IASG

Challenge

IASG runs the largest open database of managed-futures programs: performance histories, statistics, and screening tools that investors and Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) use daily. cre8 has run the platform since 2011, and it has changed engines twice.

2011, DotNetNuke. IASG.com and the MyIASG portfolio tools were already running on a DotNetNuke (DNN) content management system with a .NET data layer when cre8 took the platform over from its original developer. Some of the tools arrived without source code, so the first job was reverse-engineering what was there before anything could be improved. A 2015 redesign refreshed the front end on the same platform.

2021, the hybrid. The public site moved to WordPress. The data layer stayed put: programs, performance calculations, and investor accounts kept running through the original .NET API, with WordPress reading from it over a web service. It worked, and it bought years. It also meant every improvement to the screener, the badges, or the account tools ran into the same wall. The part of the platform that mattered most was the part that was hardest to change.

2026, v2. The job was to finish the move: replace the data layer without touching what investors saw, and without a day of missing performance data.

Approach

Decouple, then cut over. cre8 built a new API on the WordPress side to own the data outright: programs, monthly performance, derived statistics, CTA and group records, and user accounts with watchlists and portfolios. During the build, the new API ran in parallel with the legacy one so every field, sort, and filter could be checked against live results before anything switched.

Reproduce the math. Sixteen years of statistics logic lived in the legacy database, built up one request at a time. cre8 traced each calculation, rebuilt it in the new API, and verified the results program by program against live before anything switched.

Keep the front door simple. Each month, CTAs report two numbers per program: the return and assets under management. They enter those directly, and the statistics recalculate from there. CSV import is reserved for onboarding a new program with years of history. No scrapes, no synced copies, one source of truth.

Move the hosting with it. The cutover also took IASG.com off its legacy server and onto managed hosting at Liquid Web, sized for the new API and under cre8’s direct management.

Change nothing the public could see. Every page and URL stayed where it was. The cutover swapped the API layer only, so search rankings and investor bookmarks carried through untouched.

Outcome

• Cut over September 2026 with the site’s pages and URLs unchanged.
• The full data model, including user accounts, watchlists, and portfolios, now lives in a system cre8 built and IASG owns.
• Site response time dropped by about a third after cutover, from roughly 1.2 seconds to 0.85 seconds on external uptime monitoring, with the new API and the new hosting landing together.
• The legacy .NET dependency is retired for the public site, which clears the path for the next phase: the badges program and the investor tools that were waiting on it.