Remaining functionality for version 0.1

After the testing period ended I have made a list of what I consider to be the essential functionality to add before the final release of version 0.1. I am now assuming that it will release in the end of April.

This functionality has been decided upon:

• On each closed prediction a full result list where each trader can see how he/she did. This is a part of the general idea of improved history.


• Make it easier to buy and sell. By adding some cool javascripts and putting all the trading on just one page it should become even more intuitive how to buy and sell. This is important to keep new traders in an open game.


• A graph on each prediction to show how the price/value has evolved. This is something everyone thinks of when thinking of a regular stock market.


• Relevant news should be shown on each prediction as well on each trader's portfolio page. To make this work some database changes have to be made as well as adding functionality to the admin management module for news items.

This functionality is under consideration:

• A way to edit an offer. For now a trader has to cancel an offer and create a new one to do the same as an edit.


• A different, perhaps weighted average way with emphasis on the latest trades to calculate value. The reason for this is that the number of stocks traded does not matter on the last value.

Arne H is the winner

The testing period was officially over today. The winner of the competition was Arne H, and I have already given him the first prize; a nice bottle of red wine that I bought in Berlin.

I would like to thanks all the testers, especially for all the great suggestions for improvements I have received. Most of them will or have already been implemented, and I expect a final testing round in May.

More new funtionality in version 0.1

As the testing period is ending and I have had time to look at the suggested feedback, I have implemented some new features for version 0.1:

• More grids are sortable (by clicking on the column header).


• The Traders and Prediction pages have new columns.


• Medals now have tooltips to explain what they are for.


• Info box on the right hand side has more information.


• Stock value is calculated corretly and showing more intuitively.


• Activity level is shown in a trader's portfolio. This will soon show up on the Marketplace as well.


• Number of stocks owned are showing intuitive numbers.


• More and better tooltips.


• and more ...

Overall score

I don't consider the gaming aspect of the Forecast Exchange to be the main aspect, but once you play it is important to know how you are doing compared to the others. This has not been possible so far, but today I implemented a new feature. I added two columns to the list of all traders (players). One column for Stock value and one for Total value. I made this column sortable and had Total value as the default sort. Now it will immediately be obvious who is doing best (assuming that the calculation is correct, of course).

This feature was the top choice in the Feedback system and it actually did feel good to choose the item that most people wanted implemented. Here is how the All forecast traders page look now:

Bugs fixed during testing period

The list below contains the bugs that I fixed today. Normally you would not make any changes to an application during a testing period, but the testing period here is so extended that I decided to consider it as two testing periods. The bugs fixed now were the most annoying bugs concerning business logic.

• Duplicate news items are created when a trade is made.


• There is a spelling mistake in one of the automatically generated news items. See if you can spot it.


• You can't cancel an offer to buy stocks in a prediction if you have sold all your stocks in that prediction.


• Offers that expires are removed one day too late. They can't be accepted, but it does take a day before the player gets the stocks or the money back.


• Double check for enough money to buy stocks is unnecessary. The money are withdrawn immediately, yet there is an additional check if the player who wants to buy has enough money to buy.

First medals won

One of the features of the application is that it decides who won the prediction. The calculation is done as follows:

• If the prediction succeeds, the player that had the most stocks wins the Predictum medal.


• If the prediction fails, the player that made the most money trading his/her stocks in that prediction (mostly selling at a decent price, of course), wins the Fatalum medal.

In the example below, the player Torleif H had the most stocks in HUGO when that prediction succeeded. On his portfolio page this is shown:

Test periond half way

The test period for the beta-version 0.1 has now reached its half way point. It will end on March 1st. So far, of the 11 prediction made, only 2 has finished. This is as expected, as several of the predictions were made on events on March 1st.

The testing is not an organized, item by item test suite. Instead testing is performed indirectly by the players as most of them report back the errors they find as well as their ideas on how it should be improved. To give an example of how wide a range of errors can be found this way, here is the complete list of bugs found:

• In the main menu box in the upper left corner, the whole box is selected on mouse over, but you need to press the link in the text to get the intended action.


• For an admin, editing a news item is not possible.


• The log in time takes too long.


• Duplicate news items are created when a trade is made.


• There is a spelling mistake in one of the automatically generated news items. See if you can spot it.


• You can't cancel an offer to buy stocks in a prediction if you have sold all your stocks in that prediction.


• Offers that expires are removed one day too late. They can't be accepted, but it does take a day before the player gets the stocks or the money back.


• Double check for enough money to buy stocks is unnecessary. The money are withdrawn immidiately, yet there is an additional check if the player who wants to buy has enough money to buy.


• In Internet Explorer version 6 and older, the boxes on the left and right hand side (main menu items and player info) are covering the main area, thus making some actions difficult and some info unreadable.


• Where you place new offers, the date field on the bottom offer can be difficult (you need to type the date in) to set when the bottom of the browser is so close that when the date field opens you need to scroll down to it.


• On an iPhone, the date field can't be opened.


• On an iPhone, the check box Remember me next time can't be checked if you want to log in.

Most of these errors will be fixed before the official release of version 0.1. Browser-related errors will likely not be fixed, but all the others should be. With so many errors found, do I consider the testing successful? Yes, certainly I do!