Build in Public?
Some baseline thoughts and metrics about my side project
I built a Google Sheets add-on this month. It’s called Stock Backtester for Google Sheets™.
I built it because I wanted to go beyond my usual AI and ML coding tutorials. I wanted to build something tangible that people can directly use without having to learn how to code.
It’s a bit out of my comfort zone of just providing people with the tools/methods to build things themselves, but I think it provides real value to swing traders, quant hobbyists, and casual investors who already live in Google Sheets.
What are the baseline stats?
Two days into the public beta, my internal metrics show 15 completed installs (shout out to 4 of them who I asked to test out the add-on).
I quietly dropped a how-to video about the add-on without notifying YouTube subscribers and posted it on the Google Workspace Marketplace page and StockBacktester.com. I also shared a YouTube shorts promo. But like all YT Shorts, it’s hard to know how much it will take off.
Why build in public?
Deep Charts has always been about sharing applied knowledge. My coding tutorials aim to show you how to use AI and machine learning methods to build systems, workflows, and automations that are genuinely useful. It just makes sense to be open about the wins and losses that go along with building something beyond a simple YouTube tutorial.
So what does the add-on do and why is it useful?
It runs historical simulations of different trade strategies directly in Google Sheets without the user needing to code. Many people want to test strategies on historical data but don't have the time to learn how to use complicated backtesting software or investing platforms.
I'm striving to make this backtest simulator as simple to use and as rigorous as possible. I've worked to benchmark it against backtesting.py, a leading Python backtesting library.
And I’ve put the full methodology and assumptions up on the website.
If trading/investing is your thing, I’d love your feedback on the public beta v1. Send it to me at info@deepcharts.xyz
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