optradin
07-16-2006, 04:23 PM
Hello,
I run OpTrading.com and I wanted to share with everyone some of the modifications I have done with my site.
I wanted my forum to allow users to not only communicate investing ideas and trading strategies but also to put their strategies in action right on the site. This was not easy to do to program so much into vBulletin that would rival plugins such as other store/earnings programs. I found that programming such a thing was far beyond my minimal knowledge of both vBulletin programming and PHP in general.
Instead, I piggy-backed my modifications onto Geek's article system which turned out to be perfect. It made it possible to customize a particular forum to great degree and set all sorts of custom settings, queries, options, functions etc.
Now users can post articles like ... "A great buy" and enter the symbol and the plugin takes care of the rest. It uses SOAP to get quotes and information on the symbol and then records all of this data in both thread tables and a track record table. The article then tracks this newly opened position and displays the performance of the article based on both a concrete value and a percent (which is crucial to calculating and compounding a user's track record). Once a member has had sufficient gain or loss he or she may choose to close the position. This then makes all the necessary changes to the article and records the value of the symbol at the time of closing.
Essentially, the member is able to demonstrate a trading strategy and also PROVE it in real time to all members on OpTrading.com. Members can watch and observe other traders as well as demonstrate their own ability to trade. The system takes care of itself and accepts no inputs from the user other than the symbol - preventing any tampering (therefore, the numbers shown are true like any real portfolio).
Additionally, the track record compounds properly as though the member were investing real money (an update I may add in later would be to show $100,000 fake money and how it has changed rather than just a % compounded). A member can have any number of positions open simultaneously and have be compounded upon closure (this is basically the same as the member not being allowed to run positions simultaneously mathematically - only easier. Simultaneous positions can also be disabled to prevent users from opening 200 positions on a great up day and close them all with a compounded +42,049% gain).
Even more has been changed. External JS has been rewritten to show the gain and % gain of a position next to the title of each article on all pages of OpTrading.com. This will show gain and % gain in delayed-time should the position be open (For example: "- Opened at 53.12 (+1.53 +2.43%)") and the final position performance should the position be closed (For example: "- Closed at 56.32 (+5.84 +10.53%)") and reduce server load. To reduce load however and queries to external servers, external.php only updates every 15 minutes and to make it faster for page loading in general.
An entire program has been written to handle opening and closing of positions.. this is optrade.php
Finally, a news program has been put together to go along with the system from moreover.com.
Tell me what you think! I'd love to hear your comments and critiques.
Click here to see it all in action (http://www.optrading.com)
Sincerely,
Bradley J Ulis
I run OpTrading.com and I wanted to share with everyone some of the modifications I have done with my site.
I wanted my forum to allow users to not only communicate investing ideas and trading strategies but also to put their strategies in action right on the site. This was not easy to do to program so much into vBulletin that would rival plugins such as other store/earnings programs. I found that programming such a thing was far beyond my minimal knowledge of both vBulletin programming and PHP in general.
Instead, I piggy-backed my modifications onto Geek's article system which turned out to be perfect. It made it possible to customize a particular forum to great degree and set all sorts of custom settings, queries, options, functions etc.
Now users can post articles like ... "A great buy" and enter the symbol and the plugin takes care of the rest. It uses SOAP to get quotes and information on the symbol and then records all of this data in both thread tables and a track record table. The article then tracks this newly opened position and displays the performance of the article based on both a concrete value and a percent (which is crucial to calculating and compounding a user's track record). Once a member has had sufficient gain or loss he or she may choose to close the position. This then makes all the necessary changes to the article and records the value of the symbol at the time of closing.
Essentially, the member is able to demonstrate a trading strategy and also PROVE it in real time to all members on OpTrading.com. Members can watch and observe other traders as well as demonstrate their own ability to trade. The system takes care of itself and accepts no inputs from the user other than the symbol - preventing any tampering (therefore, the numbers shown are true like any real portfolio).
Additionally, the track record compounds properly as though the member were investing real money (an update I may add in later would be to show $100,000 fake money and how it has changed rather than just a % compounded). A member can have any number of positions open simultaneously and have be compounded upon closure (this is basically the same as the member not being allowed to run positions simultaneously mathematically - only easier. Simultaneous positions can also be disabled to prevent users from opening 200 positions on a great up day and close them all with a compounded +42,049% gain).
Even more has been changed. External JS has been rewritten to show the gain and % gain of a position next to the title of each article on all pages of OpTrading.com. This will show gain and % gain in delayed-time should the position be open (For example: "- Opened at 53.12 (+1.53 +2.43%)") and the final position performance should the position be closed (For example: "- Closed at 56.32 (+5.84 +10.53%)") and reduce server load. To reduce load however and queries to external servers, external.php only updates every 15 minutes and to make it faster for page loading in general.
An entire program has been written to handle opening and closing of positions.. this is optrade.php
Finally, a news program has been put together to go along with the system from moreover.com.
Tell me what you think! I'd love to hear your comments and critiques.
Click here to see it all in action (http://www.optrading.com)
Sincerely,
Bradley J Ulis