MT Stóck Pïckíng Game - January 2011·

[Virgil Showlion]

It may be brutally late in the month, but the new, technologically enhanced version of the stocking picking game is HERE!

You can find the SPG application among the other applications on the Market Talk Applications bar. Like the other applications, it can be shut down or opened up at any time.

Features:

• The latest column updates off the NASDAQ RSS feed every time the page is reloaded. Hence no more waiting for updated stock prices.
  
• While the NYSE is open, you can enter and leave the SPG using the 'Enter Game' and 'Close Position' buttons. If the NYSE is closed, you can click on the 'SPG Thread' button to visit this thread and tell an administrator to put a stock pick in for you when the market opens next.
  
• Rovo, Moonbeam, and myself are coded in as "SPG administrators". We have some special options.
  

This puppy takes a lot of code, and there's guaranteed to be a few bugs. Let me know ASAP if anything goes wrong.

This thread is available for normal SPG discussions, bug reporting, gloating, etc.

Regards,

Virgil

[Virgil Showlion]

Thanks Frank.

I realize it's late in the month, but I'm hoping to get a few more picks up there.

[rovo]

OK. I'm in there with an "off the wall" selection.

[Deleted]

Where is this??

Market talk applications bar?

[rovo]

It is well hidden by the charts at the top of the page.

[z]

gdgyva, click on the red x's to collapse the charts above and then click on the button to expand the far right one. That is the 'stock pick' app.

[Deleted]

got it

thank you

and it was HIDDEN very well

[Deleted]

Virgil

It is giving me credit for buying at beginning of day...not actual market

Love to win...but want to do it fairly

[rovo]

I think the game is rigged to allow Virgil to win every month. Let us proclaim this throughout the land ...... THE GAME IS RIGGED

[Virgil Showlion]

Strange. This has happened before.

The RSS feed that determines the stock prices seems to cache data at random times. The first request goes out for a stock quote and it gives back whatever data it gave back on the previous request: in Gdgyva's case, the close from Wednesday of last week, which is presumably when he last had the stock quote banner open (it uses the same feed).

On the next request, though, which happens to be for displaying the table, the browser seems to clue in that the cache is outdated.

This is fixable. For the time being, since all entries are precisely timestamped, I'll go in manually when the problem is fixed and put in the true opening prices.

[rovo]

Virgil, The game for this month has limited players and nobody is going to be upset about a bug or two. This is a good opportunity to ring out the problems so the game operates properly when we go into February.

[Deleted]

We appreciate that you added it...

It was always one of my favorite things on the MT site

A little dcon5 and all the bugs will be dead

[Tesla_DC-meme]

Pop already, you accursed Golden Bubble...POP I SAY!

[kman]

As they say in Jamaica...Soon Come mahn...soon come

[Tesla_DC-meme]

Ev'ry bodys got something tooo hide

'cept for me and my monkey.

[kman]

The walrus was Paul..

[texasredneck]

Virgil thanks for the program and Rove thanks for telling us how to find it. I was just about to ask moonbeam how to see these without changing my zoom to 50%. Though it was my browser which is explorer 8.

[texasredneck]

So I see now, but what are the rules. One stock at a time? Etc.?

[Virgil Showlion]

Yes, tex: one stock at a time. The January SPG came in unceremoniously, 3/4 of the way through the month. For the February SPG, I'll have the bugs worked out and an official description of the game and the rules in the associated thread.

Looks like rovo's pick survived today's slaughter. Lousy competent rotter.

[rovo]

Well, just let me say I wish I was down 20% instead of being positive.

Something doesn't look right with gdgvya's pick. Price and date do not seem to align.

[Virgil Showlion]

Gdgyva's pick doesn't have the right opening price. It's a bug that I've since worked out. The problem is that I made the picks fairly tamper-proof, and so correcting the opening price isn't a trivial matter.

[rovo]

Virgil, Not a problem as I was only trying to point out an inconsistency in the data. This is what the trial run is for.

[Virgil Showlion]

I've corrected the opening price on gdgyva's pick to the timestamp on the submission.

[rovo]

I tried to get out of my pick this morning at $29.25 but the current prices seem to be frozen. Just an alert.

[Virgil Showlion]

Hm. Another bug. I'll hunt 'er down.

[Virgil Showlion]

Not a bad little run. Another bug discovered with the benchmark showing up twice after the game is closed.

Bugs add "character" is what I say.