How I Built Pakistan's Stock Market Education Platform as a Solo Trader-Developer
I am a full time trader and part time developer based in Karachi, Pakistan. A year ago I sat down to research how to properly compare brokers on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Three hours later I had 11 browser tabs open, two of which had broken links, one had data from 2019, and none of them had everything I needed in one place. So I built PSX Pulse. What PSX Pulse Is PSX Pulse is a free stock market education platform for Pakistani retail investors. Everything a beginner needs to start investing in Pakistan's stock market — in one place. What is live right now: 35 verified SECP-licensed brokers with full contact details Complete mutual funds directory across 15 AMCs DCA calculator with realistic return scenarios 30-day beginner learning path Islamic investing guide PSX sector guide covering 12 sectors IPO tracker 100-term searchable glossary Weekly market recap every Friday All free. No login required. Live at: https://psxpulse.xwen.com.pk/ The Stack React + Tailwind CSS for the frontend. Vercel for hosting — free tier handles everything comfortably. No backend for most features — localStorage and static data keeps it fast and simple. Newsletter handled via a serverless Vercel function writing to a private GitHub CSV. What I Learned Building This Solo 1. The information gap in emerging markets is enormous Pakistani investors are not underserved because nobody cares. They are underserved because nobody with the technical skills to build tools also has the market knowledge to know what those tools should do. Being both a trader and a developer turned out to be the actual unfair advantage. 2. Free tools beat content for SEO My DCA calculator and broker directory pages get more consistent Google clicks than any article I have written. Tools solve a specific search intent that AI overviews do not replace — people still need to interact with a calculator, not just read about one. 3. Building in public is uncomfortable but worth it Sharing what you are building before it i