Tutorials

How to get evaluation license or enter activation code?

Fund Prices Downloader Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

GENERAL/PRE-SALES QUESTIONS

What countries does Fund Prices Downloader support?
The Singapore edition is scheduled to be released in January 2006. If you are interested in funds registered in other countries, send your suggestion to online-at-globevestor-dot-com.

Is fund prices really free?
Fund Prices Downloader collects fund prices from web sites. Therefore fund prices are free as long as the free web sites exists. Please review our upgrade policy.

What is the difference between Fund Prices Downloader and the commercial fund quote service?
Fund Prices Downloader is the software that allows you to get free fund prices. Fund quote service is a paid service to deliver the fund prices to you. If you use Fund Prices Downloader, you assume some of roles of quote service vendor in return for a lower operating cost.

Where can I find fund quote service?
Try Reuters DataLink. We are not aware of any fund quote providers that operate in more than one country. If you know the name of such provider, please send an email to online-at-globevestor-dot-com.

Web pages used by Fund Prices Downloader can be changed a lot. How can the potential users be assured that Fund Prices Downloader will be functional for a long time?
The creator of Fund Prices Downloader cannot guarantee globevestor.com will be around forever even with best intention. The creator will make Fund Prices Downloader as an open source software when he cannot maintain the software. Even without the consideration of opening up Fund Prices Downloader, the cost of Fund Prices Downloader will be recovered after using it for a few months(cost of one license of Fund Prices Downloader is less than USD 100 and assume monthly charge of fund quote service is around USD 20)

Why globevestor.com does not offer fund quote service?
The current demand for fund quote service cannot support cost of running an independent quote service operation. Reuters has stopped such service in late 2006.

Can I use Fund Prices Downloader if I have a P3 machine?
You still can use Fund Prices Downloader on Pentium III machine. However you may not able to perform other tasks during downloading and searching. To migitate this situation:

I got this message "Another instance of Derby may have already booted the database ...". What should I do?
You will get this message if you have already launched Fund Prices Downloader. If you are pretty sure you did not start Fund Prices Downloader, it is possible Java runtime is not shutdowned together with Fund Prices Downlaoder. In this case, go to Task Manager and kill the process with image name "javaw.exe".

DATA MANAGEMENT

How do I restore data?
If you want to overwrite existing data, then just copy the backup data directory to existing data directory. If you want to merge existing data with data backup using Fund Prices Downloader, use restore feature of Fund Prices Downloader. The latter will remove duplicate quotes during restore process.

What is the maximum size of the database?
Based on literature from the database developer, it can be as large as the size of a single hard disk.

Can I schedule fund data backup using my favarite scheduler?
When the Fund Prices Downloader is not started, you can backup the whole data directory specified durng setup. If you backup data directory while Fund Prices Downloader is running, the backup data may not be good.

Why I cannot find fund price for my fund?
If you cannot find any prices for your fund. You may try to find fund prices based on name of the asset manager. The fund name downloaded may be different from what you are expecting. If you do not have price for the last reported trading day, you may try to download again. If you still cannot find the prices, please report the fund name to Globavestor at support-at-globevestor-com.

DOWNLOADING

What is the best time to download?
Regarding best time for downloading, refer to instruction/information on "Download" tab.

Do I need to download prices every day?
Except users of Singapore edition, users of all other editions must download fund prices every day because the websites used have no historical data. You can set the time for automatic downloading in "Download" tab.

Can I schedule downloading using my favorite scheduler?
Please use Fund Prices Downloader's scheduler.

What export format does Fund Prices Downloader support?
Fund Prices Downloader exports data as ASCII files. Some of the fields supported are date, symbol, symbol and description and NAV. You can define field export sequence, e.g. date, symbol, NAV

What is download status "partly successful"?
This status is used whenever Fund Prices Downloader cannot download all quotes. This could be due to connection issue or data format issue. If the issue is related to connection, you can try to download again. If Fund Prices Downloader can not download quotes for a fund for a few days, please report the fund name to Globevestor support at support-at-globevestor.com

Is proxy supported?
Currently proxy support is unofficial. That means Globevestor can not guarantee Fund Prices Downloader can download fund quotes using any proxy server. However some of our users are using proxy servers and filtering services. If you browse web sites using proxy server, append the following lines in <installation directory>/gv-pref.properties(This file is created using Setup Wizard):
proxy=<proxy.myisp.com>
proxy.port=<proxy port>
Please insert correct value in < ...>.

Why downloading takes so long?
Time taken for downloading is affected by connection speed between your computer and fund price websites and number of funds that price is to be downloaded. To mitigate this situation, you can instruct Fund Prices Downloader to automatically download prices when you are not using your computer, e.g. early morning. Since version 1.1 and later, you can download prices of a few funds using my fund group feature.

How to speed up downloading of fund prices?

Why doesn't Fund Prices Downloader just download fund prices that I need?
Fund Prices Downloader is not a data service. Most of fund price websites have no or limited historical prices. Therefore Fund Prices Downloader has to download prices for all funds. If Fund Prices Downloader allows selective download, it will not be able to provide continuous prices for new funds(which prices are not downloaded in the begenning) that you may be interested in the future. Since version 1.1, this restriction has been removed.

I got this message "...could not execute query...Caused by: SQL Exception: A lock could not be obtained within the time requested". What should I do?
This happens mostly on Pentium III machine. Please follow the procedure below:

I got this message "identifier of an instance of com.globevestor.common.model.GvQuote altered from xxx to null". What should I do?
This happens when you try to change symbol or date of an existing quote. In the next version of Fund Prices Downloader, we will disable direct editing in table. In the meantime, remove the quote you are trying to change.

TROUBLESHOOTING

How do I check status of error automatically reported to Globevestor by Fund Prices Downloader?
At the moment you cannot check the status of error reported. However these errors are used to improve the software for future releases.

LICENSING

Can I share, distribute or sell data collected using Fund Prices Downloader?
Data collected is for your personal use only. Violation may lead to license revoke without refund.

How many computers can I install for one licensed copy of Fund Prices Downloader?
At anytime, you may use one license copy on one computer. However you may transfer your license to another computer as many times as you wish

 

Support Channels

For other questions, you may post them to member-supported user group. For a period of three months after registration, registered users can contact Globevestor support at support-at-globevestor-dot-com. Please send your questions using email address specified during registration.