Improvements to the Website

[Sharky]

Hi everyone,

Being the start of a new year, I think it's an excellent time to start a discussion on ways of improving the website.

Please use this thread to make suggestions and offer feedback regarding the site.

To kick things off, I have a few suggestions for improving the site, and would be very interested to hear your views..

1. More Forums... Perhaps related to one or more of the following... Forex, Futures/Options, US/UK/Euro Shares (for Swing/Position) Trades. Any others come to mind?

2. Guide to Financial Websites, the best website across a number of categories, with screenshots, descriptions and member ratings.

3. Intraday News Feed. This is currently being worked on! Giving members the ability to comment on stories and post their views.

4. Further work on the "knowledge bank", providing editorials across the spectrum of trading topics. With the ultimate aim of bringing together one of the most comprehensive sources of trader information anywhere on the net. Perhaps offering members the opportunity to be editor of any section, ie. if you were interested in level 2 or candlestick analysis, then having the ability to maintain links to websites, edit a glossary, and publish editorial content.

5. Mailing List - letting members communicate both on the website and via email, either subscribing to every email posted, or a digest of the day. Perhaps useful for helping to generate ideas about intraday movements?

6. Introduction of the UK Trader Locator - Finding ways in which to help bring together traders who wish to meet up.

7. Data Mining. If I think there's enough demand, we could have a section of the website which presents an array of EOD data on UK/Euro/US stocks - those hitting new highs/lows, MA crossovers, Volume Spikes, etc.

8. Improvement to the index competition.

9. Anything else I've missed out?

Look forward to discussing these and any other suggestions small or large.

We've already managed to deliver a whole host of new features to the website. During 2003 you can expect us to push the boundaries a whole lot further!

Cheers,
Paul.

 

[Helenqu]

Hi Paul,

I think from a layout perspective all the new features are looking a bit cramped on the front page. Is there a way to make the site look a bit tidier? I also think people are missing features because the front page is so busy. For example the share trading comp, one or two people have asked me where it is!


I think all the suggestions you have made are great, especially the UK swing trading and candlestick bits

You are doing a great job.

 

[Burney]

HI Paul,
Great suggestions-like the idea of expanding the forums to include Futures/Options etc as well as the locator as it would be good to know of others outside London and the South(nothing wrong with that just difficult if you live in Glasgow !!).

Keep up the good work it is appreciated.

Alan

 

[ChartMan]

Add a new forum for UK stocks and idicies, European stocks/indicies.
Maybe on the fron page have a "site map". Like Helen says, it's getting quite busy......

 

[romun]

Hi Paul,

It would be nice to be able to give recs. to posts as in M. Fool.
Or even raspberries. )

Bob.

 

[Helenqu]

Hi Bob,

The problem with recs is it leads to people saying things just to get recs rather than because they have something valuable to say. Witness some of the pathetic antics on TMF from people to keep their Blue Crowns

I do agree that really good posts should get some sort of recognition though. Don't know how you could do that and avoid the TMF sillyness, unless it's just the post that gets recced and the writer doesn't have a tally of recs?

 

[mmillar]

Split Active Trading into more forums..

Forex/Commodities
Options (please don't put Futures & Options together)
UK Shares
US Shares
Index Trading
Level 2 Trading (so Naz has somewhere to post)

 

[Sharky]

Thanks for the comments so far. I think it's clear that splitting the active trading board up is a good thing. Now it's just a case of deciding how best to split it up.

Romun, at the moment there is the ability to rate threads as opposed to posts, but this is something that hasn't been used much in the past. Though we've got a couple of 5 stars in the first page of Active Trading.

Yes, I think the front page is in need of some reorganisation, I think it's preferable to move the index competition into the competition section, and rather than having the button links for boards, chat rooms etc, and then more links underneath - perhaps adding a couple of extra button links to those four - probably Competition and About Us or Community (for Members stats & UK Trader Locator), and then move diary/events into Knowledge.

The knowledge bank is very exciting, and getting members directly invloved in will be invaluable to making it successful.

We should be up and running with the UK Trader Locator before the end of Jan, we've had already over 50 submissions, so please keep them coming in as the more entries the most useful it's going to be. And remember you only need to enter the first part of your postcode, if you're worried about privacy. But I can assure you this information will never be revealed or used for any other purpose apart from calculating your location. So please add your postcode to the front page of T2W.

Mmillar suggestions break it down into a number of different categories. One question mmillar, if you're pairing forex with commodities, why not pair up options and futures, as is the norm? My only concern with so many new boards would be the consequences of thinning out all the boards - rather than having the convenience of viewing fewer boards. However at the same time I recognise that the Active Trading board had over 1228 threads, and really needs to be searched through to find anything related to a particular type of trading.

Here's my suggestions:

1. Active Trading becomes Day Trading - (For discussion of intraday trading strategies)

Then new boards would be:

2. Forex & Commodities (which could be further split in the future)
3. Options & Futures (again these could be split in the future)

Now either:

4. Swing / Position Trading (for UK/US/Euro Shares)

or

4. UK Shares (Should this be in a category all of its own?)
5. Euro & US Shares (perhaps even Asian??)

-----------

6. Level 2 ( Would it generate enough discussion to warrant a forum of it's own? )

Index trading could come under Futures or Day Trading. Does it need it's own category? Having said there is a lot of discussion on for example the Dow, and a number of people only trade indices.

Well that's my thoughts, let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Paul.

 

[mmillar]

Sharky,

I think pairing Forex and Commodities because in reality there will be very few posts (I think). Though of course if you find there are a lot of pork bellies traders out there you can split it later.

I don't think Options and Futures should be together because what has a Put Option using the Black Scholes method got to do with doing £5 per point on Deal4Free. Futures trading is just spreadbetting. Options is its own specialised world. My problem would be that if I wanted to talk about doing £5 per point on the FTSE would I talk about it under the Options/Futures category or Day Trading/Index category?

Cheers

mmillar

 

[ChartMan]

Maybe just have an Indexes forum, be it FTSE, Dow, S&P etc...

 

[Mr. Charts]

I know this is not a constructive comment, but I'd like to thank the owners of this site for all their hard work and their moderating efforts.
You read BBs like advfn's and find racism and openly gratuitous insults flying around. You guys keep this place clean - well done!

 

[Sharky]

Thanks Mr Charts.

Okay how about these new categories and forums:

What to Trade
To discuss the instruments that we trade with.

- Forex & Commodities
- Indices
- UK/Euro Shares
- US Stocks

Ways to Trade
To discuss the platform we use to trade these instruments in. (And would replace the existing Brokers forum).

- Options/Futures
- CFDs/Spreadbetting/Fixed-Odds
- Stockbrokers
- Direct Access Brokers

Trading Styles
To discuss the style in which we trade these instruments using our chosen platform

- Intraday / Scalping
- Position / Swing

Trading Methodologies
To discuss our methods for trading these styles.

- Technical Analysis
- Level 2
- Psychology

NOW, that's a whole lot of new forums, but it covers practically everything. Whether it's overkill is open for discussion. The fact that you can view new posts across all forums on the front page, helps to make having less posts in individual forums such a problem. Certainly the advantage of having a breakdown such as this is it makes it a whole lot easier to read up on the particular topic of trading (there are so many!) that you're interested in.

Mmillar, I think by doing this way, and answer to the question of splitting up options and futures, you can pair these together as vehicles with which to trade, because in this sense they are related, the main difference the obligation to buy/sell.

Now if you wanted to talk about £5 per point on the ftse, then if it was actually about timing of the trade and the movements of the ftse now, then it should be posted in the indices forum, whereas if it was to do with a discussion of the mechanics of placing an x amount bet on the ftse, it should be posted in the Spreadbetting/CFD/Fixed-Odds forum.

Chartman, that way the indices forum as you suggest is solely for that purpose.

 

[ChartMan]

I'm glad you stuck with us Mr. Charts. I know you had a couple of minor run-ins, but by and large, I think we all appreciate this no nonsence BB. May it long continue. Those that are responsible ( and I include myself , for once) can rightly be entitled to "blow their own trumpet".

 

[orchard]

Love the sound of the new boards, expecially the UK shares one. Something I have been hoping for.
Agree totally with Mr Charts - this is a great site.
Please make the navigation as simple as it is now - helps idiots like me.
By the way, anyone seen the new FYB site - plagarism???

 

[Skimbleshanks]

Nah, their site has always been like that, more or less.

 

[Sharky]

I'm going to make the changes later tonight to the boards, so if there are any more comments please post them now.

Couple of other ideas.. combine the classified books and trading software/hardware forums into one, and then one extra forum for trading for a living/self employment discussion. And also move all the posts from the news headlines forum (that used to be on the front page of T2W) into T2W News & Events. Finally, possibly split the T2W website and new members forum into two, one specifically for feedback about the site, and the other to let new members introduce themselves and to get used to posting on the boards.

All that's left to do them, is start moving threads into their correct forums, no small task!

 

[romun]

Hi Helen,

Recognition of approval, or otherwise,of individual posts (no tally) would be useful.
However I acknowledge that this can be done by posting and perhaps this is fairer as the poster is then identified.
Anyhow it's a great site and getting better.
Take this as a rec.

Bob

 

[Sharky]

All the new forums have been created along with their categories. I've closed off the Active Trading board for new posts and over the coming days all the historic posts will be moved into their relevant forums. Hopefully this will make it a whole lot easier to browse the forums and find exactly the information you're looking for.

I'd appreciate any comments about the new structure, which mat yet change this week depending on the feedback I get from the members.

Paul.

 

[dsmodi]

Hi Sharky,

Hope it's not too late to put in this request, but would it be possible to have chartmans daily dow/es/sp500 stuff in a dedicated area. This is because the charts posted on there are a great historical reference, and having them in a dedicated area would make it easier to search for any particular days intraday chart, or even just to browse them generally.

A separate area for Level 2 posting is also a great idea, even if it is only naz that posts mainly on L2. His postings are one of the most significant and informative posts on the site, and pretty mush down-to-earth as well it seems. Always look forward to them....

... and a great site as is sharky! looking forward to the improvements!

 

[Skimbleshanks]

Chartman's stuff is all in indices.