An educational investment simulation platform that helps new investors learn market fundamentals, risk management, and long-term strategy without using real money. The platform combines real-time market data with AI-powered mentorship in a strictly educational, non-advisory environment.
The Investment Learning Platform is a paper-trading simulator that allows users to invest virtual money into real stocks and cryptocurrencies using live market data. Users can track portfolios, set financial goals, compare assets, and chat with an AI mentor—all while remaining in a safe learning environment (no real-money trading).
This project was built as a group capstone project with a full product lifecycle: scope alignment, data modeling, backend services, AI integration, frontend UX, testing, and demo preparation.
Many first-time investors lose money early due to:
- Lack of foundational knowledge
- Emotional decision-making
- Platforms that encourage real-money investing too soon
New investors need a risk-free environment to learn, build confidence, and practice decision-making without financial consequences.
A learning-first simulation platform that provides:
- Real-time market realism via live data
- Paper-money portfolio simulation (buy/sell)
- Goal-based tracking (timeline + risk tolerance)
- AI-powered mentorship with educational tone and strict safety rules
- Create portfolios with a paper money balance
- Buy/sell assets with balance validation
- Track portfolio value, gains/losses, and transaction history
- Stock + crypto market data service
- Asset search
- Asset detail / quote view
- Quote caching strategy for performance
- Create savings/investing goals (e.g., “$20k for a house in 3 years”)
- Progress calculations and progress UI (bars/details)
- Side-by-side comparison UI
- Compare price and basic metrics (and risk-related indicators when available)
- Learning views for asset types
- Learning views for risk metrics
- Plain-language explanations triggered by portfolio conditions
- Beginner-friendly “common mistakes” content
- Chat interface + conversation history
- Portfolio/risk context injection for personalized educational guidance
- Safety validation to keep tone informational (not advisory)
- Frontend: React
- Backend: Java, Spring Boot
- Database: PostgreSQL
- Market Data: TwelveData (stocks + crypto)
- AI/LLM: Llama 4 (educational mentor wrapper + system prompt)
- Register User
- Onboarding (educational purpose + disclaimer acceptance)
- Dashboard (portfolio summary, value, cash, holdings, P/L)
- Market Search + Asset Detail (quote, metrics, buy flow)
- Portfolio Management (positions, sell flow, sorting/filtering)
- Asset Comparison (side-by-side)
- AI Mentor Chat
- Goal Tracking (create goal, list, progress display)
- Education Hub
This application is for educational purposes only. It does not provide financial advice or investment recommendations and does not support real-money trading. All investing activity shown is simulated with virtual funds.