2 hours of poking around and tweaking the layout and data elements, I built the first version of DipFinder. Entirely no-code, powered completely by Google Sheets, and totally Free (so far)! It is built for mobile as a progressive web app which basically means that users get the benefit of being able to use it on the go but without having to download any apps. Any updates made to the app by me are automatically received without have to download any updates. As a creator, it lets me get the app to users without having to go through the App Store.
In the screengrab below, you can see some of the key v1 functionalities such as browsing for dipped stocks in a card layout, detail page, adding to watchlist, and searching for individual companies
Try it out!
If you’d like to try this app out, you can access it here: https://verdant-jar-4263.glideapp.io/
For best experience, open from a mobile phone and add the link to your homescreen. It will then feel like a native app. If you have any comments, feedback, or suggestions, please leave them below! Happy investing!
Disclaimer: All data and information is provided “as is” for personal informational purposes only, and is not intended for trading purposes or financial, investment, tax, legal, accounting or other advice. Please consult your broker or financial representative to verify pricing before executing any trade. DipFinder is not an investment adviser, financial adviser or a securities broker.