# Entity-Relationship Model v.05 ## Diagram ![ERModel_v05](ERModel_v05.png) Notation: Chen. Rectangles are entity sets, diamonds are relationships, ellipses are attributes, underlined ellipses are primary keys, the dashed ellipse is a derived attribute. A double line between an entity set and a relationship marks **total participation** (every instance of that entity set must participate); a single line marks partial participation. Three deliberate modeling decisions worth stating up front: - **No foreign keys appear in the diagram.** Connections between entity sets are expressed as relationships, per the notation. Foreign-key columns appear only in the relational model in [RelationalDesign](../P2-RelationalDesign/RelationalDesign.md). - **A position and a watchlist entry are entity sets, not M:N relationships.** `Holdings` (a user's position in an asset) and `WatchlistItems` (an asset on a watchlist) each have their own identifier `id`, and each is connected by two 1:N relationships: `Holds` and `PositionIn` for a holding, `Contains` and `Lists` for a watchlist item. Until v04 they were drawn as the M:N relationships `Holds` and `Contains`, but the database has always given `holdings` and `watchlist_items` their own `id` primary key. That is how an entity set is implemented, not an M:N relationship, whose key would be the pair of participating keys. v05 corrects the model to match; see [history](#entity-relationship-model-history). - **Key and uniqueness rules are stated with entity and relationship names, never with foreign-key columns.** For example: "a crypto is quoted at most once per currency", not "`{crypto_id, quote_currency}` is unique". ## Data requirements Each entity set is given as a short rationale for why it exists as its own set, its keys, and its attributes as a table. Each relationship is given as its cardinality and participation, a short rationale, and — where it carries data — an attribute table. ### Entity sets #### Users Registered participants of the platform. Every action in the simulation is attributed to a user, and the two balance attributes are what makes the simulation work: cash that is free to trade is tracked separately from cash that is currently committed to open positions, so the platform can refuse a purchase without having to recompute the whole portfolio first. **Keys:** candidates `{id}`, `{username}`, `{email}`; primary key **`id`**. A surrogate UUID was chosen because it is opaque and stable — `username` and `email` are both things a user may legitimately want to change later, and every relationship in the diagram points at `Users`, so a mutable key would propagate changes across the whole database. | Attribute | Type | Constraints | |---|---|---| | `id` | UUID | PK, required | | `username` | text(50) | required, unique | | `email` | text(255) | required, unique, contains `@` (checked by the application at registration, not by a database constraint) | | `full_name` | text(200) | optional | | `password_hash` | text(255) | required — never the password itself; the prototype stores a SHA-256 hex digest | | `available_balance` | numeric(18,4) | required, default 0, ≥ 0 | | `invested_balance` | numeric(18,4) | required, default 0, ≥ 0 | | `reserved_balance` | numeric(18,4) | required, default 0, ≥ 0 — cash set aside for the user's open buy orders (added in v04, after P7) | | `created_at` | timestamptz | required, defaults to now | | `updated_at` | timestamptz | optional (null until first change) | #### Cryptos The catalog of crypto assets the platform knows about. Kept separate from `Markets` because an asset exists independently of the pairs it is traded in — the same asset can be quoted against several currencies, and a user's holding is in the *asset*, not in a particular pair. **Keys:** candidates `{id}`, `{symbol}`; primary key **`id`**, for the same reason as in `Users`. `symbol` is kept as a unique natural key because that is what users type and see. | Attribute | Type | Constraints | |---|---|---| | `id` | UUID | PK, required | | `symbol` | text(20) | required, unique (e.g. `BTC`) | | `name` | text(255) | required (e.g. `Bitcoin`) | | `created_at` | timestamptz | required, defaults to now | #### Markets A tradeable pair: one crypto asset quoted in one currency, e.g. BTC/USD. This is where prices live, and it is the thing an order is placed *on*. Modeled as its own entity set rather than an attribute of `Cryptos` because a market has its own lifecycle — it can be deactivated without deleting the asset — and because trades, candles and orders all reference the pair, not the asset. **Keys:** candidate `{id}`; primary key **`id`**, so that the many entity sets related to a market need one narrow identifier instead of a composite one. **Uniqueness rule:** a crypto is quoted at most once per currency, so the crypto a market is `QuotedOn` together with its `quote_currency` identifies the market as well. Chen notation cannot draw this, because half of it comes through a relationship. P2 enforces it as `UNIQUE(crypto_id, quote_currency)`. | Attribute | Type | Constraints | |---|---|---| | `id` | UUID | PK, required | | `quote_currency` | text(3) | required, default `USD` | | `is_active` | boolean | required, default true — inactive markets are hidden from the trading menus but keep their history | | `created_at` | timestamptz | required, defaults to now | #### Orders A user's instruction to buy or sell on a market. Needed as a separate entity set because an order is a record of *intent* that outlives its execution: it keeps the requested quantity and price even after it has been filled, which is what makes the ledger auditable. Placing an order is what triggers a **reservation** of whatever it commits: the crypto being sold (`Holdings.reserved_quantity`, below) on a sell, and the cash (`Users.reserved_balance`) on a buy. Since v04 (after P7) an order can wait in the order book and be filled in parts, so `status` is a real lifecycle driven by `filled_quantity`: `open` (nothing filled yet), `partially_filled`, `executed` (completely filled), or `cancelled`, which releases what is still reserved. See [UseCase0005](../P3-UseCaseModel/UseCase0005.md) for the reserve-then-settle sequence and [AdvancedDatabaseDevelopment](../P7-AdvancedDatabaseDevelopment/AdvancedDatabaseDevelopment.md) for the rules that keep it consistent. **Keys:** candidate `{id}` only — there is no natural key, since the same user can place two identical orders on the same market in the same second, and both are legitimately distinct; primary key **`id`**. | Attribute | Type | Constraints | |---|---|---| | `id` | UUID | PK, required | | `side` | text | required, `buy` or `sell` | | `type` | text | required, `market` or `limit` (both executed since P7) | | `status` | text | required, `open`, `partially_filled`, `executed` or `cancelled` | | `quantity` | numeric(20,4) | required, > 0 | | `filled_quantity` | numeric(20,4) | required, default 0, between 0 and `quantity` — how much has been traded; remaining = `quantity − filled_quantity` (added in v04, after P7) | | `price` | numeric(18,6) | optional — the limit price; for a market order, the market price when it was placed | | `placed_at` | timestamptz | required, defaults to now | | `executed_at` | timestamptz | optional, set when the order settles | #### Transactions The financial ledger: every movement of virtual cash, in one place. This exists so that a balance is never just a number someone edited — it is the sum of an auditable list of entries, which is also what the "explain every step" goal of the project needs. **Keys:** candidate `{id}` only; primary key **`id`**. | Attribute | Type | Constraints | |---|---|---| | `id` | UUID | PK, required | | `type` | text | required, `deposit`, `buy`, `sell` or `fee` | | `amount` | numeric(18,4) | required, signed — negative for money leaving the cash balance, positive for money arriving | | `currency` | text(3) | required, default `USD` | | `created_at` | timestamptz | required, defaults to now | | `description` | text | optional, free-form | #### MarketTrades Individual executed trades on a market, from the user's own fills and from the market simulator. This is the single source of truth for the current price: the price of a market is the price of its most recent trade, never a column someone writes directly. **Keys:** candidate `{id}` — "market plus `executed_at`" looks unique in principle, but two trades on a market can share a timestamp, so it is not a safe key; primary key **`id`** (a plain auto-incrementing integer here rather than a UUID, because this is the highest-volume entity set and it is only ever read in timestamp order, never referenced by anything else). | Attribute | Type | Constraints | |---|---|---| | `id` | big integer | PK, required, auto-generated (`bigserial` in P2) | | `executed_at` | timestamptz | required | | `price` | numeric(18,6) | required, > 0 | | `quantity` | numeric(20,6) | required, > 0 | | `side` | text | optional, `buy` or `sell` | | `source` | text(50) | required, default `simulation` — distinguishes a simulated trade from a user's own fill (`user`) | Since v04 (after P7) a trade also records which orders it filled, through the relationships `FillsBuy` and `FillsSell` below. #### OrderEvents *Added in v04, after P7.* The audit trail of an order: one event for its placement, one for every (partial) fill, and one for a cancellation. The `Orders` row only holds the current state; this entity keeps the history of how the order got there. Events are recorded automatically by the database. **Keys:** candidate `{id}` only; primary key **`id`** (auto-incrementing integer, events are only read in order). | Attribute | Type | Constraints | |---|---|---| | `id` | big integer | PK, required, auto-generated (`bigserial` in P2) | | `event_type` | text | required, `placed`, `partially_filled`, `filled` or `cancelled` | | `quantity` | numeric(20,4) | required — the ordered quantity for `placed`, the filled amount for a fill, the unfilled rest for `cancelled` | | `price` | numeric(18,6) | optional — the order price, or the trade price for a fill | | `status_after` | text | required, the order's status after the event | | `created_at` | timestamptz | required, set automatically when the event is recorded (`clock_timestamp()`, so events inside one transaction keep their real order) | #### MarketCandles OHLCV aggregates per market and timeframe — the data a price chart is drawn from. Stored rather than computed on the fly because the point of the project is a chart-driven interface, and re-aggregating the whole trade history for every screen refresh does not scale. **Keys:** candidate `{id}`; primary key **`id`**. **Uniqueness rule:** a market has exactly one candle per timeframe per time bucket, so the market a candle `Aggregates` together with `timeframe` and `candle_time` also identifies it. This is the real-world constraint that prevents duplicate candles. P2 enforces it as `UNIQUE(market_id, timeframe, candle_time)`. | Attribute | Type | Constraints | |---|---|---| | `id` | big integer | PK, required, auto-generated (`bigserial` in P2) | | `timeframe` | text | required, `1m`, `5m`, `1h` or `1d` | | `open`, `high`, `low`, `close` | numeric(18,6) | all required | | `volume` | numeric(20,6) | required | | `candle_time` | timestamptz | required — the start of the bucket | #### Watchlists A named list of assets a user wants to monitor. A separate entity set rather than a flag on the relationship between users and assets, because a user may want several lists ("long term", "watching today") and each needs its own name. **Keys:** candidate `{id}`; primary key **`id`**. "Owner plus `name`" would also identify a list if names had to be unique per user, but the model does not require that, so there is no uniqueness rule here. | Attribute | Type | Constraints | |---|---|---| | `id` | UUID | PK, required | | `name` | text(100) | required | | `created_at` | timestamptz | required, defaults to now | #### Holdings A user's position in one crypto asset: how much of it the user owns, how much of that is already promised to open sell orders, and at what average price it was accumulated. *An entity set since v05* (until v04 it was the M:N relationship `Holds`). A holding has its own identifier and its own lifecycle: it is created on the first buy, updated on every later fill, and the prototype reads and locks it as a unit (`SELECT … FOR UPDATE` on the sell path). It is linked to its owner through `Holds` and to its asset through `PositionIn`. **Keys:** candidate `{id}`; primary key **`id`**. **Uniqueness rule:** a user has at most one holding per crypto, so the user who `Holds` it together with the crypto it is a `PositionIn` also identifies a holding. P2 enforces this as `UNIQUE(user_id, crypto_id)`. `reserved_quantity` mirrors `available_balance`/`invested_balance` on `Users`: two independently updated stored numbers, with the amount actually free to use computed on demand rather than stored (`quantity − reserved_quantity` here, `available_balance` alone on the cash side). Without it, nothing stopped a user from placing a second sell order against crypto already promised to a first one — `quantity` alone cannot tell "owned" apart from "owned, but already committed elsewhere." See [history](#entity-relationship-model-history), v03. | Attribute | Type | Constraints | |---|---|---| | `id` | UUID | PK, required | | `quantity` | numeric(20,4) | required, ≥ 0 — total amount owned | | `reserved_quantity` | numeric(20,4) | required, default 0, `0 ≤ reserved_quantity ≤ quantity` — committed to the user's own open sell orders, not yet removed from the position | | `avg_price` | numeric(18,6) | required, default 0, ≥ 0, **derived** (dashed ellipse) — the weighted average of the prices at which the position was accumulated; derivable from the buy history, stored anyway so unrealised P/L can be shown without replaying the whole ledger | | `created_at` | timestamptz | required, defaults to now | | `updated_at` | timestamptz | optional | #### WatchlistItems One asset placed on one watchlist. *An entity set since v05* (until v04 it was the M:N relationship `Contains`). It has its own identifier, and it is linked to its list through `Contains` and to its asset through `Lists`. **Keys:** candidate `{id}`; primary key **`id`**. **Uniqueness rule:** an asset appears at most once on a given list, so the watchlist that `Contains` an item together with the crypto it `Lists` also identifies the item. P2 enforces this as `UNIQUE(watchlist_id, crypto_id)`. | Attribute | Type | Constraints | |---|---|---| | `id` | UUID | PK, required | | `added_at` | timestamptz | required, defaults to now — recorded so a list can be shown in the order the user built it | ### Relationships #### QuotedOn — Cryptos (1) : Markets (N), total on Markets Ties a market to the asset it trades. One asset can be quoted in many markets; every market must have exactly one asset, hence total participation on the `Markets` side. No attributes. #### PlacedOn — Markets (1) : Orders (N), total on Orders Records which market an order was placed on. Every order must name a market; a market may have no orders yet. No attributes. #### Places — Users (1) : Orders (N), total on Orders Records who placed an order. Every order belongs to exactly one user; a new user has no orders. No attributes. #### Records — Users (1) : Transactions (N), total on Transactions Attributes each ledger entry to a user. Every entry belongs to exactly one user. No attributes. #### Settles — Orders (1) : Transactions (N), partial on both sides Links a ledger entry to the order that caused it. Partial on the `Transactions` side because deposits have no originating order, and partial on the `Orders` side because an order that never executes never produces a ledger entry — which is why the corresponding column is nullable in P2. No attributes. #### Fills — Markets (1) : MarketTrades (N), total on MarketTrades Every executed trade happened on exactly one market. No attributes. #### FillsBuy — Orders (1) : MarketTrades (N), partial on both sides *Added in v04, after P7.* The buy order a trade filled. An order can be filled by many trades (partial fills); a trade fills at most one buy order, and none when the simulated market was the buyer. The role of `Orders` in this relationship is *the buy order* of the trade. No attributes. #### FillsSell — Orders (1) : MarketTrades (N), partial on both sides *Added in v04, after P7.* The sell order a trade filled, symmetric to `FillsBuy`; the role of `Orders` here is *the sell order* of the trade. A trade between two users' orders participates in both. No attributes. #### Logs — Orders (1) : OrderEvents (N), total on OrderEvents *Added in v04, after P7.* Every event belongs to exactly one order. No attributes. #### Aggregates — Markets (1) : MarketCandles (N), total on MarketCandles Every candle summarises trades of exactly one market. No attributes. #### Owns — Users (1) : Watchlists (N), total on Watchlists Every watchlist belongs to exactly one user. No attributes. #### Holds — Users (1) : Holdings (N), total on Holdings *1:N since v05.* Every holding belongs to exactly one user. A user may hold nothing yet, so participation is partial on the `Users` side. No attributes. #### PositionIn — Cryptos (1) : Holdings (N), total on Holdings *Added in v05.* Every holding is a position in exactly one crypto asset. An asset may be held by nobody. No attributes. Together, `Holds` and `PositionIn` still say what the old M:N `Holds` said: a user can hold many assets and an asset can be held by many users. The difference is that the position is now a thing with its own identity, not just a pair. The rule "at most one holding per user and crypto" is stated under [Holdings](#holdings). #### Contains — Watchlists (1) : WatchlistItems (N), total on WatchlistItems *1:N since v05.* Every watchlist item is on exactly one list. An empty list is valid, so participation is partial on the `Watchlists` side. No attributes. #### Lists — Cryptos (1) : WatchlistItems (N), total on WatchlistItems *Added in v05.* Every watchlist item names exactly one crypto asset. An asset need not be on any list. No attributes. ## Entity-Relationship Model History - **v01** — First complete version. Built from the entity notes in [`ep-diagram.md`](ep-diagram.md) (the initial hand-written model), with three changes made to that initial model while drawing it: 1. `Markets` was promoted from an implied attribute of the asset to its own entity set, so that prices, orders, trades and candles can all reference a pair rather than an asset. 2. `holdings` and `watchlist_items` were re-expressed as the M:N relationships `Holds` and `Contains` with their own attributes, instead of entity sets with foreign keys — the initial notes listed them as tables, which is a relational concept that does not belong in a Chen ERD. 3. `avg_price` was marked as a derived attribute rather than a plain one, to make the denormalisation explicit rather than hidden. - **v02** — Student review pass over the AI-generated v01 in the TerraER GUI. - **v03** — Added `reserved_quantity` to `Holds`, and reworded `Orders.status` to state its reserve → settle → (cancel) lifecycle explicitly, instead of leaving `open`/`cancelled` as unused enum values. Triggered by a design review that pointed out the model had no way to stop a user from placing a second sell order against crypto already promised to a first, unsettled one — `quantity` alone cannot distinguish "owned" from "owned, but already committed." Also redrawn more compactly: every entity and relationship (with its own attributes moved along with it) was pulled proportionally toward the diagram's centroid, shrinking the canvas by roughly 45% with the same topology and no new overlaps. See [ERModelAIUsage](ERModelAIUsage.md) for the reasoning and how the diagram file itself was produced, and [RelationalDesign](../P2-RelationalDesign/RelationalDesign.md) and [UseCase0005](../P3-UseCaseModel/UseCase0005.md) for how the new attribute is enforced. - **v04 — after P7.** Phase 7 (order, balance and trade consistency) needed data the model did not have, so the model was extended to stay in line with the database: - `Users.reserved_balance`: cash reserved by open buy orders; - `Orders.filled_quantity` and the status value `partially_filled`: orders can now be filled in parts; - the relationships `FillsBuy` and `FillsSell` between `Orders` and `MarketTrades`: which orders a trade filled; - the entity set `OrderEvents` with the relationship `Logs`: the automatically recorded history of every order. Nothing existing was removed or changed. See [AdvancedDatabaseDevelopment](../P7-AdvancedDatabaseDevelopment/AdvancedDatabaseDevelopment.md). The diagram files are `ERModel_v04.xml` / `ERModel_v04.png`. - **v05 — correction after review.** The review of P2 found that two parts of the model were implemented differently in the database: - `Contains` was an M:N relationship in the model, but `watchlist_items` has its own `id` primary key; - `Holds` was an M:N relationship in the model, but `holdings` has its own `id` primary key. An M:N relationship has no identifier of its own; its table's key is the pair of participating keys. A table with its own `id` is the implementation of an entity set. Every phase after P2 (the prototype, the reports and the P7 logic) already uses the database as it is. So the **model** was corrected to match P2, not the other way round: - `Holds` (M:N, with attributes) became the entity set `Holdings` (its former attributes plus `id`) with two 1:N relationships, `Holds` (Users → Holdings) and `PositionIn` (Cryptos → Holdings), both total on the `Holdings` side; - `Contains` (M:N, with `added_at`) became the entity set `WatchlistItems` (`id`, `added_at`) with `Contains` (Watchlists → WatchlistItems) and `Lists` (Cryptos → WatchlistItems), both total on the `WatchlistItems` side; - the former keys of the two relationships are kept as uniqueness rules ("one holding per user and crypto", "an asset at most once per list"); - the key descriptions of `Markets`, `MarketTrades`, `MarketCandles` and `Watchlists` no longer name foreign-key columns (`crypto_id`, `market_id`, `user_id`), which do not exist in an ER model; - the diagram was redrawn on a grid with no overlapping attributes. In v04, `Watchlists.id` was hidden behind `added_at`, and several attributes of `Orders`, `Transactions`, `MarketTrades` and `MarketCandles` overlapped. The grid also makes it easier to compare the diagram with the P2 relational diagram. The diagram files are `ERModel_v05.xml` / `ERModel_v05.png`; earlier versions are kept. Reasoning for the AI-assisted part of this phase, and the full interaction log, are on [ERModelAIUsage](ERModelAIUsage.md).