Opening Bell

I recently picked up a rather expensive, although potentially rewarding hobby: stock trading. With this newfound hobby, looking up the stock price of my favorite companies has become a daily routine. After trying a couple Alexa Skills claiming to be able to provide stock prices, I quickly found myself unsatisfied with the Voice UX of the existing options which were either too "wordy" or required that you know the ticker symbol for every company. So, I set out to make a better mousetrap!

Opening Bell allows you to speak a company's natural name to get their stock price and daily change. No more trying to remember a company's ticker symbol or constantly telling Alexa to "stop" due to a lengthy response!

Installing & Using Opening Bell

• Click here to go directly to the Skill listing, or search for "Opening Bell" in the Alexa Skills directory on your computer or the Alexa app
• Enable the "Opening Bell" Skill
• Start using it! For example, say..."Alexa, ask Opening Bell for the price of Microsoft

Create a Copy of Opening Bell

• Clone the code from the repository
• Create a Lambda function with an Alexa Skills Kit event source (tutorial here)
• Create a new Alexa Skill with the Lambda ARN (Amazon Resource Name) generated from the step prior (tutorial here)
• Modify the APP_ID variable on line 10 of src/index.js to be your Skill's Application ID. Save the file.

• Create a ZIP file containing all the files and directories within the src directory of the cloned repository.

• Upload the ZIP file as your Lambda Function Package in the Code tab. Save the Lambda function.

• Complete the Alexa Skill Configuration checklist until all tasks before Test have a green checkmark. You may use the contents of the files in the speechAssets directory to complete the corresponding Interaction Model settings, or you may create your own to customize the experience.

• You are now able to test your Skill on your Alexa device using the Invocation Name you provided in the Skill Information settings!