Optiq
More informed options trading
Problem
Fintech has provided access without knowledge or expertise.
Over the past decade, fintech has given billions of people access to financial institutions and markets they'd otherwise never have had. We mostly hear the success stories—but a lot of money is also lost by uninformed, unequipped retail investors. This is especially true in options trading, where the number of individual investors has grown significantly, but so has the amount of losses.
Opportunity
AI can level the trading floor by providing
equal access to knowledge and expertise.
Applied AI can break through many of the barriers that once made this experience impossible. These three qualities that make it especially useful for options trading:
Natural language reduces barriers
AI can meet users at their level. Expertise is no longer hidden behind industry jargon.
Personalization at scale
Moving beyond blanket recommendations that don’t account for the user’s context.
Expertise as an on-demand utility
The ability to replicate the complex financial equations and concepts of Wall St.
Product Overview
A more relevant, approachable, and informed trading experience.
Problem #1
Lack of qualitative context.
Investment apps only take in "numerical" context: salary, liquidity, years of experience, but investing is a deeply personal endeavor that is often shaped by personal context. This makes current investment apps feel untrustworthy and irrelevant.
Feature #1
A personal and human investor profile.
Optiq gathers quantitative and qualitative data through questions like "What is your appetite for risk?" and "What's the most you're comfortable losing on a single trade?", using those inputs to surface more relevant strategies.
Problem #2
Retail investors view options trading as "betting".
Most retail investors view options as gambling rather than strategy. Without a proper thesis, they panic when trades go sideways and make decisions that are unlikely to generate profit.
Feature #2
Simple and intuitive thesis creation.
I designed a step-by-step flow that helps retail investors build a proper thesis, regardless of experience level, in a way that stays engaging without overwhelming them.
Problem #3
Lack of direction and actionable data.
Investment apps throw boilerplate graphs, vague data, and numbers at retail investors. Most don't know how to analyze them, act on them, or how it affects their intended trade
Feature #3
Approachable and informative pro insights.
Optiq surfaces the same insights a pro investor would look at—but through approachable language tailored to you and your specific thesis, so you can make your own informed decision.
Problem #4
Lack of strategic approach.
Retail investors often re-use basic strategies that don’t match their profile, context, or options thesis.
Feature #4
Personalized strategy recommendations.
Optiq uses your investor profile and thesis to score and rank strategies, making recommendations more relevant and personalized than other solutions.
Backend
How it works
Reflections
Reflections on using AI
Providing more optionality
AI turns your sketches and ideas into ‘good enough’ demos and prototypes. This means:
You have more time to deeply explore different directions before spending time developing a single direction.
You can quickly move from sketching to user testing, helping you implement and test feedback faster than ever.
It did not replace the ‘wisdom’ that a senior developer provides.
AI automating dev tasks helped me build something on my own, but it did not replace these dev skills:
Knowing which ‘technique’ is best for our unique set-up/product
Pointing out red flags in design that could cause issues in the product development.