cs261

A financial analysis platform, that aggregates news articles on a company and analyses their potential affect on a company's finances.

Setup

This application requires Python 3.12, pip and Node.js to be installed.

• To download necessary Python libraries, run pip install -r requirements.txt.
• To download necessary Node libraries, run npm install.

Environment Variables

The application requires a .env file to be present in the root directory.

The file should contain variables like those in exampleenv

Building and Execution

To build the front-end code, please run npm run build.

Development: use npm run build-watch to watch files - webpack will re-build if a change is detected.

To start the server, run python main.py. Include the flag --debug to run in debug mode. To stop the server, press Ctrl+C.

Database

The database comes pre-loaded with the FTSE100 and S&P500 companies. Due to API limits, the database only contains 1 stock per company. These are then added to if you search the company on the website.

Test Suite

To run the default selection of tests use python test.py.

To run specific test(s) use python test.py -t test1 test2 etc.

To see available tests use -l. To show the result of test passes include -v. To show help use -h.

File Structure

The general structure of the project is given below. The descriptions of noteworthy folders and files are provided.

• analysis/ - contains code for the machine learning aspects of the program.
  • analysis.py - contains the main analysis functions.
• data/ - contains data for the application.
  • api.py - interacts with the APIs used in the application.
  • database.db - SQLite database file.
  • database.py - interacts with the database.
  • interface.py - provides an interface to the database and APIs.
  • news_whitelist.csv - A list of news sources that are considered reliable.
• public/ - contains front-end source files.
  • assets/ - contains images and other assets.
  • dist/ - compiled output from webpack; served as static.
  • src/ - JavaScript source files.
  • styles/ - (S)CSS source files.
  • index.html - website template (note this is compiled into dist/).
• server/ - contains back-end source files.
  • app.py - defines function create_app which creates the application.
  • constants.py - defines various non-sensitive constants to be used.
  • routes.py - defines the routes for the application.
• testing/ - contains code and test data used to test various parts of the program.
• util/ - contains utility files (not used directly by the application).
• main.py - application entry point.
• test.py - test suite entry point.
• .env - environment variables (this is not committed. Please ask team member's for latest version).
• exampleenv - example environment variables file.
• reset-database.py - script to reset the database to its initial state (pre populated with FTSE100 and S&F500 companies).

APIs used

• News API - used to fetch news articles.
• Newscatcher API - used to fetch news articles.
• Alpha Vantage API - used to fetch stock data.
• yfinance - used to fetch stock data