The latest articles on DEV Community by Mark (@neuralpathways). https://dev.to/neuralpathways https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3918150%2F54d3af48-5639-4b9a-bd7f-4fb552aacfff.png https://dev.to/neuralpathways en Mark Thu, 07 May 2026 14:31:31 +0000 https://dev.to/neuralpathways/i-built-a-plain-english-sec-filing-reader-because-i-never-understood-what-i-owned-37lj https://dev.to/neuralpathways/i-built-a-plain-english-sec-filing-reader-because-i-never-understood-what-i-owned-37lj <p>I've been investing for years. Index funds, some individual stocks. But I'd never read a single annual filing (10-K) for any company<br> I owned.</p> <p>When I finally tried Apple's — 60 pages of dense financial and legal language. I gave up after 10 minutes.</p> <p>So I built the tool I wished existed.</p> <h2> What it does </h2> <p>Each company gets 3 short pages:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Overview</strong> — what the company actually does</li> <li> <strong>Income</strong> — where revenue comes from, by product and by region</li> <li> <strong>Health</strong> — key financial metrics scored against industry benchmarks</li> </ul> <p>Every finance term is tappable for a plain-English definition.</p> <h2> The stack </h2> <ul> <li>Next.js + React (frontend)</li> <li>Django + PostgreSQL (backend)</li> <li>Hosted on Vercel + Railway</li> </ul> <h2> What's live </h2> <p>10 companies: Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, Tesla, JPMorgan, Johnson &amp; Johnson, Coca-Cola.</p> <p>Free, no signup, no ads: <a href="https://decodingstocks.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">decodingstocks.com</a></p> <h2> What I learned </h2> <ul> <li>Hand-written explanations take 10x longer than I expected, but the quality difference vs AI-generated text is obvious.</li> <li>Lighthouse audits early and often — fixing performance issues late is painful.</li> <li>Legal pages (Privacy, Terms, Disclaimer, Cookies) took almost as long as actual features. GDPR is no joke even for a free tool.</li> </ul> <p>Not financial advice. Would love feedback — especially what's confusing or what company you'd want added next.</p> webdev beginners finance showdev