So today I am starting another new blog type which I intend on doing until the final Portfolio Hub software is complete. I thought, many/most of you readers have no idea what my final intention is with portfolio hub so I wanted to start sharing that here.
If you have already read dev blog update #1 then skip ahead to 'New This Month'
Who Am I?
So getting started, who am I?
You may have already read that my name is Robert Watkin. I am the creator of portfolio hub and am the only person working on this site. This is not some organisation with many many staff members... although maybe one day?
For now I am creating this as a fun side/passion project. I am a software engineer at heart. I love technology and anything related to software engineering. Over the last 4-5 years now I have been really passionate about learning personal finance and investing.
As soon as I turned 18, I began investing and learning about the financial markets and I had already been interested in tech for a long time. During my time studying for my degree, I began learning the PHP framework Laravel. This is a programming framework which I have really enjoyed over the last few years and knew it was something for me to pursue.
During my time studying, I also had the idea for Portfolio Hub. Currently I track my personal investments through a spreadsheet. It's good and does what I need it do, but I thought to myself not everyone can be bothered to make a spreadsheet and sometimes I would like something that seems a bit more professional.
I thought creating a piece of software for investors to track their investments in one location was a great idea and whether or not anyone else is interested I am yet to find out.
I used the Laravel language to complete multiple assignments for my degree all with the knowledge that they were just practice for Portfolio Hub. But what exactly is Portfolio Hub going to be used for?
What Is Portfolio Hub
So I am now 22, Portfolio Hub is well underway with the blog up and running and the final software being in development.
The blogs intention was to get some people onto the site with Google SEO so by the time the software is finished, there will actually be people to use it. So if your reading this now from google or any other traffic source, then the plan is somewhat working.
As mentioned the actual software is going to be used for investors to track their investments in one location online. This is by far my most ambitious project but I am very determined to make it the best it can be.
I am wanting to make a software that not only would be useful to other people but primarily I would use myself. As if I wouldn't be wanting to use it myself then I wouldn't expect anyone else to.
I am very open to feature suggestions for the site so if you could have any feature on an investment tracker software then please let me know in the comment section or contact me through the Portfolio Hub website contact page.
New This Month
So since last month I have progressed quite a lot of the site. To the point where it's mostly usable now other than a missing feature or two and some polish.
Firstly I want to show the progress on the pages which have already been seen. Below is the current status of the overview page. A lot of time has been spent improving the overview chart. You will notice that the chart now has a flat section at the start. This extends to 00:00 UTC time.
Then when the market opens you can see the stock chart start to move. This has been done to give a full overview of the market across the day and most importantly, across different time zones.
In last months update I had only been testing stocks on the NYSE. This meant that the chart only had to cover the NYSE time. Time conversion now takes place to accept assets from all timezones. The software is currently limited to stocks from LSE, NYSE/ & NASDAQ.
I will be expanding this range when I am able to test more time-zones, currencies and stock exchanges to cater for most edge cases.
You may also notice the portfolio now has the option to edit the portfolio name and delete the portfolio. Below you can see the new alert popup which is displayed for confirmation of actions.
There are many more tweaks and bug fixes that went in to this page but the other primary feature to touch upon is the recent dividends section. And of course along with that is the new dividends page feature which is discussed further down this post.
Below you can see the new transaction info panel. This panel is similar to the previous weeks holding info panel except for the specific transaction. The chart has been improved on this view and on the holdings info panel to match the sites aesthetic.
The 'buy' and 'sell' buttons are also functional and load up a transaction with that companies information already populated
Next up is the dividends calendar. This view will only be available on the Standard subscription. Check it out below:
This page shows historic dividends on calendar view. On the right you can see the breakdown in a list view as well as the monthly breakdown. I plan to expand on this and add more customisation in the future. Let me know what you may find useful on this page?
I do intend on adding future dividends to the app but currently that is not possible. I am using TwelveData for stock market API data which is essentially the backbone of this software. TwelveData currently only supports historic dividends but has made note that they are planning on integrating future dividend data in a future build.
I have also began work on the pricing features and payment gateways. See below the initial version of the pricing page. This page is by no means complete and changes are already in the works.
Along with creating the page above, the payment gateway Stripe has been integrated to allow simplified billing and a better user experience.
What's Next
Now although a lot of the main features are done, there is still a lot to do before launch. A lot of polishing and bug fixing is still needed and of course that means a lot of testing.
There is also a lot of other setup for the site which isn't just related to what we see in these blog posts however I am optimistic about the timeline.
I am still targeting a release before the end of the year but I think it is possible (if all goes perfectly) to be at this stage by the end of next month. Not setting a date in stone yet though.
Summary
So that is it for this months Portfolio Hub development update. If you would like to share your thoughts and opinions on the software below then I would greatly appreciate the feedback.
If you would like to support the project then you can do so by creating an account on portfolio-hub.co.uk, following me on medium or even just leaving a like on this post. I will be creating another update like this for the end of next month.
I am not a financial advisor and anything I say in my blog is not to be taken as financial advice. For any financial advice please contact a financial professional. My blog is based on my own opinions, research and understanding of the financial markets.
I hope you have found this blog post helpful. If you did enjoy the blog then consider leaving feedback below or sharing the post on social media. I regularly post content on the stock market, personal finance, and side hustles/entrepreneurship so if you would like to read more then consider subscribing to my blog through my website (www.portfolio-hub.co.uk) for free or follow me on Medium.com.
Thanks for reading