DEV Community: tarat

How I Stopped Following Stock Tips and Started Finding My Own

tarat — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:06:24 +0000

I used to be that person. You know the one. Scrolling through Reddit at 1 AM, seeing someone’s DD post about a stock I’d never heard of, and buying in the next morning because the post had a lot of awards.

It went about as well as you’d expect. After losing money on a few “can’t miss” picks, I realized I needed to actually learn how to find stocks worth watching instead of relying on strangers on the internet who may or may not have already bought in before writing their post.

So I built a system. Not a fancy one, but one that consistently surfaces stocks worth my attention before they’re on everyone’s radar.

Stop looking at what everyone else is looking at

The biggest shift in my approach happened when I stopped trying to find the next big thing and started looking for things the market was ignoring. That’s pretty vague I know, so here’s specifically what I mean. Most retail investors, myself included, spend way too much time on the same 15–20 stocks. Apple, Tesla, NVIDIA, whatever Jim Cramer talked about last night.

Meanwhile there are hundreds of mid-cap stocks moving 3–5% on unusual volume and nobody’s paying attention. I started screening for stocks with unusual activity relative to their normal patterns. A stock that typically trades 2 million shares suddenly doing 8 million on a Tuesday afternoon, that’s interesting. Not because volume alone means anything, but because it tells you something changed. Maybe an institution is building a position. Maybe there’s an earnings whisper. Maybe nothing. But at least you’re looking at something not everyone else is already in.

Reddit sentiment is a signal, but not the one you think

I know I just said I stopped following Reddit tips, and I did. But I didn’t stop reading Reddit entirely. I just changed how I used it. Instead of looking at Reddit for stock picks, I started looking at it for sentiment data. There’s a real difference. When you see 200 posts about the same stock in a day, that tells you something about crowd psychology. When everyone is bullish on something, contrarian alarm bells should go off. When nobody’s talking about a stock that’s quietly up 12% this month, that’s also useful information.

I track how many times tickers get mentioned across finance subreddits and whether the overall tone is bullish or bearish. It’s not about agreeing with the crowd. It’s about knowing where the crowd is so you can think independently.

Build a radar, not a portfolio (at first)

One mistake I made early on was confusing “this stock is interesting” with “I should buy this stock right now.” Those are very different thoughts. Now I keep a running watchlist of maybe 20–30 stocks that I’m watching for different reasons. Some are companies I genuinely believe in long term. Some are stocks showing unusual patterns I want to understand better.

Some are on there because I have a hunch but no conviction yet. The key is that most of them I never buy. The watchlist is a research tool, not a shopping list. I add stocks to it, track them over weeks, and only pull the trigger when I can articulate clearly why I want to own it and at what price.

Lately I’ve been using stocksbrew.online a lot because it does the annoying parts for me, flags unusual market activity, gives buy/hold/sell calls with reasoning you can actually read and disagree with, and tracks Reddit sentiment across hundreds of posts daily so I don’t have to.

The radar feature sends email alerts when something on your watchlist moves, which is nice because I don’t want to be glued to a screen all day. It’s free for up to 3 stocks if you want to poke around.

The specific tool matters less than the habit though. Whether you use a spreadsheet, a notes app, or something like StocksBrew, the point is to have a system where interesting stocks go in and get tracked over time instead of impulse-bought.

Look at what’s actually unusual

Here’s a pattern I’ve noticed. The stocks that do well long-term are often ones where something unusual is happening that the market hasn’t fully priced in yet. Maybe a company’s revenue grew 40% but the stock dropped because earnings missed by a penny. Maybe insiders have been buying steadily for three months. Maybe the Reddit crowd hates it but the fundamentals are actually improving. I started paying more attention to anomalies, things that don’t fit the expected pattern.

A stock that should be going up based on its numbers but isn’t, or one that’s rallying for reasons nobody can clearly explain. These mismatches are where opportunities live, because they usually resolve eventually and the market corrects. The tricky part is that anomalies are by definition hard to spot. You have to be looking at a lot of stocks and actually paying attention to what’s normal for each one before you can notice when something is off. This is where having a tool that automatically flags unusual activity saves a ton of time versus manually scanning hundreds of tickers.

The boring stuff actually matters

I know “do your own research” is the most cliché advice in investing. Everyone says it, nobody knows what it actually means in practice. For me it means this. Before I buy any stock, I want to know five things.

What does the company actually do and how does it make money? How fast is revenue growing? Is the stock expensive or cheap relative to its growth? What’s the overall market sentiment? And is there anything unusual happening with the stock right now that most people might be missing? That last question is the one most people skip. They’ll look at the P/E ratio and the revenue growth and call it research. But the unusual stuff, the insider buying, the volume spikes, the Reddit sentiment shifts, that’s often where the real edge is.

What I’d tell myself two years ago

Honestly I’d just say stop trying to find the next 10-bagger and build a process for evaluating stocks systematically.

The money is in the boring, consistent research, not in the exciting “I found it before everyone else” moments. And start a watchlist. Seriously, having a list of stocks you’re tracking but haven’t bought yet is one of the most underrated habits in retail investing. It forces you to be patient and only buy when you have real conviction, not when you’re excited about a Reddit post at 1 AM. There will always be another opportunity.

The question is whether you’ll be ready for it because you’ve been doing the work, or whether you’ll be chasing it after it’s already gone up 30%.

I know which one I’d rather be.

I built an AI news app that gets you informed in 30 seconds (here's what I learned)

tarat — Mon, 04 May 2026 05:10:21 +0000

After getting frustrated with news apps designed to keep me scrolling forever, I built Trace - an Android app that aggregates news from 100+ sources and uses AI to create 30-second summaries.

The app is free, no ads, no subscription. Just news that respects your time.

The Problem

Every morning I'd open Google News or Twitter and 30 minutes would vanish. Not because I was learning anything useful, but because the algorithms were designed to keep me engaged, not informed.

I'd end up reading the same story from 5 different angles, missing important things entirely, and feeling anxious about stuff that didn't matter.

So I asked myself: what if there was a news app that actually respected my time?

What I Built

Trace is an Android app that does one thing well: gets you informed fast.

How it works:

Set your role once (developer, founder, designer, PM)
Pick your interests (AI, startups, world news, etc.)
Every hour, Trace aggregates from 100+ sources and creates 30-second summaries
You read the highlights, tap into any story for full context, done

The features I'm most proud of:

• Story Timelines - When a story breaks, Trace groups every angle across publications into one timeline. You see how the story developed without jumping between apps.

• AI Summaries - Not clickbait headlines, not full articles. Just the facts, summarized into 30-second reads.

• Streak Tracker - Gamification that actually works. Track your daily reading habit and stay disciplined.

• Multiple Reading Modes - Scroll through your feed for a quick overview, or tap into a story for full context. Your choice.

What I Learned

Free Gets 10x More Downloads

I initially thought about charging $2.99. Then I made it free and downloads jumped immediately. The Play Store algorithm favors free apps, and users are more likely to try something with zero friction.

ASO is SEO for Apps

App Store Optimization is the Play Store equivalent of SEO. Your title, description, and keywords determine if anyone finds your app.

I rewrote my Play Store description to include specific keywords: "AI news app", "tech news aggregator", "daily news summary". Small changes, big impact.

Reddit is the Best Channel

For indie Android apps, Reddit outperforms everything. r/androidapps, r/androiddev, r/SideProject - these communities actually want to discover new apps.

The key: be genuine. Don't pitch. Share what you built and why.

Building in Public Creates Accountability

When I started sharing progress on Twitter and Reddit, I found myself more committed. Public accountability is a powerful motivator.

Reviews Matter More Than Downloads

The Play Store algorithm weighs ratings heavily. Getting 10 5-star reviews is worth more than 1000 downloads with no reviews.

I added a gentle in-app prompt after users complete their 3rd day streak. Conversion rate: ~8%.

Current Stats

• Downloads: 100+ (just launched)
• Rating: 4.8 stars
• Sources: 100+
• Cost: Free forever
• Ads: None

What's Next

• iOS version (coming soon)
• Browser extension for desktop
• More AI features (personalized insights)
• Newsletter integration

Try It

The app is free on Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=online.yourtrace.app

My Actual AI Coding Setup in 2026 (And How I Decide What to Use for What)

tarat — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 08:07:20 +0000

I went from doing everything in Cursor to running multiple AI agents across projects. Here's exactly what I use, when, and the budget-friendly alternatives.

I made a video about this recently but figured I'd write it up properly for the dev.to crowd since there's more nuance I wanted to get into.

About 6 months ago, my entire AI coding workflow was just Cursor. Claude models, composer, done. It handled UI, debugging, features — everything lived in one place.

That setup already feels ancient.

There's a pretty clear progression I've noticed most devs going through right now:

IDE-based AI (Cursor) → Terminal agents (Claude Code) → Agent orchestration (Codex desktop, Claude Code desktop)
I've been through all three. Here's where I've landed.

Cursor — still use it, just differently now

Not going to pretend I've abandoned Cursor. It's still great for quick edits and when I want AI assistance without leaving my editor.

The one change: I default to Composer 2 for basically everything. I know the launch was controversial but honestly — it's nearly Opus-level for 99% of daily tasks and way cheaper. If you're still manually picking models per prompt, just switch to Composer 2 as your default and forget about it.

But Cursor alone isn't enough anymore. It's one layer of the stack now, not the whole thing.

Claude Code — where I do all my UI work

This was the bigger mental shift. Building full apps from your terminal without opening a single file in your editor is wild when you first experience it.

Where it really clicks for me: UI and frontend work.
Once you connect MCPs and agent skills — particularly Figma MCP — you can go from Figma design → pixel-perfect UI directly through Claude Code. That pipeline alone changed how I approach frontend tasks.

If you haven't set up MCPs for Claude Code yet, seriously do it. It's a multiplier.

Agent orchestration — where I think everything is heading

This is the part that feels newest and most underrated.
Tools like the Claude Code desktop app and Codex desktop app let you run and manage multiple agents across multiple projects at the same time. Instead of one terminal, one agent, one task — you spin up several and keep tabs on all of them.

My split:
Codex → backend, architecture, system design stuff
Claude Code (desktop app) → UI and frontend work

Running Claude Code through the desktop app instead of raw terminal means I can manage multiple instances and actually see what each agent is doing. That visibility matters when you're juggling things.

This separation has been my biggest productivity unlock this year. Stop forcing one tool to do everything.

The budget stack (if subscriptions are killing you)

All of the above is expensive. Here's what I'd do on a budget:
Open Code instead of Claude Code. Runs in terminal, similar workflow, but gives you access to non-Anthropic models that are generally cheaper.

Codex subscription if you're going to spend money on one thing. Best output-per-dollar ratio right now IMO. Cursor + Claude Code costs stack up fast.
Pair those two with something like Windsurf and you're covering most use cases at a fraction of the cost.

The thing nobody talks about

Half of being productive with AI tools is just knowing what exists. The space moves weekly. New MCPs, new agent frameworks, new models, new workflows that make last week's setup feel inefficient.

I got tired of checking Twitter, Reddit, HN, and a dozen newsletters every morning trying to keep up. So I built Trace — it pulls from 100+ sources daily and gives you a curated, summarized view of what's actually happening in AI and tech. No infinite scroll, just the stuff that matters. Might save you some time if you're in the same boat.

TL;DR
The tools will keep changing every few months. The habit of matching the right tool to the right task is what actually sticks.

Would love to hear what setups other people are running — especially if you've found good orchestration workflows. Drop a comment.