Steam Idler Fest: 40% off Trade Bots Build in-game investment bots and try to accumulate your portfolio in the idle game! [previewyoutube=GNbWApp3VYs;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2025-02-03 18:00:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Try the Trade Bots demo and then get the full game for 30% off! Also try the newest game from Cinq-Mars Media -- CrossAbout is now 20% off. Trade Bots developer breakdown: [previewyoutube=GNbWApp3VYs;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-12-19 15:15:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Trade Bots: a Technical Analysis Simulation is a non-profit, educational simulation featuring technical analysis and algorithmic trading. In the game, buy and sell unknown stocks based only on technical indicators. Learn complex indicators to create investment strategies and unlock the ability to craft elaborate trading bots. Investment pricing has been updated through mid-2024 for all assets. For an additional challenge, attempt the game on Tax Mode, which siphons up to 37% "annually" based on realized gains. You can now share, test, and vote on community bots from within the game. All proceeds from game sales further the mission of Cinq-Mars Media to develop educational games and technology, which we always provide free to students and educators. [previewyoutube=GNbWApp3VYs;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-11-27 18:01:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're excited to share with you version 1.5 of Trade Bots! Here's what's new:

• Updated price data for all assets through mid-2024
• A new difficulty setting (unlocked at a net worth milestone) called "Tax Mode". This siphons up to 37% every 365 days based on realized gains.
• In-game bot sharing! (more below)
• Newly compiled with the latest frameworks for some stability and performance improvements.

So the #1 most requested feature on discord was the wish for a centralized forum for users to share bot creations. After some brainstorming, it seemed to make the most sense to add this directly into the game itself, under the "port" menu in the bot editor. Here you can share your bot with others (along with notes explaining your process) and browse the creations of other players. Bots can be up and down voted once by each player and are sorted based on their ratio of up votes and down votes (and whether the creator has reached a milestone that puts them in the top 1% of players). In other news, we just released a new game, CrossAbout. As always, thank you for your feedback and support of our non-profit and helping us do what we love most. And check out our newest project, it's free to play! [previewyoutube=ouI_LztDo3E;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-10-26 08:44:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Find a new favorite and save now!

• Trade Bots
• Copy Editor
• Lazy Chess
• The Devil's Calculator
• Synonymy

[previewyoutube=uE4Q9WU2a0U;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-06-27 17:30:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Including Trade Bots, Copy Editor, Lazy Chess, The Devils Calculator, and Synonymy Play demos, find your new favorite, and buy it at a low price! Proceeds benefit the Cinq-Mars Media Nonprofit mission of developing educational games and technology. Our games are always free to students and educators. Cinq-Mars Media is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization based in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

[ 2024-03-14 17:30:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi Everyone! Version 1.3.5 is now live featuring several bug fixes, stability improvements and finally the source code open source on GitHub. Thank you to everyone for your patience and help with the project, your bug reports were incredibly helpful in isolating the following: Specific changes new in 1.3.5 include:

• Ground up refactor of save system which decreases save file size dramatically and speeds up performance writing to the system
• A bug introduced in the last update is now quashed, where stepping does not show the "stock finished" popup.
• Now trades do not reset the brush
• Auto Continue is more reliable on legacy systems
• Some quirks with brushing smoothed over
• Various other issues, like the year not updating in realtime.

Thank you again for your continued support and for your interest in the project. - Chris

[ 2024-01-26 09:46:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=uE4Q9WU2a0U;full][/previewyoutube] Try the demo and get Trade Bots at a discounted price during the Steam Capitalism & Economy Fest! Learn or practice technical analysis concepts using real-life historical data. From the award-winning non-profit, Cinq-Mars Media, developer of The Devil's Calculator.

[ 2024-01-08 18:00:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Two bugs addressed from 1.3 release:

• Issue with brush resizing on step
• Get Range Val not properly representing High/Low

[ 2024-01-06 10:21:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy New Year! I'm pleased to announce a long overdue update to the the game for 2024. In version 1.3, players can finally import their own CSVs in sandbox mode, allowing you to test your strategies and bots with data of your choosing. In sandbox mode, select "Import CSV" from the sandbox menu and import a csv file with a structure like this
We also have some much requested bug fixes, including:

• ETF mode not working for some users on some platforms
• Issues with sandbox mode switching, including the 'random' setting
• Brush resetting zoom when stepping (before unlocking the 'sim' upgrade)

On a personal note, I would like to mention I had been unable to work on the game (or much of anything else) for some time due to health issues, an extremely severe concussion that prevented me (and continues to hinder) my ability to engage with screens. I will do my very best to return to my previous engagement with the discord and steam communities soon. As always, thank you so much for playing and for your support. Have a wonderful start to 2024.

[ 2024-01-03 09:51:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Trade Bots, a Technical Analysis Simulator, is just one of the games on sale from Cinq-Mars Media. Try our demos and find a new favorite! [previewyoutube=GNbWApp3VYs;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2023-12-20 19:23:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Try a free demo and get Trade Bots at a discounted price now! Cinq-Mars Media games are always free to educators and students who contact us. [previewyoutube=GNbWApp3VYs;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2023-11-21 18:02:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Cinq-Mars Media games are all discounted in the Steam Summer Sale! Get Trade Bots at 20% off! [previewyoutube=uE4Q9WU2a0U;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2023-06-29 17:01:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Our team has been hard at work improving the game and really appreciate all the collaborative feedback we've been getting in discord and on the community page! We're excited to announce a few new additions to the project:

• Revamped Trade Node: You can now hit the "gear" icon in the trade node and have the option to input a constant or relative amount variably. Super cool idea by @rocketorbit on discord that expands a lot of possibilities for algorithmic bots.
• Simple + Node Bots will now intelligently "await" data that is not yet available. For example, if you use a 200 day period for an indicator but the stock is just beginning and there aren't enough data points to satisfy the indicator, the bot will auto-pause until such a time as data becomes available. (although this behavior can be changed using the gear icon)
• Re-tooled upgrade system where automation milestones are now permanent. We realized we needed to provide some scaffolding to players so that once they reach a particular milestone, they can use a tool like limit trading or simple bots when needing to restart. (thank you @Valek + @Johnny Gueggu!) The upgrade tree will likely need further polish after this major change, so the games pacing/balance might be a bit off. Let us know your thoughts!
• A banking tutorial has now been added to better explain the mechanic.
• The game should now run smoothly with net worth's in excess of 1e18 with no theoretical limit (we foolishly underestimated how much money some players could make with their bots (I'm lookin at you @torben).
• More podcasts have been added as unlockable milestones.
• A fun little surprise for anyone who makes it to the "trillion club", involving openBB
• Lots and lots of bug fixes, helped significantly by @Lemrin, @torben and others.

This has been an extremely edifying, humbling and rewarding experience thus far - it's the first time I can truly say I've felt I'm openly collaborating with a work of art. Super cool. Again, apologies for all the bugs - this game seems to draw them like light, in a way we really didn't anticipate. Thank you to everyone who has been diligently sending over their saves so we can debug them! @karatesnoopy has some really great ideas in the discord for systemic changes to how the game works, would love to hear what people think of that. I also wrote a short piece about the origins behind the development of the game, you can read here. Finally, this release coincides with major updates to two of our older titles, if you haven't already please check out Copy Editor and The Devil's Calculator. Free demos are available for both and feel free to hit me up on steam for a full version key! Thanks so much.

[ 2023-06-19 09:41:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Quants! Wow. It's been so wonderful chatting with so many of you on discord and using your feedback to make the game better. Here are some of the new features:

• Scroll Wheel Brushing (you can now pan and zoom with the mouse or trackpad)
• Bulk Upgrading Button Added
• Bots can now use your "Last Buy/Sell" as a relative time interval
• Discord is now fully integrated within the game as a milestone
• Google Translate is now integrated within the game (this comes at a performance penalty if enabled)
• External Indicator Layouts are now unrestricted
• New Transaction History View
• A few more Podcasts were embedded (please let us know if there are particular podcasts on iHeart you would like added to the game in the future)
• The randomness of ending a stock is now relativized.

More importantly, we fixed a whole lot of bugs dedicated players brought to our attention. We're so grateful for your help and understanding with all of this - in hindsight we should have released in Early Access and made use of the community to patch these bugs sooner. Our non-profit will not make that mistake again for our next release. That being said, all known issues (except for the few minor ones mentioned at the bottom of this announcement) have been rectified, in no particular order:

• Tutorials would re-initiate after restart
• Set Var node lacked a trigger
• Spacebar exploit now throttled
• Recession hover events not registered
• SMA/EMA trash hidden between upgrades
• Tooltip issues
• Formatting adjusted for Negative Numbers
• New Stock button would do nothing
• Feedback button would be unresponsive
• Fees not reset properly between restarts
• Two fatal game loading errors
• Brush moves on sim instead of scaling on sim
• Margin Loan Minimum rate Locked at 5%
• Short position persistence issues
• Cancelling lim/stop orders with a short position would flip position
• SMA/EMA colors fixed
• Issues with switching modes
• Layout persistence of external indicators
• Leading Indicators would be hidden unless DXY was purchased

Phew. That's a lot. And it wouldn't have been possible to patch these if not for the community who really stepped up and sent us their save files and made bug reports. I'd like to especially thank: @rocketorbit, @dertorm, @DrDerpenstein, @malestrom, @utility, Sveelen, bob-the-builder, Johnny Gueggu and SterlingH A few minor issues yet to be addressed:

• Windows icon is split in half if not pinned (this is an electron bug, trying to find a solution)
• Video rewatch exploit
• New transaction view erroneously shows everything as a "buy"

We'll patch these shortly along with more fixes and updates. I did want to ask everyone about a suggestion someone had on the forum recently -> that automation upgrades (i.e. lim/stop, simple bots, visual bots and all their upgrades) persist through restarting runs. I kind of like this idea, and we could change the upgrade costs in these areas to make sure the balance of the game stays more or less the same. Interested to hear what you think! As always, shoot us an email or drop-in on discord (remember you can now do it in-game) and say hi! We'd love to hear from you. Thank you all so much for your continued support, it means the world to us. - Chris

[ 2023-05-09 08:11:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi Everyone! In the 48 hours since launch, the community really stepped up and helped identify a few debilitating bugs all related to the same general issue with the refactor of the new engine. We rushed to deliver a day one patch with 1.0.3 but that didn't address all the issues and even created a few new ones. With 1.0.4 we believe things are now relatively stable and we can't thank you enough for your support, patience and understanding. In addition to several miscellaneous bugs, the big things addressed in this new version:

• Stepping while finishing a stock now works properly and doesn't break or recede back (the team and beta testers missed this since we all bought the simulation upgrade well before the first stock ended)
• Simulation Speed Upgrades now function as intended (a consequence of releasing 1.0.3 too quickly)
• YouTube Embeds have a contingency so videos that have been removed or taken down should now redirect to a fallback
• Linux Stability has been improved (issues with steam overlay)
• We have introduced a new "restitution" button in the menu on the main title screen that allows us to issue codes to provide anyone effected by these or other bugs in-game currency to compensate for lost gameplay
• Feedback button now appends your save state so we can reproduce bugs more quickly.

The full version is now live with the 1.0.4 build, however the new version of the demo needs another couple hours before it will be set live. There may well be other bugs on the horizon, this game is of unprecedented complexity for our modest non-profit, but we're committed to fixing any issues that come up as quickly as we possibly can and we're so grateful to all of you for your support and understanding. Thanks! - Chris

[ 2023-04-20 21:35:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

The day has finally come - Trade Bots version 1.0 release! We can't thank our fans enough for their patience and support as we've worked toward this initial presentation of the game. As mentioned in our last post, we completely refactored the engine for the game from the ground up, improving simulation speeds dramatically. We've also quashed many bugs brought to us by our beta testers, for whom we are eternally grateful. We will continue to support and update the game (I will be personally watching the community hub like a hawk) as well as listen to feedback to improve the experience. As a reminder, a few features will not make it into this initial release but will be added in (free) updates. These include:

• Modular nodes in advanced bots (making your own nodes as nested sequences of other nodes)
• Paper / Backtesting modes in advanced bots
• Leaderboards
• Custom Data Import

We will again note that neural networks and bot import/export features are in beta and are somewhat lacking in presentation at the moment, but they are functional. For the next release, we are tinkering with adding a mission system so that people struggling with the game have a way earn more - we are especially interested in feedback about how the game can be better balanced and more satisfying to play. As part of our non-profit mission, Cinq-Mars Media makes our games freely available to current students and teachers. As mentioned in our previous note, this will be after the initial launch period so we can focus entirely on patching any bugs found by the community. The publish date for the site where students and teachers can redeem free codes will be announced within the first month of release. In the meantime, please feel free to shoot us an email about manual verification, but please be patient, as this initial release period can be a tremendous whirlwind, particularly when trying to patch the many bugs that are sure to crop up. Again, thank you all for your support and please reach out to us at info@cinqmarsmedia.org with any questions or just to say "hi". We always love hearing from you. Thanks!

[ 2023-04-18 07:44:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're very excited to share with you all that Trade Bots will have its version 1.0 release on April 18th. We deeply appreciate your patience as we've been hard at work improving the game. We made the decision to completely refactor the simulation engine from the ground up, improving simulation speeds up to 20x. This is particularly useful in the late game, where speeds of over 1000 days/s is possible, even on legacy hardware. This total refactor did, of course, lead to a number of unexpected bugs that we're still trying to iron out in pre-release beta testing. We've also included the ability to listen, directly in-game, to a number of popular financial podcasts while you play. As you hit higher net worth milestones, more podcasts become available until ultimately you can select your own. Our non-profit has also settled on the price point of $12.99 (with a 15% launch discount). Determining a price point that reflects the magnitude of work and effort poured into the project while also trying to accommodate the most diverse audience possible is a very difficult balance, one we believe we struck. While this is our non-profit's most expensive game to-date, it has also been the most expensive and complex to develop by far, and we believe the quality of the product reflects that. Of course, we still plan on making the game freely available to teachers and students. This will be after the initial launch period so we can focus entirely on patching any bugs found by the community. The publish date for the site where students and teachers can redeem free codes will be announced within the first month of release. A few features will not make it into this initial release but will be added in (free) updates. These include:

• Modular nodes in advanced bots (making your own nodes as nested sequences of other nodes)
• Paper / Backtesting modes in advanced bots
• Leaderboards
• Custom Data Import

We will note that neural networks and bot import/export features are in beta and that we also hope to integrate more features suggested by the community, as in my experience those tend to be the most rewarding and fruitful. Again, thank you for your patience and for making it possible for us to do what we're most passionate about, creating fun, engaging and educational games for all of you. Please reach out to us at info@cinqmarsmedia.org with any questions or just to say "hi". We'd love to hear from you. Thanks!

[ 2023-04-05 08:45:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're so excited to share our non-profit's newest game with you, Trade Bots. Join us as we explain the mechanics and our ambitions with the project. Trade Bots is an educational simulation game featuring technical analysis and algorithmic trading. Decide when to buy or sell an unknown stock based solely on patterns and technical indicators. As your profit increases, unlock upgrades that help expedite and automate gameplay with bots. Below is a breakdown from our lead developer who will be leading the discussion for this event: [previewyoutube=GNbWApp3VYs;full][/previewyoutube] The vibe will be very casual and we'll open it up to Q&A towards the 2/3rds mark of the session. Hope to see you there!

[ 2023-02-08 23:19:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're so excited to share our non-profit's newest game with you, Trade Bots. Join us as we explain the mechanics and our ambitions with the project. Trade Bots is an educational simulation game featuring technical analysis and algorithmic trading. Decide when to buy or sell an unknown stock based solely on patterns and technical indicators. As your profit increases, unlock upgrades that help expedite and automate gameplay with bots. Below is a breakdown from our lead developer who will be leading the discussion for this event: [previewyoutube=GNbWApp3VYs;full][/previewyoutube] The vibe will be very casual and we'll open it up to Q&A towards the 2/3rds mark of the session. Hope to see you there!

[ 2023-02-04 22:50:27 CET ] [ Original post ]