Hi Everyone,

Sorry about the trading issues that all of you had to deal with last week.  Basically, for months we have had stable trading because we upgraded our infrastructure to get data directly from the exchanges.  This was working well until Thursday when our servers were overwhelmed with massive and historic trading volume for that day.  On Thursday the market volume was 2.5 times the usual volume.  This volume was the highest in years and perhaps the highest in the entire history of the market.

Because of massive trading volumes, our server processed trades 2 hours behind schedule.  Earlier in the week, we actually saw this coming and ordered new servers on Tuesday to increase our capacity but we couldn’t get the servers up in time to process the trades for Thursday.  Luckily, we get the new servers on Thursday night and trades were processed normally on Friday.  The site should be back to normal from now on.

Phuc, Co-Founder and CTO

Congratulations to the winners of a $50 iTunes Gift Certificate for completing our UpDown.com Member Survey!

The 10 Lucky Members (out of 1089 responses):

bulldog115, E. Rick, Jared, jaybo914, pilzner, Razzle Dazzle, sbs687, shootthetrey03, stjo93, Visionblu

Thanks again to everyone who participated!

The UpDown Team

e are happy to report that UpDown.com was chosen today by Financial Modeling Guide as one of the 10 Most Innovative Online Financial Analysis Tools for Investors.

Financial Modeling Guide is a professional education site that reaches over 2,700 members of 25 to 40+ year old professionals looking to develop skills and knowledge in financial modeling and analysis for their personal investment needs, jobs, or business plans.

We are determined to provide each investor with the experience he or she needs to enter the real marketplace with confidence and maximize his or her profitability. We have built UpDown to support this goal, and it is always exciting to hear that someone thinks it is working!

The UpDown Team

e need your help! We are looking for people to evaluate the usability of UpDown.com.

As a participant, you will have the opportunity to influence the direction, appearance, and functionality of the website. You will also be able to check out our office in Cambridge, MA and to meet the UpDown Team!

We need to identify potential candidates for our usability study that represent the diversity of the UpDown community. We are looking for people who:

*  Are familiar with the web (not necessarily experts)
* Have a desire to become a better investor (even if you are a beginner and don’t have a brokerage account yet)
*  Are willing and able to come to Cambridge, MA

If you would like to participate, please complete this 2-minute questionnaire.

If you are selected, we will email you regarding the details of your appointment. We will conduct the study over July 24th and 25th.

Each evaluation generally takes no more than 90 minutes. Participants will receive $100 for their time.

We hope that you will take on a leading role in shaping and improving UpDown.com. We are excited to meet you at our office!

The UpDown Team