The System Metaphore
we employ so called Agile Software development method,
which means no “big design up front”, instead we use (i) user stories, (ii) test driven development based on something called (iii) the “system metaphor”. The system metaphor allows you to talk about your design in a consistent and unambiguous way (the same vocabulary, terms etc).
I suggest The system metaphor as follows: It is an educational multiuser social network (Wikipedia like) specifically catering for trader’s needs in the area of options trading with capabilities of actively suggest (construct), verify, publish (to members or public), initiate and finish option trades from fully manual to semiautomatic way according to the trader’s individual parameters or profile.
The functionality is described in the form of user stories, e.g. short descriptions of features to be implemented. They describe a small piece of functionality that can be broken down into tasks whose durations can be quickly estimated.
Story 1:
John is willing to join Trader’s Round Table and receive regular invitations to the events of the Club.
He wants to get access to educational videos and other material helping him to understand fundamentals of options trading, get useful tips on recommended Brokers and Internet resources.
He wants to know who are other members of the Club and potentially introduce himself to them and see their scores and activity levels (how many trades they made, what kind etc).
He wants to discuss certain issues related to broader aspects of trading.
// The above functionalities are typical for a social networking platform
Story 2:
Max after attending Thomas’ promotional lectures would like to try his trades on the paper account, however he is not yet certain how much of the capital he is ready to invest and how active he can be. The system shall be able to suggest him some trades and simulate order placement, and trade closing on the historical data.
// This will be an active functionality with graphical interface, which would relay on the historical market data and simple execution algorithms.
Story 3:
Jane has opened account with some Broker, but has no idea how to place orders and monitor trades. She specifies in her profile this information, and receives specific instructions (video) relevant to her situation. She might also appreciate some suggestions for her capital allocation in portfolio and set limits for individual trades (e.g. if her capital is 15000 USD, she must not risk more than 300 USD per trade) according to Thomas’ money managment rules.
// This is adjustment of the system to individual traders, building/management of individual portfolio and trade constraints according to your proprietary teaching system.
Story 4:
Jack is not yet sure what kind of trade he can attempt.. He wants to see what other students are planning or trading (for educational purposed them voluntarily disclose their real or paper trades).
etc..
Out of these short stories we have to build functionality list. This list will be the specification target for various phases and deadlines.
We have to also find a benchmark existing application(s). I can suggest (i) wikipedia.com (2) optionistics.com
