Swing trading and trend trading are both popular trading styles, but they differ in timeframe, approach, and goals. Here's a breakdown to help you decide which fits your style better—or even combine elements of both:

Swing Trading

Goal: Capture short- to medium-term price moves within a trend or range with https://stockstrategy.net/ best stock strategy 

Key Traits:

•    Timeframe: Trades last a few days to a few weeks.

•    Focus: Short-term price swings, reversals, and breakouts.

•    Tools: Technical analysis, candlestick patterns, moving averages, RSI, MACD.

•    Volatility Tolerance: Higher—takes advantage of quick moves.

•    Typical Strategy: Buy low, sell high within a trend or range.

•    Market Condition Suitability: Works well in both trending and range-bound markets.

Pros:

•    Quicker profits than trend trading.

•    More opportunities (frequent trades).

•    Less exposure to long-term risk.

Cons:

•    Requires more active management.

•    Higher transaction costs.

•    Can be affected by noise and false signals.

📈 Trend Trading

Goal: Ride long-term trends in one direction (uptrend or downtrend).

Key Traits:

•    Timeframe: Weeks to months, sometimes longer.

•    Focus: Following the dominant trend until signs of reversal.

•    Tools: Moving averages (like 50/200 EMA), trendlines, ADX, price action.

•    Volatility Tolerance: Lower—looks for smooth, sustained moves.

•    Typical Strategy: "The trend is your friend"—enter on pullbacks, stay in until trend weakens.

Pros:

•    Less frequent trading (good for busy traders).

•    Can yield large profits from big moves.

•    Less sensitive to short-term market noise.

Cons:

•    Fewer trade opportunities.

•    Requires more patience.

•    Can give back some profits if the exit is late.

🔍 Which Should You Use?

•    Prefer faster trades and reacting to market swings? → Swing trading.

•    Prefer longer holds and following broader market direction? → Trend trading.

•    Want a hybrid strategy? Many traders use swing entries in the direction of the larger trend—this combines the best of both.

While many traders and investors have made fortunes, some have lost billions due to poor decisions, bad luck, or overconfidence. Here are some of the biggest stock market losers of all time:

1. Jesse Livermore – The "Boy Plunger" Who Lost It All

Peak Wealth: $100 million (adjusted for inflation, ~$1.5 billion today)
Biggest Loss: Lost everything and went bankrupt multiple times.

📉 What Went Wrong?

        •       Made a huge fortune shorting the 1929 crash, but later lost it all on bad trades.

        •       Ignored his own risk management rules.

        •       Overleveraged and failed to adapt to changing markets.

2. Adolf Merckle – The Billionaire Who Bet Against Volkswagen

Peak Wealth: $12 billion
Biggest Loss: Lost billions shorting Volkswagen (VW) in 2008.

📉 What Went Wrong?

        •       In 2008, Volkswagen’s stock skyrocketed 400% in two days, becoming the world’s most valuable company temporarily.

        •       Merckle had a massive short position, expecting VW stock to drop, but he was caught in a short squeeze.

        •       His empire collapsed, and he tragically took his own life.

3. Bill Hwang – The $20 Billion Disaster of Archegos Capital

Peak Wealth: $20 billion
Biggest Loss: Lost $20 billion in TWO DAYS in 2021.

📉 What Went Wrong?

        •       Used extreme leverage (borrowed money) to buy stocks like ViacomCBS (VIAC) and Discovery (DISCA).

        •       When prices dropped, he couldn’t cover his margin calls, forcing massive liquidation.

        •       Banks like Credit Suisse & Nomura lost billions due to his bad bets.

4. Masayoshi Son – The $70 Billion Crash of SoftBank

Peak Wealth: $78 billion in 2000
Biggest Loss: Lost $70 billion during the 2000 dot-com crash.

📉 What Went Wrong?

        •       Overinvested in internet startups before the dot-com bubble burst.

        •       His company, SoftBank, saw its stock drop 99% from its peak.

        •       However, he later recovered by investing in Alibaba, making back billions.

5. Eike Batista – From $30 Billion to Bankrupt

Peak Wealth: $30 billion in 2012
Biggest Loss: Lost his entire fortune and went bankrupt.

📉 What Went Wrong?

        •       Owned oil company OGX, which collapsed due to failed oil discoveries.

        •       Took on too much debt, and when the company failed, so did his fortune.

        •       Was once the 8th richest person in the world, then ended up owing billions.

Lessons from the Biggest Losers

You must use the best stock strategy

 As many traders and investors have made fortunes

Top Stocks to Consider for Trading:

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TechnipFMC (FTI):

Sector: Oil & Gas Equipment​

Investor's Business Daily

Recent Performance: TechnipFMC's stock has seen a notable rally recently, gaining in 13 of the last 15 sessions and reaching a new high within a cup base. ​

Investor's Business Daily

AT&T (T):

Recent Performance: AT&T's stock has risen by nearly 24% in 2025, with a Relative Strength (RS) rating of 95, indicating strong performance relative to the market. ​

Tesla (TSLA):

Sector: Automotive/Electric Vehicles​

Recent Performance: Tesla's stock has declined by almost 25% since the beginning of the year, amid political tensions and trade tariff threats. ​

Latest news & breaking headlines

Philip Morris International (PM):

Sector: Tobacco​

Recent Performance: Philip Morris saw a 31.9% rise in the first quarter of 2025, indicating strong performance in a defensive sector. ​

Business Insider

JPMorgan Chase (JPM):

Sector: Banking​

Recent Performance: Major banks like JPMorgan have seen a resurgence, aided by hopes for deregulation and mergers. ​

Barron's

Considerations for Traders:

Market Volatility: The recent tariff announcements are expected to cause significant market fluctuations. ​

Sector Rotation: Investors are shifting focus to defensive sectors like consumer staples, healthcare, and utilities, which may offer more stability during uncertain times. ​

Business Insider

Earnings Reports: Upcoming earnings reports, especially from major banks and tech companies, could influence stock performance and present trading opportunities. ​

Given the current market conditions, it's crucial to stay informed and consider both technical indicators and fundamental analysis when making trading decisions.

Discover a simple, effective stock strategy. Learn to identify high-probability trades with our proven chart patterns. Start profiting today!

In the ever-evolving world of stock market investing, having access to reliable, data-driven insights is crucial for making informed decisions. Enter StockStrategy.net, a cutting-edge platform designed to empower investors with the tools and strategies they need to navigate the complexities of the financial markets. Whether you're a seasoned trader or a beginner looking to dip your toes into investing, StockStrategy.net offers a comprehensive suite of resources to help you achieve your financial goals.

What is StockStrategy.net?

StockStrategy.net is an innovative online platform that provides investors with actionable stock market strategies, data analytics, and educational resources. The platform leverages advanced algorithms, historical data, and market trends to deliver personalized investment recommendations tailored to individual risk tolerances and financial objectives. By combining technology with financial expertise, StockStrategy.net aims to simplify the investment process and help users make smarter, more confident decisions.

Key Features of stock strategy

1   Data-Driven Investment Strategies
At the heart of StockStrategy.net is its reliance on data-driven insights. The platform analyzes vast amounts of market data, including historical price movements, earnings reports, and macroeconomic indicators, to identify patterns and trends. This allows users to access proven strategies that have been backtested for performance and reliability.

2   Personalized Portfolio Recommendations
StockStrategy.net understands that every investor is unique. The platform offers personalized portfolio recommendations based on factors such as risk tolerance, investment horizon, and financial goals. Whether you're looking for growth, income, or a balanced approach, StockStrategy.net tailors its suggestions to suit your needs.

3   Educational Resources
For those new to investing or looking to expand their knowledge, StockStrategy.net provides a wealth of educational content. From beginner-friendly guides to advanced trading strategies, the platform equips users with the knowledge they need to succeed in the stock market.

4   Real-Time Market Insights
Staying ahead of market movements is critical for successful investing. StockStrategy.net offers real-time market updates, news, and analysis to keep users informed about the latest developments. This ensures that investors can act quickly and decisively when opportunities arise.

5   User-Friendly Interface
Navigating the stock market can be intimidating, but StockStrategy.net makes it easy. The platform features an intuitive, user-friendly interface that allows users to access insights, build portfolios, and track performance with ease.

6   Community and Support
Investing can be a lonely journey, but StockStrategy.net fosters a sense of community among its users. The platform offers forums, webinars, and expert support to help investors connect, share ideas, and learn from one another.

Who Can Benefit from stock strategy?

StockStrategy.net is designed for a wide range of investors, including:

•    Beginners: Those new to investing can leverage the platform's educational resources and guided strategies to build confidence and start their investment journey.

•    Experienced Traders: Seasoned investors can use StockStrategy.net's advanced tools and data analytics to refine their strategies and uncover new opportunities.

•    Long-Term Investors: Individuals focused on building wealth over time can benefit from the platform's personalized portfolio recommendations and risk management tools.

•    Active Traders: For those who prefer a hands-on approach, StockStrategy.net provides real-time insights and actionable strategies to capitalize on short-term market movements.

Why Choose StockStrategy.net?

In a crowded marketplace of investment platforms, StockStrategy.net stands out for its commitment to data-driven decision-making and user empowerment. By combining cutting-edge technology with a user-centric approach, the platform demystifies the stock market and makes investing accessible to everyone.

Moreover, StockStrategy.net's emphasis on education and community ensures that users are not just passive recipients of information but active participants in their financial journey. Whether you're looking to grow your wealth, generate passive income, or simply learn more about investing, StockStrategy.net provides the tools and support you need to succeed.

Final Thoughts

The stock market can be a daunting place, but with the right tools and strategies, it also offers immense opportunities for growth and financial success. StockStrategy.net is more than just a platform—it's a partner in your investment journey, offering the insights, resources, and support you need to make informed decisions and achieve your financial goals.

If you're ready to take control of your investments and unlock the power of data-driven strategies, visit StockStrategy.net today and start your journey toward financial success.

Trading refers to the buying and selling of financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, and derivatives with the goal of making a profit. It can be done by individuals, institutions, or automated systems, and it occurs in various markets, including stock exchanges, forex markets, and commodity markets. Trading can range from short-term strategies like day trading to long-term investing. Below is a comprehensive overview of trading, including its types, strategies, benefits, and risks.

Trading is the process of buying and selling financial instruments—such as stocks, currencies, commodities, and cryptocurrencies—with the goal of making a profit. It’s a dynamic activity that spans multiple markets and asset classes, and it can be tailored to a wide range of risk tolerances and time horizons.

Types of Trading

Gold trading and stock trading is my favourites financial markets

Stock Trading:

Involves buying and selling shares of publicly traded companies on exchanges like the NYSE or NASDAQ. Strategies range from day trading to long-term investing.

Forex Trading:

Focuses on the exchange of currencies. Traders capitalize on fluctuations in currency values using strategies that often involve leverage and high-speed transactions.

Commodity Trading:

Deals with raw materials such as gold, oil, and agricultural products. Prices are influenced by supply and demand dynamics, geopolitical events, and seasonal factors.

Cryptocurrency Trading:

Involves digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. This market is known for its high volatility and operates 24/7, offering unique trading opportunities and challenges.

Options & Futures Trading:

These are derivative instruments that allow traders to speculate on the future price movements of assets. They can be used for hedging or leveraging positions.

Key Components of a stock strategy

Market Analysis:

Fundamental Analysis: Evaluates economic indicators, financial statements, and industry trends.

Technical Analysis: Uses charts, patterns, and technical indicators to forecast price movements.

Risk Management:

Set clear stop-loss levels.

Diversify your portfolio to manage exposure.

Use position sizing and other tools to control risk.

Trading Plan:

Define your goals, entry and exit points, and the criteria for making decisions.

Consistently review and adjust your plan as market conditions change.

Execution:

Choose a reliable platform or broker.

Stay disciplined and stick to your strategy despite market fluctuations.

Why Trade?

Profit Potential:

Trading offers the possibility of high returns through capital appreciation, income generation (like dividends or interest), and leveraging market movements.

Liquidity:

Many markets, especially stocks and forex, offer high liquidity, meaning you can quickly buy or sell your positions.

Flexibility:

Whether you prefer day trading, swing trading, or long-term investing, there’s a strategy that can suit your schedule and risk appetite.

Learning Opportunity:

Engaging in trading enhances your financial literacy and sharpens your analytical skills as you learn to interpret market data and trends.

Getting started with trading involves a blend of education, planning, and disciplined execution. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you begin your trading journey:

1. Educate Yourself

Learn the Basics: Understand key concepts like market orders, limit orders, and different types of analysis (fundamental and technical).

Resources: Consider books, online courses, financial news, and reputable trading blogs to build your foundation.

2. Define Your Goals and Risk Tolerance

Set Clear Objectives: Determine whether you’re aiming for long-term growth, short-term gains, or income generation.

Assess Risk: Know how much capital you can afford to risk, and set realistic expectations about potential returns.

3. Choose Your Trading Style

Day Trading: Involves making multiple trades in a single day. Requires quick decision-making.

Swing Trading: Focuses on capturing short- to medium-term price movements over days or weeks.

Long-Term Investing: Involves holding positions for months or years based on the company’s fundamentals.

4. Select a Reliable Brokerage

Research Options: Look for a platform that offers user-friendly interfaces, reasonable fees, robust tools, and strong customer support.

Regulation: Ensure the broker is properly regulated to protect your investment.

5. Develop a Trading Plan

Entry and Exit Strategies: Clearly define the criteria for when to buy or sell a security.

Risk Management: Include stop-loss orders and position sizing rules to control potential losses.

Consistency: A well-crafted plan helps minimize emotional decision-making.

6. Practice with a Demo Account

Simulated Trading: Use a demo account to test your strategies without risking real money.

Gain Experience: This helps build confidence and refine your trading approach before going live.

7. Start Small

Initial Investment: Begin with a small portion of your available capital.

Scaling Up: Increase your investment as you gain experience and see consistent success with your strategy.

8. Monitor, Learn, and Adapt

Track Your Trades: Keep a trading journal to analyze what works and what doesn’t.

Stay Informed: Follow market news and trends to continuously update your strategy.

Continuous Improvement: Adjust your approach as market conditions change and as you learn from your experiences.

Trading is a skill that develops over time. By starting with a solid foundation and gradually building your experience, you can improve your chances of success. Would you like more details on a specific trading style or additional tips on risk management?

Trading CFDs carries considerable risk of capital loss. Any advice provided is general advice only, and has been prepared without taking your individual objectives, financial situation or needs into account. Past performance is not an indicator of future results.

If you have the right strategy in stock, trading can also be quite profitable. Despite this, most traders fail to make steady gains because they need the necessary strategy and self-discipline. This article will look at vital elements that make up a winning strategy in the stock market.

Rule 1: Always Use a Trading Plan

Stock Strategy

The trading plan is one of the major components of success for stock traders. Trade plans govern every purchase involving a trader's entry, exit, and money management rules. It ensures traders remain disciplined and don't act impulsively for emotional reasons.

The currently available technology makes evaluating a trading idea simpler than at any time in history before putting down real cash. Backtesting is an exercise whereby a trader employs a given data set to simulate their idea of trade to ascertain its feasibility. Backtesting of a trading plan enables traders to feel confident about the system when they apply it in real-time.

Nevertheless, one needs to bear in mind that, on some occasions, a trading plan can fail. Billing out in such a case and restarting the process is important. Refusing to change an ineffective plan may result in substantial losses. Stock trading is based on flexibility and adaptability.

Rule 2: Treat Trading Like a Business

Successful stock trading requires that it is either an occupation or a full-time business, not just a hobby or job. Taking trading as just a matter of enjoyment does not involve any determination to better skills in trading. The failure to receive a check every time and treating it like a job makes it difficult to work at times.

Trading involves cost, loss, tax, anxiety, unpredictability, and risk. It should be treated as a business endeavor dedicated to thorough research and planning so that traders can yield the most benefits. Constant training, knowledge of the latest market practices, and adaptability to shifts in the industry are necessary.

Rule 3: Use Technology to Your Advantage

Stock Strategy

Technology is important in stock trading nowadays. Since technology is here to stay, traders must work with it instead of against it – using today's advanced trading platforms, analytical instruments, and real-time market updates. Such tools are beneficial as they provide meaningful information on trading prospects and allow one to conduct trades faster.

Technology also allows traders to execute orders automatically and manage risks accompanying their trading strategies. However, automated systems, which are free from emotion or bias, could be used to enable more objective and systematic trading decisions.

Wrapping Up!

Stock Strategy

Success in stock trading is contingent on synthesizing disparate elements into an all-encompassing strategy. Risk management is an important aspect of the business environment, including market analysis, discipline, adaptability, and consistent performance. The trading plan should be built as in any serious business, using modern technologies, saving capital, and risks that do not exceed one's opportunities. This incorporates a fact-based methodology while maintaining an outlook on trading and, at any cost, avoiding overtrading. In essence, stock trading depends on the rule of discipline, constant readiness for education, and the ability to act wisely when the market changes.

Successful Stock Trading Strategy Factors from

Stock Strategy

Learning how these major factors shape trends over the long term can provide insight into how future trends may occur. Here are the four major factors:

Factors That Shape Market Trends

Investopedia / Ellen Lindner

Government

Government holds much sway over the free markets. The fiscal and monetary policies that governments and their central banks put in place have a profound effect on the financial marketplace. By increasing and decreasing interest rates, the U.S. Federal Reserve can effectively slow or attempt to speed up growth within the country. This is called monetary policy.

If government spending increases or contracts, this is known as fiscal policy and can be used to help ease unemployment and/or stabilize prices.

By raising or lowering taxes, altering interest rates, and influencing the amount of dollars available on the open market, governments can change how much investment flows into and out of the country.12

International Transactions

The flow of funds between countries affects the strength of a country's economy and its currency. The more money that is leaving a country, the weaker the country's economy and currency.3 Countries that predominantly export, whether physical goods or services are continually bringing money into their countries. This money can then be reinvested and can stimulate the financial markets within those countries.

Speculation and Expectation

Speculation and expectation are integral parts of the financial system. Consumers, investors, and politicians all hold different views about where they think the economy will go in the future, and that affects how they act today. The expectation of future action is dependent on current acts and shapes both current and future trends. Sentiment indicators are commonly used to gauge how certain groups are feeling about the current economy. Analysis of these indicators as well as other forms of fundamental and technical analysis can create a bias or expectation of future price rates and trend direction.

Supply and Demand

best Stock Strategy

Supply and demand for products, services, currencies, and other investments creates a push-pull dynamic in prices. Prices and rates change as supply or demand changes. If something is in demand and supply begins to shrink, prices will rise. If supply increases beyond current demand, prices will fall. If supply is relatively stable, prices can fluctuate higher and lower as demand increases or decreases.

A Mix of Factors

These factors can cause both short- and long-term fluctuations in the market, but it is also important to understand how all these elements come together to create trends. While all of these major factors are categorically different, they are closely linked to one another. Government mandates can affect international transactions, which play a role in speculation, and changes in supply and demand can play a role in each of these other factors.

Government news releases, such as proposed changes in spending or tax policy, as well as Federal Reserve decisions to change or maintain interest rates can also have a dramatic effect on long-term trends. The lowering of interest rates and taxes can encourage spending and economic growth. This in turn has a tendency to push market prices higher. However, the market does not always respond in this way because other factors may also be at play. Higher interest rates and taxes, for example, can deter spending and result in a contraction or a long-term fall in market prices.

In the short term, these news releases can cause large price swings as traders and investors buy and sell in response to the information. Increased action around these announcements can create short-term trends, while longer-term trends may develop as investors fully grasp and absorb what the impact of the information means for the markets.

Stock Strategy

The International Effect

International transactions, the balance of payments between countries, and economic strength are harder to gauge on a daily basis, but they also play a major role in longer-term trends in many markets.4 The currency markets are a gauge of how well one country's currency, and by extension, its economy, are doing relative to others. High demand for a currency means that currency will rise relative to other currencies.

The value of a country's currency can also play a role in how other markets will do within that country. If a country's currency is weak, this will deter investment into that country, as potential profits will be eroded by the weak currency.

The Participant Effect

The analysis and resultant positions taken by traders and investors based on the information they receive about government policy and international transact

Read more on :

Https://stockstrategy.net

Fortune magazine was founded in 1929 by Henry Robinson Luce.1 The first issue was published the following year and has since become one of the world's leading business publications. Originally printed monthly, the magazine put out 16 issues every year and also has a major presence online.

The magazine compiled its first list of the most successful American companies—both public and private—in 1955. It was created by editor Edgar P. Smith in an effort to measure the size and power of American businesses during a time when the country's economic power was "the envy of the world."2 Originally called the Fortune Industrial 500, the name of the list was shortened to Fortune 500.

The Fortune 500 survey includes companies that are incorporated and operate in the United States and file financial statements with government agencies. This includes companies that are both publicly traded and privately held. Private companies that don't file financial statements with government agencies, foreign corporations are excluded, as are American companies consolidated by other companies and those that neglect to report full financial statements for at least three quarters of the current fiscal year.3 As of 2020, companies are ranked by total revenues for their respective fiscal years as reported on their 10-K filings or comparable financial statements.

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Stock Strategy

Stock trading Strategy 

 About two-thirds of the Fortune 500 appear on the S&P 500 Index, so consider an S&P 500 index fund if you want to invest in many of these companies.

More than 1,800 American companies have been featured on the list over the course of its history. The list has changed dramatically from the very first Fortune 500.4 Mergers and acquisitions (M&A), shifts in production output, and bankruptcies have taken companies off of the list. The impact of a recession can also take out multiple companies from individual sectors. The Fortune 500 list can often be a telling sign of how strong the economy is or if there has been an economic recovery after poor performing years.

Special Considerations

As of 2020, Walmart (WMT) took to the top spot on the Fortune 500 list for the eighth year in a row. The company earned revenue of $524 billion.5 Online retailer Amazon (AMZN) took the second spot with revenues of $280.5 billion, jumping up four spots from 2019.6 Exxon Mobil (XOM) came in third with revenues of $265 billion, while Apple (AAPL) and CVS Health (CVS) ranked in fourth and fifth.7

The three most profitable companies on the 2020 list were as follows:

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A/BRK.B) with net profits of $81.4 billion

Apple with net profits of $55.2 billion

Microsoft (MSFT) with net profits of $39.2 billion

Notable newcomers to the list include Dow (DOW), Baker Hughes (BKR), and Uber (UBER).

The History of the Fortune 500

As noted above, the idea for the list came from Edgar P. Smith, who was an assistant managing editor for Fortune. Smith's idea took off and provided the grounds for the popular annual list.2 The original Fortune 500 lists contained only companies that were in the manufacturing, mining, and energy sectors, limiting inclusion for many big-name companies. To secure a spot on the list, a company had to produce $49.7 million in annual revenue.4 In the original 1955 Fortune 500 list, General Motors (GM) was the top company with annual revenues of $9.8 billion.

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Stock Strategy

Stock trading Strategy 

The Fortune 500 underwent its biggest change in 1995. The new list continued to include companies from the original manufacturing, mining, and energy sectors, but it also included service companies for the first time.8 The change greatly impacted the future of the Fortune 500 list.

For example, service companies made up 291 of the 500 entries that year. Three of the newly included service companies even made the top 10 listings in the Fortune 500. Walmart ranked fourth, AT&T was number five, and Sears Roebuck took the ninth spot on the list.9 Walmart has spent several years at number one—a position it would not have held if this change didn't occur.

Currency pairs combine the currencies of two countries. Each currency has a value and the relationship of those values contributes to the price of the pairs. So does trader interest.

Currencies are always traded in pairs because when you buy or sell one currency, you automatically sell or buy another. (E.g., think about paying U.S. dollars when buying foreign currency for a trip abroad.)

In every currency pair, there is a base currency and a quote currency. The base currency is the first currency shown, on the left. The quote currency is the second currency, on the right.

The price for a currency pair is the amount of the quoted currency required to purchase one unit of the base currency.

So, for example, with the EUR/USD currency pair, EUR is the base currency and USD is the quote currency. A currency pair price of 1.2000 means that 1.20 U.S. dollars are needed to buy one euro, or one euro is worth 1.20 U.S. dollars.

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Stock Strategy

Stock trading Strategy 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Bank for International Settlements publishes rankings of the most highly traded currency pairs every three years.

Currencies are always traded in pairs, with one currency being the base currency and the other the quote currency.

The euro and U.S. dollar (EUR/USD) are the most popular currency pair.

The six currency pairs listed offer traders good liquidity and tight spreads.

Factors such as trade relationships, a nation's economic health, and interest rate changes can affect the pricing of currency pairs.

Forex Trades 24 Hours a Day, 5 Days a Week

Foreign exchange (forex) traders have the luxury of more highly leveraged trading with lower margin requirements compared to traders in equity markets. But before you jump headfirst into the fast-paced world of forex, you'll want to know about the currency pairs that trade most often.

Here's a look at six of the most traded currency pairs in forex, with rankings based on the 2022 triennial survey by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).1

1. EUR/USD: Trading the "Fiber"

euro dollar

YinYang/Getty Images

The most traded currency pair is the EUR/USD, most likely because of the global prominence of the economies of the European single market and the United States. It made up 22.7% of overall market share, as of the latest BIS survey. That's down from 24% market share in the previous 2019 survey. The high daily volume and liquidity of this pair ensure tight spreads for traders.2

The EUR/USD tends to have a negative correlation with the U.S. dollar and Swiss franc (USD/CHF) and a positive correlation with the British pound/U.S. dollar (GBP/USD). This is due to the positive correlation of the euro, the British pound, and the Swiss franc.

2. USD/JPY: Trading the "Gopher"

Top 3 Japanese Yen (JPY) ETFs

The next most actively traded pair was the USD/JPY, with high liquidity and a market share of 13.5%, slightly higher than its prior 13.2%.2 This pair has been sensitive to political sentiment between the United States and the Far East.

It tends to be positively correlated to the USD/CHF and the U.S. dollar/Canadian dollar (USD/CAD) currency pairs. This relationship is due to the U.S. dollar being the base currency in all three pairs. USD/JPY also responds to changes made to interest rates by the Bank of Japan and the effect on the yen relative to the U.S. dollar.

3. GBP/USD: Trading the "Cable"

british-pounds.jpg

Maurice van der Velden/E+

Trading in the GBP/USD currency pair represented 9.5% of forex market share, a small decrease from the prior survey in 2019.2 Again, the popularity and volume of trading in this pair reflect the strength of the British and U.S. economies.

The GBP/USD tends to have a negative correlation with the USD/CHF and a positive correlation with the EUR/USD. This is due to the positive correlation between the British pound sterling, the Swiss franc, and the euro.

4. USD/CNY: Trading the Yuan

Image of Chinese yuan

The USD/CNY currency pair represents the relationship between the U.S. dollar and the Chinese renminbi, more commonly known as the yuan. Its market share grew to 6.6% from its previous 4.1% of market share in daily forex trades.2

The U.S.-China trade relationship has been a volatile one, providing USD/CNY traders with plenty of speculative trading opportunities. Those interested in the USD/CNY should maintain awareness of developments in that relationship, as they could affect the pricing of the pair.

5. USD/CAD: Trading the "Loonie"

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Stock Strategy

Stock trading Strategy 

Canadian money

Greg Biss/Getty Images

Market share for the USD/CAD currency pair increased to 5.5% from 4.4% in the previous survey three years ago.2 Interest rates in the U.S. and Canada will affect the price of this pair, reflecting the effects on the individual currencies. In addition, as oil is a major economic driver for Canada, its price will affect the price of Canadian currency. This in turn can have an impact on the currency pair.

The USD/CAD tends to be negatively correlated with the AUD/USD, GBP/USD, and EUR/USD pairs due t

This release has been a long time coming, thanks to the vagaries of obtaining a new code signing certificate for our Windows builds. Consequently there are a lot of changes which made it into Mudlet 4.10. Let’s go over some of the highlights!

Extra command lines

To turn on a commandline in a miniconsole, see here. To create a stand-alone, free floating command line, see here.

Background images for miniconsoles

You know what else you’ve been waiting and asking for? Background images on miniconsoles! Edru has been on a roll!

This also means that the usual c/d/heho color formatting functions now accept transparency as a parameter. See here on how to set a background image.

This also means that you can try setting a background image for the main window as well – but you might find that games often hardcode the black background, so it’s not ideal.

Math in Geyser

Have you been struggling to get your Geyser elements lined up just right and wished you could nudge it over just a few pixels? Been avoiding Geyser and using another option so you could have math in your constraints? Well, now you can use Geyser and receive all of its updates and use math in your constraints.

This means for example if you have a 32×32 label you want to center you can do so by using Label1:move(“50%-16px“,“50%+10px“), or using “50%-16px” for both the x and y when making the label.

Other Geyser Improvements

Geyser.Label also allows you to use “nocolor” as the text color, which will then allow for coloring the text via CSS. It also picked up the Geyser.Label:rawEcho(txt) function, which skips over all the formatting assistance normally provided by Geyser.Label:echo().

Geyser.MiniConsole gains Geyser.MiniConsole:display() which works just like regular display(), but outputs in the miniconsole instead of your main display.

New color functions for feedTriggers

Multi-view forever!

Telnet CHARSET support

Game admins will be happy about this feature – it is now possible to automatically set Mudlet’s text encoding – for example, to be utf8 in case your game supports emojis – using the CHARSET protocol. Big thanks to Tamarindo from StickMUD for pulling that one in.

Music/sound in MXP

Tamarindo also went ahead and added sound/music support to Mudlet’s MXP implementation. That said, there’s a much more modern Mud Client Media Protocol that you should aim to use

Scrollbar improvements

macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Apple will stop supporting 10.13 High Sierra in November 2020, and Mudlet will have to follow suit. Thus Mudlet 4.10 will be the last version to support 10.13, which had a good run of 3 years!

Credits

Thanks to all coders that have contributed to this massive release: Andre Castellanos, Damian Monogue, Eraene, Fae, Gustavo Sousa, Ian Adkins, Jonathan Mohrbacher, Kebap, keneanung, Manuel Wegmann, Matthias Urlichs, Mike Conley, Stack, Stephen Lyons, and Vadim Peretokin.

Thanks to all translators to translated Mudlet into their language: Alan Sneath (alsneath), Anubisa, emeraldboy, Hsin Hsiang Peng (Hsins), Kae (itsTheFae), Leris, Marco “M0lid3us” Tironi (wiploo), rodeos, rodeos, Vadim Peretokin (vperetokin), vingi, and 王AQ (Anselmus).

This massive piece of work would not be possible without all of you

Changelog

added:

• ability to display room names on the map (no auto-align them yet)
• an event to catch all events – `*`
• background image for miniconsoles is now possible, same as labels
• background image for the main window is now possible
• English spellchecking dictionaries are now included
• game admins can now set encoding via telnet CHARSET (so utf8 for emojis)
• miniconsoles can now have commandlines in them
• music is now supported in MXP
• option not to highlight text (history) when pressing the ↑ button
• option to use your own pathfinding algorithm instead of the built-in one
• you can now create standalone commandlines now allow you to ask the player for info
• transparency in now supported by cecho/decho/hecho
• you can now use math in Geyser constraints, ie “50% + 3px”

added & improved functions:

• ansi2string() given a string with ANSI codes in it, remove them all
• cfeedTriggers(), dfeedTriggers(), and hfeedTriggers() to enable testing color triggers
• createCommandLine(), enableCommandLine() for creating custom commandlines
• enableHorizontalScrollBar() to show a horizontal scrollbar in miniconsoles as needed
• getClipboardText() and setClipboardText() for interacting with the clipboard
• getFgColor() and getBgColor() now report how many characters the same color applies to
• getHTTP() downloadFile’s cousin and allows you to pass custom headers, joins putHTTP(), postHTTP() family for consistency
• Geyser.Label:createRightClickMenu() to create menus in labels
• Geyser.MiniConsole:display() to display straight into a miniconsole
• Geyser.UserWindow:setStyleSheet(), setUserWindowStyleSheet() to adjust the userwindow title and borders – great for dark themes
• hecho() can now set the background color only, without affecting foreground
• isActive() and exists() now work with buttons
• keepcolor parameter to replaceWildcard() and replaceAll() functions
• purgeMediaCache() to remove MCMP & MSP media files
• setCmdLineStyleSheet() to customize the font, colors, position of the command line
• setMapBackgroundColor() to change background color of the map from the usual black
• setMapRoomExitsColor() to customize the color of room exits drawn on the map
• spairs() which iterates over a table in a sorted way
• tempAlias() and tempKey() now can take Lua functions and not just text
• tempAnsiColor() trigger now works as it should

improved:

• ‘errors’ button text is now capitalized
• a message is now shown when a replay ends
• Client.Media – package messages themselves are no longer case sensitive
• compact input line option is now per-profile
• errors console now shows a horizontal scrollbar when needed
• exit line in generic mapper is now case-insensitive, and a few other triggers improved
• in case of compiling Mudlet yourself without TTS support, TTS functions won’t error anymore
• links at the end of the line now won’t be clickable in the empty space
• more accurate row and column reporting through NAWS protocol
• Mudlet logo artwork, now sharper and better-looking. Dev and PTB builds are now clearly distinguishable
• Mudlet’s savefiles are now saved with a more sorting-friendly name
• Mudlet’s usual, development and PTB icons got improved
• multiview tabbars aren’t re-arrangeable anymore, as doing so didn’t re-arrange the views anyhow
• profile history in connection dialog now translates dates
• scrolling now uses the upper pane’s height, so you aren’t missing text when scrolling, or getting too much of it
• shrinking rooms in the mapper will keep everything in its place
• string.split() now works with many more characters
• stylesheets can now manipulate color of Geyser Labels
• tabs and tab stops in profile preferences now make sense, which is a bit friendlier for a11y
• upped the limit of regex capture groups in aliases and triggers to 33
• zooming the mouse in and out in 2D mapper will keep the position more stable

fixed:

• ‘map config’ alias in generic mapper now works
• appendBuffer() now keeps links, so copying text with links in it to miniconsoles works
• crash when closing a profile with toolbars
• crash when selecting/copying text
• crash trying to move too many rooms at once via right-click
• fixed MXP with values containing =
• Materia Magica’s MXP now works better with Mudlet
• multiview now stays when you change focus between profiles
• resetProfile() to work again
• static items in HBox/VBoxes won’t be resized anymore when the box changes size
• sysDataSendEvent will no longer reveal the password
• vertical scrollbar now moves when you scroll with PgUp/PgDown
• vertical scrollbar now shrinks in size as you get more text

infrastructure:

• added some useful defaults for Visual Studio Code’s C++ integration
• building with libzip 1.70.0 that lacks version numbers now works
• cleaned up IRC code
• debug output now spams a bit less for unprintable codepoints
• deleted Github Action for clearing whitespace (more spam than help)
• enabled Github’s new CodeQL security code scanning
• fixed crash importing map with custom exit lines on Qt 5.14+ (macOS)
• internal code that only works with the main window is now in a separate class of its own, making the programmers happier
• Lua binding code cleaned up and improved for consistency and code style, now more fresh!
• Mudlet can now be built & run remotely in the browser with Github Codespaces
• Mudlet can now be built in MSYS2 on Windows
• Mudlet’s wiki is now upgraded to latest and greatest
• new PTBs are only built on days where there are new changes
• updated Linux builds to use Qt 5.12.9

The investment case for water is simple: water is one of the most important resources, and it is likely to become a lot scarcer. About 70% of the earth's surface is covered in water, but over 97% is saltwater. Saltwater cannot be used for drinking, crop irrigation, or most industrial uses. Of the remaining 3% of the world's water resources, only about 1% is readily available for human consumption.1

Rapid industrialization and increasing agricultural use have contributed to worldwide water shortages. Areas that have experienced a lack of H2O include China, Egypt, India, Israel, Pakistan, Mexico, most of Africa, and the United States (Arizona, New Mexico, California, and West Texas), to name but a few.23

Pollution also highlights the need for clean water. The dead zone off the Gulf Coast highlights the impact of fertilizer runoff, and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), an additive in unleaded gasoline, can be found in well water from California to Maryland.45

Overseas, highly publicized incidents in Russia, China, and elsewhere demonstrate that pollution isn't limited to the West. Of course, fouled water supplies further restrict the amount of fresh water available for human use.

Stock Strategy

Stock trading Strategy 

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$55 Billion Investment in Clean Water

On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed into law the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The bipartisan infrastructure bill authorizes $1.2 trillion in spending, which includes $55 billion allocated to create clean drinking water, $65 billion in clean energy, and $21 billion to clean up hazardous, polluted sites.

The legislation is good news to clean water advocates since it will expand access to clean drinking water for households, businesses, schools, and child care centers in cities and rural areas. The legislation will also invest in water infrastructure to eliminate lead service pipes.6

Water Investment Indexes

Here are some of the more popular indexes designed to track various water-related investment opportunities:

The Dow Jones U.S. Water Index is composed of approximately 29 stocks; it is a barometer consisting of many international and domestic companies that are affiliated with the water business and have a minimum market capitalization of $150 million.

The ISE Clean Edge Water Index was launched in December 2000, and this index represents water distribution, water filtration, flow technology, and other companies specializing in water-related solutions. It contains 35 stocks.7

The S&P 1500 Water Utilities Index is a sub-sector of the Standard & Poor's 1500 Utilities Index; this index comprises just two companies, American States Water (NYSE: AWR) and Aqua America (NYSE: WTR).

The S&P Global Water Index is an index that began in 2001 that contains 50 companies worldwide; their water-related businesses fall into two areas: water utilities and infrastructure and water equipment and materials.8

The MSCI Global Sustainable Water Index provides another look at the water industry from an international perspective. The index focuses on developed and emerging companies that earn at least 50% of their revenue from sustainable water products and services.9 There are also a variety of utility indexes that include some water stocks.

2.3 billion

2.3 billion people live in "water-stressed" countries, according to the United Nations, meaning that they use up more than 25% of their fresh water resources every year. 700 million people could be displaced due to water scarcity by 2030.10

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How to Invest in Water Securities

Firms seeking to profit from water-related businesses include beverage providers, utilities, water treatment/purification firms, and equipment makers, such as those that provide pumps, valves, and desalination units.

A look at the holdings of any of these water indexes provides an easy way to start looking for suitable investment opportunities. Companies from blue-chip stalwart General Electric to small-cap Layne Christensen are all seeking a piece of the water market. In addition to direct stock purchases, some of the larger firms offer dividend reinvestment plans.

When it comes to bottled water, the market is growing internationally. Demand is rising from China to Mexico, following the spike in U.S. consumer demand. Estimates suggest that from 2010 to 2020, American per-capita consumption of bottled water increased 61%–in fact, the average American drinks approximately 45 gallons of bottled water a year.11 According to a 2018 UN study, 177 countries rely on desalination for at least part of their freshwater consumption needs.12

If stock picking doesn't interest you, ETFs, mutual funds, and unit investment trusts (UITs) also provide plenty of opportunities to invest in water. The Invesco Water Resource Portfolio ETF (PHO) is the largest, with a U.S.-centric basket of 38 holdings (as of Feb. 2022) that tilts toward mid- and smaller-cap companies.13

The iShares U.S. Utilities ETF (IDU) provides some exposure to water-related stocks.14

By NATHAN REIFF Updated July 07, 2023

Reviewed by CHIP STAPLETON

Fact checked by VIKKI VELASQUEZ

The S&P 500 consists of 500 companies that issue a total of 503 stocks as of July 31, 2023, as some companies, such as Alphabet, have issued multiple classes of shares. The top 10 largest holdings are listed on the official S&P Global website. An S&P 500 company must meet specific requirements to be included as a constituent within the index.

1

However, S&P does not currently provide the total list of holdings, at least not for free. Subscribers to S&P's research unit, Capital IQ, can get access to the entire list. S&P 500 companies represent the top companies within their industries and are a gauge of U.S. economic activity.

2

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Stock trading Strategy 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The S&P 500 includes some of the top companies that are leaders within their industries and represent a gauge of the U.S. economy.

Companies must meet certain requirement criteria, which are determined by the publishers of the index before being added to the S&P.

The S&P 500 index is market capitalization-weighted, where it gives a higher percentage allocation to companies with the largest market cap.

To join the S&P 500, a stock must meet certain criteria, including a total market cap of $14.5 billion.

3

Companies may be removed from the S&P 500 if they deviate substantially from these standards.

Practice trading with virtual money

Find out what a hypothetical investment would be worth today.

SELECT A STOCK

TSLA

TESLA INC

AAPL

APPLE INC

NKE

NIKE INC

AMZN

AMAZON.COM, INC

WMT

WALMART INC

SELECT INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

1000

SELECT A PURCHASE DATE

5 years ago

CALCULATE

S&P 500 Inclusion Criteria

The S&P 500 was created in 1957 and is one of the most widely quoted stock market indexes. S&P 500 stocks represent the largest publicly-traded companies in the U.S. The S&P 500 focuses on the U.S. market's large-cap sector.

4

An S&P 500 company must meet a broad set of criteria to be added to the index, including the following:

A total market capitalization of at least $14.5 billion

Must be a U.S. company

A float-adjusted liquidity ratio (FALR) greater than or equal to 0.75

A positive sum of the most recent four consecutive quarters of trailing earnings

Positive earnings for its most recent quarter

Must meet certain liquidity requirements

3

4

Companies may be removed from the S&P 500 if they deviate substantially from these standards.

5

$40.3 Trillion

The total combined market cap of the 503 constituents in the S&P 500 as of July 31, 2023.

6

S&P 500 Calculation

The S&P 500 is a free-float market capitalization-weighted index. Market capitalization represents the total dollar market value of a company's outstanding equity shares. Market cap is calculated by multiplying the total number of outstanding shares of stock by the company's current stock price. For example, a company with 20 million shares outstanding in which its stock is selling for $100 per share would have a market cap of $2 billion.

As a result, the more valuable an individual company's stock becomes, the more it contributes to the S&P 500's overall return. It is not uncommon for three-quarters of the index's return to be linked to only 50 to 75 stocks.

Therefore, the addition or subtraction of smaller companies from the index will not have a noticeable impact on the overall return of the index; however, the removal or addition of even just one of the largest stocks can have a major impact.

S&P 500 Sector Breakdown

Below are the top sectors and their weightings within the S&P 500 index as of July 31, 2023.

8

S&P 500 Sector Weighting

 Sector       Index Weighting

Information Technology 28.1%

Healthcare 13.1%

Financials   12.6%

Consumer Discretionary        10.6%

Communication Services       8.7%

Industrials  8.5%

Consumer Staples        6.6%

Energy       4.3%

Utilities       2.6%

Materials    2.5%

Real Estate          2.5%

Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices

Being aware of the S&P's sector weighting is important because sectors with a smaller weighting may not have a material impact on the value of the overall index—even if they're outperforming or underperforming the market.

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For example, if oil prices are rising, leading to increased profits for the energy sector, those stocks represent only 4.5% of the S&P 500. As a result, oil stocks may not lead to a higher S&P if, for example, the more heavily weighted information technology sector is underperforming.

 S&P 500 components are weighted by free-float market capitalization, which means that larger companies can affect the value of the index to a greater degree.

9

Top 25 Components by Market Cap

Because the exact weightings of the top 25 components are not available from S&P directly, the weightings below are from the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPY). SPY is the oldest exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the S&P 500 and holds $403.8 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of Aug. 25, 2023, and is highly traded.

The New York Stock Exchange is where icons and disruptors come to build on their success and shape the future. We’ve created the world’s largest and most trusted equities exchange, the leading ETF exchange, and the world’s most deterministic trading technology. Our data, technology, and expertise help today’s leaders and tomorrow’s visionaries capitalize on opportunities in the public markets.

About the NYSE

The NYSE Bell

The original Buttonwood Agreement was signed on May 17, 1792.

The New York Stock Exchange traces its origins to the Buttonwood Agreement signed by 24 stockbrokers on May 17, 1792, as a response to the first financial panic in the young nation. It set rules for how stocks could be traded and established set commissions. The Agreement aimed to promote public confidence in the markets and to ensure that deals were conducted between trusted parties.

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 Though the Buttonwood Agreement marks the official founding of the NYSE, the Exchange traces its roots back to the 1600s and the foundation of the U.S. Capital Markets. In 1624, the Dutch founded New Amsterdam on the southern end of Manhattan and built a stockade from which the street derives its name; running east from what is now Broadway downhill to the East River.

The Compromise of 1790 cemented Wall Street’s role as the nation’s financial capital. The agreement allowed Alexander Hamilton, the United States’ first Secretary of the Treasury, to implement his fiscal policy of paying Revolutionary War debt using federally issued bonds. Hamilton’s economic and financial vision included the federal assumption of the debt from the Revolutionary War, the creation of a central bank, and support for indigenous manufacturing. Together, these laid the framework for a strong economy that unleashed free enterprise, entrepreneurship, and credit that enabled markets and private institutions like the NYSE to flourish.

In the Exchange’s early years, stock trading continued on an informal basis in nearby coffeehouses where merchants typically gathered. By 1817, the stock market was active enough to encourage brokers to create a formal organization. A constitution was adopted on March 8, 1817, creating the New York Stock & Exchange Board, the forerunner of today’s NYSE. From the beginning, regulations governed trading. The constitution spelled out detailed rules for the transaction of business and imposed fines to keep disorderly brokers in check.

The new stock exchange rented a room at 40 Wall Street where the brokers gathered twice a day to trade a list of 30 stocks and bonds. From the podium, the president called out the name of each security in turn, while the brokers shouted bids and offers from the chairs assigned to them. This was the origin of the term “seat” which, ever since, has signified a membership on the NYSE.

The number and variety of securities traded at the NYSE steadily increased as America grew. States and municipalities issued bonds to finance the construction of turnpikes, canals, and bridges. Banks, insurance companies, and railroads issued stock to raise the necessary capital to develop and expand. By the end of the Civil War, more than 300 different stocks and bonds were traded at the NYSE. The Exchange moved into its first permanent home – on a portion of its present Broad Street site – in 1865.

Just a few years later, increasing trading volumes inspired the NYSE to switch from the old method of trading to a new system of simultaneous trading in all stocks in a continuous market. Stocks were assigned to specific locations – trading posts – and brokers abandoned their seats to roam about the large open trading floor to trade directly with one another in whatever stock they chose.

NYSE Trading Floor, 1881 with annunciator board pictured left.

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 The introduction of the stock ticker in 1867 revolutionized market communications by making it possible to quickly transmit market information across the United States, significantly narrowing the gap between Wall Street and Main Street. When telephones were installed at the NYSE in 1878, the market became even more efficient, and on December 15, 1886, trading volume topped 1 million shares for the first time.

One of the most familiar images of the NYSE, the loud ringing of a bell signaling the opening or closing of the day’s trading, was first used at the Exchange in the 1870s with the advent of continuous trading. Critical to ensuring the orderly functioning of the marketplace, the original bell of choice was a Chinese gong.

As the stock market continued to grow, the NYSE in 1903 moved into a new building with a much larger Trading Floor, designed by George B. Post. Post designed an impressive interior space, with paneled Georgian marble walls, huge windows, and a gilded ceiling that stands four stories above traders’ heads. The statuary pediment titled, “Integrity Protecting the Works of Man” was designed by the eminent sculptor, John Quincy Adams Ward. Today, the NYSE building is one of the most exclusive and sought-after event spaces in New York City, poised at the center of global financial markets.

NYSE facade in 1903.

When the current NYSE building opened in 1903, the gong was replaced by a brass bell — electrically operated and large enough to resonate throughout the voluminous main trading floor. Today, each of the four trading areas of the NYSE has its bell, operated synchronously from a single control panel.

Modulating the temperature of the open-air space stretching nearly 100 feet above the Trading Floor required the services of engineer Alfred Wolff. Wolff designed and installed three ammonia-absorption machines, each with a cooling capability equivalent to one hundred and fifty tons of ice. This industrial feat made the NYSE the first air-conditioned building in North America. In addition, the room had some of the newest trading technologies including modern tickers, telephones, and a pneumatic tube system to send orders and market data throughout the building.

Trading Floor and office space was expanded further in 1922 with the construction of the 11 Wall Street addition. The trading posts, dotted through the center of the room began as simple signposts but expanded over time. The NYSE also held its inaugural Christmas Tree Lighting, a Wall Street community event that has been celebrated annually, since 1923. In 1928, the Quotation Department was developed to provide the most recent stock quotations to member firms. Uniformed clerks wearing headsets were in continuous contact with the trading floor and posted the current bid and asked for quotes on the board above the seated telephone operators. Around 35,000 stock quotations were furnished daily in 1931. An automated quotation system replaced the department in 1960.

1929 Stock market “crash.”

On Tuesday, October 24, 1929, the market “crashed.” Prices plummeted as brokers sold their customers’ stocks to cover losses when investors could not meet the calls for more margin. Over 16,000,000 shares were traded, a record that would not be surpassed for 39 years. The crash focused attention on the securities industry and led to several important reforms. To supplement the NYSE’s self-regulatory activities, the U.S. Congress in 1934 created the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate the operation of the nation’s securities markets.

In the 1930s, new trading posts were installed that allowed market makers to stand outside the posts and coordinate the trading of multiple stocks at each location. Initially, a group of clerks, tube men, and runners would work inside the horseshoe transmitting orders and recording stock quotes and sales.

The market languished during World War II and encouraged investing in victory through the purchase of bonds via the war loan of the United States. Due to a shortage of male employees, women worked as pages and reporters on the trading floor for the first time in the Exchange’s history. The market recovered its vitality in the post-war years. The NYSE’s educational efforts to acquaint potential investors with the long-term benefits of owning “Your share of American business” broadened stock ownership considerably during the 1950s and 1960s.

Although the appearance of the Trading Floor seemed unchanged from the 1930s, automation systems installed in other parts of the building began to assist traders during the 1950s. The introduction of technology over the next decade enabled the rate of trading to increase substantially from just over a billion shares traded in 1960 to over three billion in 1970. The first computers made by IBM (NYSE: IBM) were installed at the NYSE. During the 1960s, computer data processing technologies were first applied to the NYSE’s market operations. Electronic capture of trading data and dissemination of market information via high-speed data networks greatly increased market efficiency. In the following decade, the NYSE launched its SuperDot system which electronically delivered an order from the broker’s office directly to the NYSE trading post and then sent an execution report back within seconds.

The first permanent female member, Muriel Sibert in 1967.

The technological advancements of the Trading Floor from the 1960s-1970s were met by its diversification. The first permanent female member, Muriel Sibert was inaugurated on December 28, 1967. Siebert’s entry to the Floor was followed by the first Black member, Joseph L. Searles III, on February 12, 1970, the first Black member firm, Daniels & Bell Inc, in 1971, and the first Black female member, Gail Pankey in 1985.

In the 1970s, computer display monitors showing current market data were added atop the old trading posts in a transitional program to modernize trading floor technology. The floor underwent its first major renovation in five decades starting in 1979 to incorporate the latest technologies to the trading posts. The space frame that is still visible was added above the floor, distributed power, data cables as well as air conditioning, and supported the trading post superstructure.

Construction on the New York Futures Exchange Trading Floor also began in 1979. NYSE Futures became the most modern futures trading environment of its time. Simulated trading sessions were conducted before the opening of the New York Futures Exchange in the Spring of 1980. At the time of its opening, the New York Futures Exchange had 1,569 members, making it the largest membership of any financial future exchange in the nation.

Other milestones include February 8, 1980, when the market capitalization of NYSE-listed topped $1 trillion. On October 19, 1987, “Black Monday,” the market had one of its most dramatic falls in history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, losing a record 22 percent of its value, on a volume of 604 million shares. In the following months, the NYSE introduced nearly 30 changes aimed at dampening price volatility, streamlining procedures, and bolstering the capacity of NYSE electronic systems to handle sustained trading in hundreds of millions of shares.

https://stockstrategy.net/ 

Stock Strategy

1. -monos to display available monospaced fonts
2. -monos # to select a specific font
   
3. -monos # # to specify a font-size with a specific font
   
4. -mono to reset to LiberationMono at 11pt
   
5. Set monospec.default & monospec.size within the onLoad script to set a default setting

Introducing Slicer Tools! This is a complete hacking suite with a bunch of tools to help defeat ICE, check the current password hint against a dictionary of 370,000 words, collect and manage a database of terminals, know exactly when they’ll be ready to hack again and receive notices, and easily pathfind back to them! It is also fairly user friendly, with its various settings and syntax completely accessible from the front-end.

When you encounter a terminal (excluding Cosmpiercer terminals by default), SLT will add it to its database of terminals. SLT DISPLAY <ALL|NEARBY/HERE|level|level_range|area> [READY] will let you search the database. After awhile, you’ll have something that looks like this.

Hacking timers will be tracked and you’ll be notified when one is ready again. You can link backdoor terminals so they’re on the same timer and are gagged from the display. You can click on the vNum to pathfind! If you have my Nexus pathfinder installed, the pathfinding works whereever you happen to be. If you don’t, it will just try to use in-game WALK TO <vnum>, which won’t work unless you’re in the same area. So, yeah, install my pathfinder.

Inside the commsphere, SLT will auto-attack ICE by default. You can SLT SET AUTOHACK FALSE if you don’t want this (or the shorthand AUTH to toggle autohacking on and off). It uses a target priority which you can view (SLT ICE) and modify (SLT ICEPRIO <ice> <integer>). SLT uses a threat formula to determine whether the room is too threatening to initiate attacking. You can change the threshold with SLT SET THREAT_THRESHOLD <integer>. The formula looks like this:

threat = ( ( aggros + ( replicating * 1.5 ) ) * ( 1 + glitches ) ) * ( 1 + ( ( scanners * 2 ) + honeypots ) )

If you want to use autohacking but don’t have overwrite yet, SLT SET USE_OVERWRITE FALSE. Check PASS to lookup the current password hint in the dictionary.

There are a bunch of other commands which I won’t cover here. Use “SLT” for a full list.

Setup

1. Create your own Discord server by following this guide.
2. Add the Mindsim bot here: Mindsim Bot.
3. Go to play.starmourn.com and log in with your character.
4. Open up your developer console (Balsamiq has a good guide on this here).
5. Generate a ONE-TIME password by copying everything below into the console and pressing enter. You should see a number in your console, copy this and use it as your password using /connect <user> <password> in Discord. That's it!

(function getOneTimePassword() {
  var temp = handle_GMCP;
  handle_GMCP = function (data) {
    if (data.GMCP) {
      var gmcp_method = data.GMCP.method;
      var gmcp_args = data.GMCP.args;
      if (gmcp_args.length == 0) gmcp_args = '""';
      gmcp_args = JSON.parse(gmcp_args);
      if (gmcp_method == "IRE.Misc.OneTimePassword") {
        var pwd = gmcp_args;
        console.log(pwd);
        handle_GMCP = temp;
      }
    }
  };
  send_GMCP("IRE.Misc.OneTimePassword", "")
})()

The feedback has been tremendous. We realized we needed to adjust our goals and feature list for release. The testing team has been crucial to the development of the new client.

This has led to delays, but the delays will be worth it. We absolutely do not want to release a disappointing product.

Consulting with our beta testers, led to significant improvements to the main play screen. The screen is much more user-friendly. Users can create a personalized layout quickly by just dragging and dropping elements. If you're interested, you can view a video of the client, and those improvements here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-D6SElFu58

Here is a screenshot of a custom layout that took seconds to make. Just drag and drop windows how you like them. 

Another issue arose during beta testing that needs to be well communicated before release. This revolves primarily around migrating your current triggers and aliases to Nexus 3. Some scripts are going to be difficult to move and will require updating. Transferring your current settings is fairly automatic, but there are problems with scripts that were created beyond the scope of what we intended with Nexus 2. 

We are working with the beta team to improve this migration process and address the compatibility issues. Please note that Iron Realms has no plans to drop Nexus 2. IRE will not do new development for Nexus 2, but it will remain on the game websites. In order words, if you're happy with the current Nexus, you do not need to migrate.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at jeremy@ironrealms.com.

Features

- Automation, should you choose to accept it: Vuu offers command automation to send commands automatically. By default there are 5 varieties of such commands, which may be moved around in priority in any order: Keepup, Queue, Offense, Heal, and Mend. Each is discussed separately below. For most classes, if Vuu does not find a command from one of these subroutines, it will send a default command (the spammable combat skill for the offensive strategy you’re using).

-NB: You can use Vuu without automation and it will still keep track of everything for you, or you can select which subroutines out of the above you want to automate and keep the remainder manual. Several setting profiles (below) allow you to control whether Vuu is ‘automated’, ‘assisted’, or ‘manual’, and otherwise you can tweak the settings to your liking.

- Defups and keepups: Define a list of defs that you want to have up from the moment you login or after you die and Vuu will set them up for you. You can also define a separate list of keepup defs which Vuu will reapply if they are lost for any reason in the flow of combat. (Note that due to the present limitations of GMCP Char.Defences.List this is a bit janky).

- Heal: Simple enough, define a threshold to use your class heal if you have heal balance.

- Mend: Define a set of mending priorities and Vuu will try to mend systems if they’re damaged and below a defined threshold and above a defined efficacy. In case the efficacy of the #1 priority system is getting low it can also perform a lookahead to the second priority to see if it should be mended instead (for matchups where you need to defend two systems).

- Offense: Each class comes with one implemented class offense logic. They are not particularly advanced or self-aware but they’re enough to start killing your friends. When you’re ready, you can start defining your own offense logics and Vuu lets you switch between offense logics on the fly.

- Queue: In certain situations you will want to load an array of commands which you want to send in order, particularly starter and finisher combos for some classes but also some mid-fight ones. You can either load things up to the queue via aliases or load up pre-defined combos.

- Balance methods: Vuu can send commands on balance recovery or to the queue on balance use. Sending to the queue is recommended as a general practice since it will save you ping, but there are situations where you can’t use the queue (command separators do not work). Therefore, you can switch balance methods manually or tie balance method swapping automatically to different aliases. You can also just send commands on balance recovery if that’s your style. You can still issue manual commands off-balance to be sent on-balance.

- Recalcs: If you are sending commands to the queue, you can automatically send a new command if you receive new information. You can use a set of built-in ‘recalc events’ or define your own to trigger Vuu to rethink its previous decision. For instance, you’ve already sent Crackshot to the queue but Rapidfire comes off cooldown, a recalc event will tell Vuu to recalculate the command to send with this new information.

- Command validation: Every command you send (as long as Vuu knows the command) will be validated through GMCP Combat Messages or Triggers to ensure that it succeeds. If it fails for any reason, Vuu will resend it. This is generally very helpful, but can create situations where Vuu is trying to execute a command which you simply cannot for some reason, leading to a loop. Vuu should detect such a loop. If the alias is tied to a cooldown, Vuu will manually put it off cooldown to try to fix the issue. If that doesn’t work, the command will be blocked. If it tries to send it again, Vuu will just throw an error and stop. With a bit of tinkering, you can fix this up for the next fight. At least you won’t have to restart your browser.

- Focing commands and reacting: A manual command you send beginning in ‘/’ will override all automation until it succeeds. Vuu also includes a reaction logic which allows Vuu to react to triggers or GMCP Combat Messages which originate from your target, for instance if you want to automatically interrupt a channeled ability. If you choose, automatic reactions can be set to override manual commands.

- State tracking: Vuu listens to GMCP and triggers and processes incoming data for later use (without manipulating the GMCP objects which are used by the client). Vuu has objects and variables for just about everything you might need. All of this is tied to an event router system which allows you to define your own scripts when certain events occurr (more on this later).

- Props and cover: Vuu does not contain a fully coded prop logic, as these are quite convoluted to code and are highly class and matchup sensitive. What it does contain rather are the beginnings of a prop logic designed at the very least to assist you in dealing with an opponent using props. When your opponent takes cover, Vuu will try to load that prop’s id into a variable which you can use later, either by covering behind it yourself (“/cv”) or by attacking the prop somehow with a manual alias (you’ll have to set it up). There are limitations to this, however. It has no way of knowing which prop an opponent is using if there are multiple props in the room of the same name. It will load one such prop in the prop target variable, but it may be wrong. Vuu does not know which props are coverable and which are not, so it cannot determine which prop you should use. Vuu also doesn’t know anything about climbing, but then neither do most combatants and anyway climbable props are rare.

- The class router: Vuu comes packaged as two groups. The first group contains all the core functions, triggers, and aliases which are class-independent. Throughout this core system, Vuu will call a class-based event router which asks whether there is any class-specific logic to execute before continuing. The class router is therefore the way to interact with the core of Vuu without changing the core Vuu (which you’re nevertheless free to do, just if updates come to the core functions it’ll be annoying).

- Command-specific callbacks: Command aliases can have callback functions tied to them which fire before an alias is sent, after it’s sent, or after the command succeeds. Vuu will execute these functions accordingly. This keeps your code organized and lets you do some neat things in cases where you want to send a command or update a variable before you send a command, after you send it, or after it succeeds!

- Extra small bits of functionality, should you desire: Vuu will stand before it sends a command if you are knocked prone. Vuu will automatically pull your opponent from the skies if necessary. If Vuu is going (via VGO), Vuu will automatically attack your target if they enter the room or if you enter their room. Anti-invisibility functionality will spam attacks on room change if it’s an invisibility matchup. Crashing will resend if you are somehow interrupted, and redundant crash commands will not be sent (ONLY if Vuu is going, and only so long as you use the ‘/C<dir>’ alias. Using the normal ‘CRASH <dir>’ commands while Vuu is going will cause issues.)

- Setting profiles: All of the settings (see vs.settings in the code for a more complete list) can be defined in profiles which you can swap between (preferably before a fight, swapping settings profiles mid-fight might cause issues depending on the particular settings being changed).

- Small tweaks to Nexus: 1) The prompt will show up in logs. You can still use the native settings “Only show the last status/prompt line received” or “Do not show any prompt lines at all” and the prompt will still show at its normal intervals. Vuu also has a prompt with conditional coloring and more options built-in, read more below. 2) The tooltips which show up when you hover over the bottom buttons and bars have been removed.

Installation and setup

Download the package located here and load it into Nexus. If you’re using the Condition Prompt (see below), load oj.nxs first (link below) and type ‘onLoad’ or restart your client. Now load up Vuu and type ‘onLoad’ again or restart your client. The first time you run Vuu, you will need to tell Vuu who you are with VME <fullname>, making sure to include your Dynasty surname if you have one and use capitalization just in case. Vuu will turn CONFIG USEQUEUEING ON. The first time you run Vuu, it will CONFIG SHOWBALANCE ON. Vuu needs the balance use message. If you don’t like it, gag it. If you don’t intend to use queueing, change the value of vs.settings.defaultBalMethod. Other than that, there might be some class-specific stuff for you to take care of, see below. You should mostly be able to have Vuu on and use all your existing packages without Vuu interfering, Vuu should never send commands unless you VGO or you send a manual ‘/’ command. If you intend on using Vuu’s automation, take care that other packages (especially ones that do stuff on balance use/recovery) aren’t getting in the way while resolving issues.

Using Vuu

Use VGO to start (or VGOO if you’re a pk god) and VSTOP to stop. Everything else is just spice. Generally speaking, Vuu is not very front-facing (it’d be triple the work for me to make it so). If you want to customize Vuu to your needs, you’ll have to venture into the Javascript. I’ve done my best to comment the code to explain what’s going on.

VS: Start up Vuu. This command is sent when you load the game. You can send it again and it will reset Vuu to how it was at the start of the session, or after you make changes.

- NB: Using this will reset everything including cooldown information, so Vuu might try to send abilities which are still on cooldown! Don’t use VS mid-fight.

VGO: Start hitting them. Bind this.

VSTOP: Stop. Bind this.

VCONT: Manually validate the current command Vuu is trying to send to allow Vuu to do something else. There might be a game effect which Vuu is unaware of preventing you from doing something. In the early days of Vuu you’ll probably need to use this a lot, so bind it.

VOF <strat>: Switch between offense logics.

VSET <profile>: Tell Vuu which setting profile to use. Vuu comes with some pre-baked profiles. The vsBeast, vsNano, vsFury, vsEngi, vsScoundrel, and vsAll profiles tweak ww priorities, thresholds for health and mending, some other things like maybe defups (like Intercept for Nanoseer), and whether or not to use anti-invisibility spam. The profiles ‘automated’, ‘assisted’, and ‘manual’ control the amount of automation to use with Vuu. If you want to define your own profiles, do so in vuu.settingProfiles

VDEF: Def up according to your currently active defup profile. Use VSET to modify defupMode (and keepupMode).

‘/’: Everything which sends a command to the game should begin with ‘/’. With Vuu you do not make aliases the normal way. Instead, it will try to find the alias as a key of the object vuu.abs which contains all the structured information Vuu needs to know to run that command for you. If the alias does not exist in vuu.abs, you’ll just get an error. You can send normal aliases without ‘/’ but a) they will not be validated, b) they may be overwritten if you are using recalc, and c) if your balMethod is ‘recovered’ you just won’t be able to send it. Take a look through the vs.abs and vs.<class>abs functions to see which abilities have been defined so far in Vuu.

VERBOSE <all|strict|gag|off>: Vuu has debugging notices peppered throughout, VERBOSE ALL will show them all. STRICT lets you only look at debug info from certain parts of code (defined in vuu.settings.strictVerbose), while GAG will disable certain parts (defined in vuu.settings.gagVerbose).

VPU: Manually toggles pursuit mode.

VQ <cmd>: Adds a command (must be in vs.abs) to the front of the ability queue. Not the game’s queue but Vuu’s queue, as discussed above. Useful in situations where you want to send a command AFTER the currently queued command. Also useful if you’ve used VSTOP (maybe for a regen or Pax), and you want to give Vuu a command to execute when you VGO again!

VQL <cmd>: Like VQ but adds it to the end of the ability queue instead of the front.

VCO <combo>: Like VQ but adds the combo (as defined in vs.combos) to the queue.

VHELP: Doesn’t exist. Use this thread.

...continued...

You can now use gifs in your Mudlet UI

Video link

Try it out by dragging this link onto Mudlet, or with this on the input line:

lua installPackage"https://github.com/vadi2/gifs-demo/raw/main/gifs-demo.mpackage"

That said, gifs are pretty expensive to play – so don’t go too wild with them.

You can now use background music in your Mudlet UI

Lua music and sound API got a huge overhaul by mpconley in this update! And we don’t use such words here lightly – this update opens a lot of possibilities in the audio arena.

You can set music/sounds to fade in or out, adjust the volume on them individually, choose at which time should the playback start, select how many times it should loop (infinite? sure!), or even tag sounds with a similar category so you can control them en-masse.

Crazy, huh? Just as an example, you can now background ambience music when in area/zone A… and later when changing to a new area/zone replace the ambience music with another one. You can tag all sounds as ‘battle sounds’ and stop them all at once when the battle is done. Lots of things you can do now with this!

This functionality is coming over from MCMP support that already exists in Mudlet – so if you’re a game admin and would like this for your game, go for it.

Configurable shortcuts

Don’t like that Alt+D disconnects you from the game? You don’t have to put up with that anymore! Thanks to Delwing, all shortcuts used by Mudlet are now customisable via Settings:

Better stylesheets

demonnic has done so many nice things in this release that it’s hard to pick one, so if I had to settle on one this would be it – Geyser stylesheets! They allow you to create a managed stylesheet to make it easier to set and change properties, as well as inherit properties from another stylesheet, making it easier to manage multiple styles at once. Great tool for a UI builder.

If you’ve used CSSMan previously, this is a worthy replacement! 

c/d/hecho works on labels

cecho(“Hi! This text is <red>red, <blue>blue, <green> and green”) – cecho is pretty familiar to us all, isn’t it? If you want to get your text onto a miniconsole, this is a very popular option. But why only miniconsoles and not labels as well? demonnic wondered that too, rolled up his sleeves, and fixed it – you can now use c/d/hecho functions on labels!

Scrollboxes

Ever wanted to create scrollable lists with labels Mudlet? Say a list of players, or wares in a shop? While it was quite doable with miniconsoles, it wasn’t the case with labels. Edru got to work fixing that and createScrollBox() is the result. Think of it as a container that you can put your labels into and if there’s not enough space, you get scrollbars – both horizontal and vertical directions work.

Credits

Thanks to all coders who made this amazing release happen: Chris Mitchell, Damian Monogue, Gustavo Sousa, Kebap, lithiumFlower, Manuel Wegmann, Mike Conley, Nils Schimmelmann, nsweeting2, Philipp, Delwing, Slobodan Terzić, Stephen Lyons, Tim Johnson, Vadim Peretokin, and 噢哎哟喂.

Thanks to all translators who are enabling Mudlet to speak their language: Alan Sneath , Hsin-Hsiang Peng, ifelse, Leris, Marco “M0lid3us” Tironi, mohammed hossam, Tostaito, Vadim Peretokin, and vingi.

Changelog

A lot of very handy improvements come with this update – too many to mention above. Scour the changelog below for good gems:

🆕 added:

• Geyser.StyleSheet for managing stylesheets with inheritance
• `getBackgroundColor()` to get the background color of a label/miniconsole/etc
• `getLabelStylesheet()` to get the label’s stylesheet
• `windowType()` to find out if something is a label/miniconsole/etc
• Asteria as a known game with Discord Rich Presence
• beginning of Arabic translation
• color `echo aliases for testing triggers (`cecho, `decho, and `hecho)
• fadein, fadeout, and start to MCMP
• failure reasons to `installPackage` and `installModule`
• discIRC server password support
• mirror generic_mapper download path for chinese player
• overline support to c/d/hecho, ansi2decho, and c/d/hecho2ansi functions
• string.patternEscape for escaping special Lua pattern characters
• Map deletion functionality (option in settings as well as `deleteMap()`)
• `getProfileStats()` to see # of triggers, aliases, etc from Lua
• `map.pauseSpeedwalk()` and `map.resumeSpeedwalk()` + mpp alias to generic mapper
• auto-enable dark theme for dark mode desktops
• Close profile button
• Main window shortcuts can now be customised
• offer to update editor theme as well when dark theme is enabled
• first-time placeholder text for aliases
• missing cursor and selection functionality to Geyser.MiniConsole
• additional 2string functions for stripping formatting codes from c/d/hecho formatted text
• allow to resize animated gif to label size
• allow transparent labels through right click map menu
• ANSI Esc code support for MSDP

✨ improved:

• c/d/hecho to work on Labels
• Lua API for Sound and Music
• variable icons by using a color which works in both light and dark modes
• add a QSpinWidget for adjusting special exit weight in exit dialog
• add door symbol display to custom exits lines and to stubs
• add MUME information blurb
• add ScrollBox Gui Element
• allow profiles to be individually resized when multi-playing
• Announce how to undo it when hiding the input line buttons
• be explicit with all our callable with 1 arg class constructors
• Better extension selection in map save/load dialogs
• better map.echo in map.find_me
• code editor to show virtual characters better
• do not try loading or saving password securely when storing them portably
• Enhance labels to allow animated gifs
• get Label Size hint and Geyser.Label adjustSize
• shorten duplicate area name msg
• ansi2decho now supports italics, underline, and strikethrough
• c/d/hecho now support strikethrough
• c/d/hfeedTriggers, d/hecho2ansi functions now support bold, underline, italics, and strikethrough
• expose cecho2ansi and have it work for non-ansi color names as well
• infra Win10 fix dependency installation script to handle nulls in PATH
• control characters now have the choice of being displayed or hidden
• error messages to `fg` and `bg`
• provide alternative representations of most control characters

🔨 fixed:

• ansi2decho to respect custom colors
• buttontoolbar resizing on start
• datetime:parse and :calculcate_UTCdiff to account for DST
• empty newline on send with no command separator
• faulty regular expression error message
• hidden container not attaching when reloading
• linewrapping for really long words without spaces in Western languages
• missing space in telnet negotiation warning
• aborting profile close to work right
• replace throwing ambiguous error or appending to entire console if nothing is selected to replace
• strange disabled items in darktheme right click
• clear speedWalkPath and speedWalkWeight in generic_mapper upon completion
• correct placement of const in a function declaration/definition
• Don’t show hidden Geyser.CommandLines in Adjustable.Containers
• don’t show tab character in code editor
• get dark-desktop detection working also on FreeBSD
• get menu shortcuts and their key sequences working all the time again
• get replays working again
• prevent unwanted and unneeded copying of an item in a container
• small size of exit stubs (alternative 2 “blobs on stubs”)
• color trigger buttons not showing colors
• control character mode being used uninitialised
• documentation for scrollbar related functions
• make logging have a per profile persistent control method
• compact input line crash when it’s translated in other language
• correctly save fore/background color and transparency of labels in JSON map files
• diatrics in code editor on Linux
• enable Multi-view as soon as second profile is started and show all profiles when it is active and further profiles are started
• enable restoration of editor toolbars even if both get hidden
• flatten XML to prevent issues clearing settings on older Mudlet versions
• MXP Sound/Music Tags not functioning with U Attribute
• prevent bogus NAWS and window resize events on tab changes
• use better form for a couple of translatable texts

Enjoy this update!
Vadim.

Dark theme toggle

edru2 added a dark theme to Mudlet! You can how select it in settings:

vadi2 followed the option up with a feature to follow your system setting and to also update your editor theme.

Discord button customisation

atari2006tim worked on the Discord button! Games can now tell Mudlet what their Discord invite is, and once they do so - Mudlet will show a button that'll take the player to straight to the game's Discord server 😃

Adjustable text wait timer

SlySven has done work on the text wait timer for games that lack Telnet GA or EOR signalling and made it configurable in settings. By default this timer was 0.3s, which you can now lower or increase as needed.

Why do we even need to have it? Well because not all games are telling Mudlet when they are done sending all text. That's exactly the meaning of GA. Games that do implement GA have no timer at all. Thus the better solution is, of course, to encourage games to implement GA!

Lowering the timer runs the risk that not all text will be received from the game before showing it on screen, which could 'break' your triggers for that particular line. Increasing the delay reduces that risk, but then of course the experience is compromised.

Lua, Rainforest tests

Quality is an important area of Mudlet, and alongside the newly created QA team, vadi2 has worked on automating Mudlet to run our Lua tests! Now whenever an improvement is done to our Lua functions, a copy of Mudlet is launched automatically in the cloud and all existing Lua tests are run to ensure nothing breaks. This also gives a safety net to anyone working on Mudlet that should they break something on accident, it'll get caught. That said, the safety net needs to be expanded to cover all tests - so we'd love for volunteers to help strengthen it.

That's not all on the quality story, either! vadi2 also worked on setting up visual tests that ensure the Mudlet interface itself - one you see and play with - is tested. Similar to Lua tests, automation launches Mudlet in the cloud and follows a script to click around on buttons and observe that they do what they ought to do. It is relatively intuitive to setup these tests, and we'd also love it if we had more volunteers to help flesh them out:

📢 Vote on best improvement

We announced earlier a trial to pay a bit of money for the top 3 most popular PRs - well it's kicking in with this release! Head over to the form to vote on your favourite improvement in this update.

Anyone who submits an improvement to Mudlet is eligible for a spot on the poll. That said, this is still an experiment we're trying out so we might change or scrap it in the future if it doesn't work out.

Credits

Thanks to all coders who made this release happen! atari2600tim, Damian Monogue, Kebap, Manuel Wegmann, Mike Conley, mudlet-machine-account, Nils Schimmelmann, Piotr, Slobodan Terzić, Stephen Lyons, Tim Johnson, Vadim Peretokin, and 噢哎哟喂.

Thanks to all translators dutifully carrying the flags: Alan Sneath (alsneath), ifelse, Kamil Tunkiewicz (zeddicus), Leris, Marco "M0lid3us" Tironi (wiploo), vadi2, and vingi.

Changelog

There's a lot of improvements in this Mudlet update besides the top 5 listed above, so dig into the changelog below to find goodies:

🆕 added

• --mirror option for logging output to console
• option to show errors view from the toolbar
• customization of Discord button using invite URL from GMCP or Lua
• dark theme toggle to preferences
• events when a speedwalk() is stopped, paused, or finishes (reaches the end)
• IDManager and named tempTimers/event handlers from script
• option for secure IRC connections
• resetDiscordData() function
• what color formats are acceptable in places it is missing in Geyser ldoc comments
• clear error console functionality
• Custom right click menu items for command lines
• Gmod busted tests
• Save/Load map as .json from preferences dialog

✨ improved

• map context item names
• [CodeFactor] eliminate (some of) our C style casts
• allow wait for more network packets to be adjusted
• cleanup room_exits.ui file
• Clear edit forms for deleted items
• Create map / Load map dialog will be again present for empty map
• Create room at right-click position
• Do not trim whitespaces in tab completion
• icons not coloured status text for normal exits in exits dialog
• icons not coloured status text for special exits in exits dialog
• only enable IRE driver GA bugfix for IRE games (unnnecessary newlines with GA)
• Properly announce Discord failing on length 1 texts
• shorten welcome message for new aliases & triggers
• simplify dlgRoomExits() invocation
• sync mpackage modules
• Unregister fonts upon package/module uninstall
• update bundled NotoColorEmoji font
• use constants to index into special exit columns in dlgRoomExits

🔨 fixed

• CodeQL warnings
• copy2decho() on empty lines
• copy2decho, copy2html to work for all international text
• Discord logo dimensions on profiles screen
• Export Triggers title bar to be more generic
• Adjust height of command box when cycle through history
• cleanup: remove some warnings in uses of QKeySequence
• correct a missing override that showed up during CI
• disable more controls in preferences when there is no host
• don't show jibberish when Adjustable Container title bar is too short + add position as option for setTitle
• eliminate a load of warnings about missing-field-initializers
• Lua functions for tempKey and tempAlias work again
• modules no longer get emptied if reloaded during saveProfile()
• only provide NAWS information from main console
• remove spaces in initializer brackets
• remove stray debug messages
• repair prevent all controls from being hidden feature
• settings button will be available again before you connect to a profile
• try and make connectExitStub(...) work as per the API
• update default Zombiemud port
• update PCRE download source to one that still exists

Infrastructure

• add 'Chancel' as an allowed codespell - it's an area in Lusternia
• Add 'nd' as an allowed word
• add knowledge for debug symbols in builds
• added label for port in Github Codespaces
• close out p tag in text label
• danger checks in JS
• disable Windows builds in GHA
• fix Windows changelog generation now that we have quotes
• fixed autoupdate workflows to trigger checks
• git ignore 3rdparty boost and cocoapods
• give a danger-friendly PR title to Crowdin updates
• Improve ptb changelog generation
• make sure to fail Windows builds in case the packaging step failed
• More adjustments to the changelog styling
• read error log correctly from Windows installer tool
• remove unrendered emoji characters from changelog script
• remove unused mUserDefinedName in code
• update appveyor signing password
• updated Lua tests documentation
• Lua tests to run in CI automatically

Legends of Jedi

A new game joins Mudlet’s connection screen!

Legends of the Jedi is a text-based roleplaying experience that immerses players in a multiplayer world where they can rewrite classic Star Wars stories with their own heroes, villains, battles, and endings. Over the course of each two-year timeline, the game explores all the key eras of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

 

Take and hold planets as an Imperial Stormtrooper, command the Rebel navy and liberate the galaxy, pursue targets as a bounty hunter, or shape things on a larger scale as a member of the Galactic Senate. Maybe you’ll even be one of the few born with force sensitivity, destined to be trained by Jedi or Sith.

 

The game offers an extensive crafting system for engineers to supply weapons, armor, and ships to the galaxy. Develop new, cutting-edge armaments to give your side an edge, or open a shop in a bustling commercial district and become wealthy as part of a powerful engineering conglomerate.

 

LOTJ offers full PVP in both ground and space combat, governed by a set of rules to minimize griefing and ensure that all kills have sufficient in-character cause.

 

What role will you play? The legend awaits!

Smoother map scrolling

ktunkiewicz took a stab at improving the mapper once again – and fixed the map scrolling to work like you’d expect it to, regardless of the zoom level:

Now it feels like it should on any map app

Command line improvements

SlySven and chrio worked on improving the command line – it’ll now no longer ‘jump’ a little bit the first time you use it, and line wrapping. There’s new commands to visually select text in the command line, too!

Command line wrapping before

Improved command line wrapping after

256 colours harmonized

Mudlet’s rendering xterm256 colours will now look similar to other MUD clients thanks to Kilbukas:

(old) Mudlet 4.12 and below

(new) Mudlet 4.13+

If you’ve thought colours looked a bit better, this would have been why!

Custom profile colour

Speaking of colours, MrZaus added an option to customise the profile colour on the connection screen!

createMapLabel improved

The createMapLabel function now allows you to choose the font, text, and background transparency for map labels – giving you more flexibility in creating nice-looking Mudlet maps.

Map labels can go above and below rooms

Custom right-click actions

While you previously could have made specific text in the window clickable, you couldn’t add to the general right-click menu that showed up. Say, for example, you wanted to select some text, right-click, and do something with the selection? Well, now you can thanks to addMouseEvent, getMouseEvents and removeMouseEvent by Kilbukas.

This joins existing functionality where you can add custom right-click menu actions to the mapper already.

Credits

Thanks to all coders who made this release possible: atari2600tim, chrio, Damian Monogue, Ian Adkins, Kamil Tunkiewicz, Kebap, keneanung, Manuel Wegmann, Matthew Wagner, MrZaus, Piotr, Richard Moffitt, Slobodan Terzić, Stephen Lyons, Tomas Seniunas, and Vadim Peretokin.

And of course all the translators who are translating Mudlet into their native language: Alan Sneath (alsneath), eplis, Hsin-Hsiang Peng (Hsins), hyperi (osakki), Jim Lu (kimiwajim), Leris, Marco “M0lid3us” Tironi (wiploo), olen, Sirith (Senareil), vingi, VVsxmja, and 晉豪許 (gridwing).

Changelog

4.13.0 was skipped as it had a small bug in ansi2decho() – so we’ve fixed it up before getting it out to you.

Check out the changelog below, quite a few goodies for scripters in here:

🆕 added

• ability to define custom color in profile buttons in connection dialog
• closestColor() function for finding the best match out of color_table
• selectCmdLineText() to make command line text selected
• get and set state of push-down-buttons
• Legends of the Jedi as a default game
• mouse menu actions to windows
• notarization to macOS builds
• pause, stop, and resume functions to complement speedwalk()
• selectCaptureGroup() will work with named capture groups
• shortcuts to navigate editor between triggers, aliases, etc

✨ improved

• adjusted the 256 color conversion to match other clients
• descriptive window title now shows for the alias/trigger/script editor
• fix incorrect height adjustment of the command line
• fixed a fair bit of typos in code comments and texts the player sees
• Give the Mudlet icon to new profiles that were just copied
• improved line-breaking in the command line
• improved zip comment generation for package exporter
• Improvements to command line font handling
• Mudlet on macOS won’t give security warnings anymore
• optional fontName, text and background transparency in createMapLabel()
• Optional part of package exporter UI expands if there is space on macOS
• Remove experimental label from the package exporter
• Revise: improve debug messages when negotiating compression
• Revise: make exporter temporary files be a sub-directory of a Mudlet one
• Show an error in stdout when script failed to load from XML
• Small optimization added for incoming text data
• Update fontsize as soon as it is selected in preferences
• Update: add some more dictionaries to the list

🔨 fixed

• –profile CLI option will now work as expected in a lot more cases
• fix json map room symbol loading
• Fix markdown headers and images not playing well together
• Fix setBorderSizes() when called with 4 arguments
• Fix: newly created profiles will remember their connection info
• Make f work with variable named ‘str’
• mpackage zip comments are preserved correctly for international text
• Package manager/exporter now work fine with non-Latin letters
• prevent addCustomLine from crashing without custom line points
• prevent crashing from double-click on connect button
• Reset autowrap limit when changing the font size, if autowrap is enabled
• Revise: fixup some package exporter results messages

Just a fraction of the work that went into the release

Brand new package manager

Edru has been busy revamping how Mudlet interacts with packages! First up, the new package manager, as seen below, allows you to see a package’s description with additional details like images, links, styling with markdown, etc.

How do these descriptions arrive in new packages? Where do they come from? Well, we’re glad you asked:

Brand new package exporter

Edru has revamped the package exporter as well, making it much easier to create, update and (re-)export packages as well as add a description and other information to them:

Want inspiration for creating your own package descriptions? Check out some of these popular extensions for Visual Studio.

Scripting news

File watches are now in Mudlet! Wilk’s work allows your scripts to get notified whenever an external file is changed. This enables some interesting possibilities, such as editing code outside of Mudlet and having it show up live. (link to 45sec video demonstration)

Another great feature for multiplayers by SlySven is an improvement to the central debug console, which will now say which profile an information came from.

Leveraging that momentum, SlySven has also improved the multiplayed profile tabs so they can now be re-arranged as you desire.

Credits

Thanks to all coders who made this release happen – Andrew Eisenberg, Andrew Waters, atari2600tim, Chris Mitchell, Damian Monogue, Gustavo Sousa, Kamil Tunkiewicz, Kebap, Manuel Wegmann, Mike Conley, mudlet-machine-account, OzlynnJeez, Piotr, Serity, Stephen Lyons, and Vadim Peretokin.

Thanks to all translators who contributed to keeping the translations up to date: Alan Sneath (alsneath), Hsin-Hsiang Peng (Hsins), Leris, Marco “M0lid3us” Tironi (wiploo), Matthieu (Jack_potta), and vingi.

Changelog

added:

• AdjustableContainerRepositionFinish event, change in AdjustableContainerReposition event

• file watch functions (addFileWatch, removeFileWatch) and event (sysPathChanged)

• getPackages and getModules functions

• brand new package manager to view your installed packages

• brand new package exporter to share your Mudlet things with others

• dreplaceLine, hreplaceLine as well as support for windows other than the main one

• getConnectionInfo() will now also say if you’re currently connected or not

improved:

• getOS() extended to include extra version (and for GNU/Linux, distribution) return values.

• new keys without a name will automatically get assigned one

• StickMUD will have the IRE mapper script installed by default for new profiles

• Discord toggle for Clessidra will work right away, without needing to connect first

• area parsing in XML files is now more resilient

• mudlet will no longer freeze when exporting really large packages

• top buttons in Mudlet are no longer monospaced

• profile tabs in multiplay mode can now be re-arranged by dragging

• debug console will now show which profile a message comes from

• clicking on the line # in the code editor will let you type in it

• mapper right-click menu will no longer hide custom items if you open it low

• saveJsonMap() can be used without a path, just like saveMap()

• you can add new variables in editor without having to click on one first

• cleaned up mapper right-click menu; it’ll only show items relevant to current selection

• unknown MSP elements will be skipped and Mudlet will do its best to play the sound anyway

• duplicate parent names won’t be included anymore when exporting/importing packages (but if you’d like to, you can right-click to do it anyway)

fixed:

• fixed crash when using MSSP with the * event handler

• clicking on a label/miniconsole in a floating userwindow will no longer steal focus from the input line

• changing tabs in multiview will no longer cause consoles to flash

• there will no longer be a line across the screen for a split moment when a new profile is opening

• searchAreaUserData() will work again when both key and value are provided for searching

• clicking on the timestamp will now visually select the whole line

• auto-complete will no longer try to complete on short words like ‘do’

• text will now longer be automatically deselected while typing with the spellchecker on

• –quiet command line explanation fixed

• cancelling a package download will now actually cancel it

• perm* functions are working well again

• getMapLabels() won’t crash when used on an area that doesn’t exist

• generic mapper update notifications will work well again

• miniconsole message if you don’t pass enough parameters fixed

• fixed nonsense message for when there’s no rooms in the map

• generic mapper will stop responding to the map opening after it’s been uninstalled

• code won’t run twice on setScript and resetProfile

• resize events won’t be emitted anymore if the size didn’t actually change

• getMapMenus() fixed

• small memory leak when JSON map export is aborted

infrastructure:

• added automation to auto-link Linux and macOS PTB to updater (#4861

• added tests for variable interface

• added support for building Mudlet in Docker on Linux

• added mpackage for testing cecho/decho/hecho and console transparency to tests

• added an automated check to verify improvements against Mudlet’s C++ style guide

• Qt 5.14.2 is now used for all official builds