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General Category => Shares => Topic started by: Patrick on April 15, 2013, 08:55:23 pm

Title: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Patrick on April 15, 2013, 08:55:23 pm
I think it's about ready to go, but I know better than releasing untested code onto the masses  ;D

So I'm looking for volunteers to give it a quick run through. 

No need to worry about making wise choices now as I'll be cleaning the database before the real go-live date, so you can be as brave as you like. Even as far as buying some Telkom!

If you're keen to help reply here and I'll add you to the private challenge section.

Cheers
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Krypt0n1te on April 15, 2013, 09:59:47 pm
Willing to help out. ;)
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Nivek on April 15, 2013, 10:27:12 pm
Same here
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Patrick on April 15, 2013, 10:44:40 pm
Ok, you've both been given access. Go here to see what to do: http://www.shareforum.co.za/the-investor-challenge/testers-read-here/

All future testers please use the same link.
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Krypt0n1te on April 15, 2013, 11:49:30 pm
Jeez dude! You truly are a legend. I've read everything and all seems awesome.

Very flippen keen to link or break the news on the other thread!

Innital feedback...

Would be nice if you could incorporate divvies later (as you said), and maybe a search function on the "buy shares" page, but I guess ctrl+f on the pc will yield the same result.

Will make some picks pretty soon!

Edit: Scrap the search function idea, nothing wrong with using ctrl+f or "find on/in page" on tablets.
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Nivek on April 16, 2013, 09:55:48 am
Everything works for me. Nice idea!
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Aragorn on April 16, 2013, 10:14:06 am
I'll give it a go - being a Tester in my day job has it's benefits.
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Patrick on April 16, 2013, 10:21:44 am
I'll give it a go - being a Tester in my day job has it's benefits.

Thanks, you should have access, try the link above.
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Aragorn on April 16, 2013, 11:11:17 am
Picked up 2 possible bugs  :-[ and a few other issues that you may want to have a look at and address in need.

High   Unregistered users can add comments to the Blog.   To prevent spam, recommend that only users who have logged on can post comments. Users not logged in can only view.
High   You can purchase fractions of shares.   Bought 0.5 and 0.0111 of a share
Low   You cannot see what shares the other players hold.   Not sure if you want to keep the selections confidential, but it would be great to see what others are holding (i.e. Where did the leader get it right...)
Medium   Previous winners not provided for.   You should have a tab to view previous years winners/runner ups/etc.
Nice to have   Leaderboard to show % Growth.   I believe it would be a good idea to show the % growth of the portfolio on the leaderboard.
Nice to have   "Out of style" screen shows once you have purchased shares.   The screen provided (for a few seconds) after your purchase of shares is not in the same style as the rest of the site. It's just a white screen displaying "Saved" in the top left corner. If on a slow connection the user may think a problem is evident. Would be better if the screen either did not display during the "write" process, or displays with the same CSS as the rest of the site.
Nice to have   No Lines between holdings.   It would be advisable to have lines seperating each row in the holdings, especially if one has multiple shares.
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Patrick on April 16, 2013, 12:07:36 pm
Great feedback Aragon!

Quote
High   Unregistered users can add comments to the Blog.   To prevent spam, recommend that only users who have logged on can post comments. Users not logged in can only view.
I approved the comment thinking you wanted to see it, all comments need to be approved so we should be ok on the spam front!

Quote
High   You can purchase fractions of shares.   Bought 0.5 and 0.0111 of a share
Well spotted, it should be fixed now.

Quote
Medium   Previous winners not provided for.
Good idea, I'll add that when the time comes.

Quote
Nice to have   Leaderboard to show % Growth.
Done.

Quote
Nice to have   "Out of style"
Hmm for now I've shortened the time, I could remove the words completely, but I prefer to see something other than a blank screen. Adding the css here is surprisingly tough considering the way I load the next page.

Quote
Nice to have   No Lines between holdings.
I'll work on that.

Then I need to plan a go live date. Any thoughts?
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Aragorn on April 16, 2013, 12:51:32 pm
Good stuff - will continue to check in my spare time and will advise if anything else is noted. Just some further comments -

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all comments need to be approved so we should be ok on the spam front
Are you sure you want to be spending all day approving/rejecting blog comments? Would it not be easier if only registered users were allowed to add, and then remove moderation/approval from this?
Quote
for now I've shortened the time, I could remove the words completely, but I prefer to see something other than a blank screen
Perhaps add some additional wording and Centre it on the screen after a few line breaks - e.g. "Your purchase is being saved. please be patient", or something similar may look a bit better than just "Saved".
Quote
I need to plan a go live date. Any thoughts?
I would still like to validate the calculations etc., e.g. purchase fees and price updates. Suppose that can only be conclusive after the overnight price update (I am assuming you update on the daily close?) I would recommend a start date of 1st May (with R500K if you'd like) if all else is equal. That should also give you enough time to "advertise"? However, knowing developers - you'd want this live today if possible - gotta show off the work  :)

Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Patrick on April 16, 2013, 01:06:54 pm
Quote
Are you sure you want to be spending all day approving/rejecting blog comments? Would it not be easier if only registered users were allowed to add, and then remove moderation/approval from this?
True :)

Quote
I would still like to validate the calculations etc., e.g. purchase fees and price updates. Suppose that can only be conclusive after the overnight price update (I am assuming you update on the daily close?) I would recommend a start date of 1st May (with R500K if you'd like) if all else is equal. That should also give you enough time to "advertise"? However, knowing developers - you'd want this live today if possible - gotta show off the work  :)
I update every 10 minutes, from the JSE website which updates every 15 minutes, so at best we're 15 minutes late with prices, at worst 25 minutes late... For the calculations I'm not bothering with strate or vat as the amounts are so small.

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I would recommend a start date of 1st May (with R500K if you'd like) if all else is equal. That should also give you enough time to "advertise"? However, knowing developers - you'd want this live today if possible - gotta show off the work
You know us well!

On the point I forgot previously, letting people see all the members holdings, I'm not sure. If it's a competition, someone may not want someone else copying his purchases. I have a few options: Keep everything closed; Show the previous months trades, but not the current months; Give the user the option if he wants to share. Maybe I'll bring it in for a vote once people actually start using the site.
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Aragorn on April 16, 2013, 02:34:36 pm
Quote
Maybe I'll bring it in for a vote once people actually start using the site.
Second that
Quote
I update every 10 minutes, from the JSE website
Will start checking the calculations, etc immediately then. Can you clear all my data from your database so that I can run a scenario please?
Also - I assume you deduct the fees from the available cash holdings and you are not incorporating this as a negative in the value of the shares.
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Patrick on April 16, 2013, 03:05:46 pm
Done, and yes I deduct fees from cash.
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Aragorn on April 16, 2013, 04:00:30 pm
A few more items that may need attention -
1.
At cash holdings of R400K, buying @ 260 per share allows you to purchase up to 153230 shares. Calculate it out and you have available cash of R 8.41 thereafter, so you could have bought 153233 shares. Seems you calculate the max shares allowed based on the max comm you will pay on the total available cash holding. Not a major issue.
2.
At cash holdings of R 94.86 you appear to allow the purchase of 1049 shares @ 9cents - Seems you are not taking the minimum comm of R120.00 into consideration at clculation of what you can purchase. (You do prevent the actual purchase from going through though). Not a major issue either.
3.
My previous blog comment is no longer viewable - was it cleaned/deleted?

Nothing else to report, all other calculations appear in order (although I have not bombarded the site with all variations).

Great job. :) :D 8) ;D
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Q-Tech on April 16, 2013, 06:21:56 pm
Hi Patrick,

Overall the site looks good - nice clean layout, no fussy banners & sidebars and other drivel  :)

On my first run-through I picked up the following :

Definitely need lines between the shares or an alternating background shade on the purchase page (already mentioned by someone above)
Include something on the front page about the portfolio valuation methodology - (Semi-live, closing price or whatever)
Please acknowledge the source of the pricing data - The JSE is very particular about who uses their data and how it was sourced - you might need to get permission from them to re-publish the data even though they provide it on a public web site and it is delayed.

That's all for now - I'll play around some more and let you know how it goes.

Cheers,
Q.

Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Patrick on April 17, 2013, 12:17:27 am
A few more items that may need attention -
1.
At cash holdings of R400K, buying @ 260 per share allows you to purchase up to 153230 shares. Calculate it out and you have available cash of R 8.41 thereafter, so you could have bought 153233 shares. Seems you calculate the max shares allowed based on the max comm you will pay on the total available cash holding. Not a major issue.
2.
At cash holdings of R 94.86 you appear to allow the purchase of 1049 shares @ 9cents - Seems you are not taking the minimum comm of R120.00 into consideration at clculation of what you can purchase. (You do prevent the actual purchase from going through though). Not a major issue either.
3.
My previous blog comment is no longer viewable - was it cleaned/deleted?

Nothing else to report, all other calculations appear in order (although I have not bombarded the site with all variations).

Great job. :) :D 8) ;D
1. Yep, that's what Idid, right before thinking nobody would ever notice!
2. Hmm, I'll have to double check.
3. Yep.

Definitely need lines between the shares or an alternating background shade on the purchase page (already mentioned by someone above)
Done.
Include something on the front page about the portfolio valuation methodology - (Semi-live, closing price or whatever)
Done, but I'll have to re-write it when I'm more awake...
Please acknowledge the source of the pricing data - The JSE is very particular about who uses their data and how it was sourced - you might need to get permission from them to re-publish the data even though they provide it on a public web site and it is delayed.
Done, I've also sent them a mail asking if they're ok with that. If not I'll take the prices from another site, it'll just mean a fair amount of extra work.

Thanks so much for the input guys.
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Moneypenny on April 17, 2013, 07:58:04 am
Why oh why Patrick are you working so hard?  It's appreciated though, thank you :)
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Patrick on April 17, 2013, 12:18:56 pm
Why oh why Patrick are you working so hard?  It's appreciated though, thank you :)

Hey MP. To be honest, this is the type of competition I've been looking for. It's dfferent to the normal share trading competitions as you'll see on the site. The usual share competitions generally give you R1million for you to trade and see where you end up. Not very realistic, who has a million lying around. In this one, you are the chairman of an investment club, and get R100 000 every month to invest.

As you know, investing cost effectively only happens when you have R30k per month, which for an investment club would be easily possible. I'm hoping it will be fun, and a good learning experience which could be carried over to real life too. I hope you enjoy it, even though you're more trader than investor. I'd be very appreciative it you could take a look at the site. I've opened it up to everyone for now, and will clear up the database on Sunday night before the kick off on Monday: http://www.investorchallenge.co.za/
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: jaDEB on April 17, 2013, 12:25:56 pm
Frikkin cool, now u need to work on Advertisements on your sites. I do not want u to disappear. Also see if you legally can get feeds, 15 min delayed is fine. showing main i.e. JSE, dowjones, the rant and so on.

must say, u doing a good job.
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Patrick on April 17, 2013, 12:28:26 pm
Frikkin cool, now u need to work on Advertisements on your sites. I do not want u to disappear. Also see if you legally can get feeds, 15 min delayed is fine. showing main i.e. JSE, dowjones, the rant and so on.

must say, u doing a good job.
Thanks. I got the all ok from the JSE, it'll be 15 to 25 minutes delayed depending on when exactly it syncs. I'll monitor the traffic, when I see enough hits to start covering costs I'll put the ads in. Who knows, maybe some financial institution would want to sponsor the challenge... We'll see.
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Moneypenny on April 17, 2013, 01:37:22 pm
Truly impressive.

You want us to buy and hold,  :P - not going to be easy but I'll try.  What are the monthly cut-off times for buying, Sunday evening to Monday 9am and if you choose to stay with the money you just don't buy I suppose?
Title: Re: Wanted - testers for the competition
Post by: Russell on April 17, 2013, 03:01:34 pm
This is sooo cool.

Thanks Patrick