It's been another quieter week on the SCX.  The most notable announcement is that for the next fortnight the basic exchange rate has been lifted to 80 and the regular rate to 130.  So buy in while it's still high!

The ASTEX is up 98 points this week, to close at 1018 points.  The driver of this continues to be Andreas' Shop, though work by the Shirithian MiniInt means that Kildfare could start linking to the national network soon.

The FIEX rose 56 points this week to close at 1631 points, having made half of that gain today.  Ptia Bread has seen large increases as investors move in to take advantage of the upcoming dividends.  JASO and Apollo Aurora have also had significant gains this week, as the VERA-JASO Moonshot continues.

The NBB meanwhile has continued to lose ground as Batavian GDP slips further, falling 11 points to close at 467 points.  BRIM and BCK were the success stories this week, pushing against the trend to make solid growth this week, on the back of some good developments.

Finally, the NSX gained 28 points this week, to close at 590 points.  While Gralan GDP growth has led to general growth, gains have been mixed across the board.  ILL and NVT have made more than 10% growth, while COB and BHS have lost ground as investors offload them after their dividend payouts earlier this month.  The NSX remains the market to watch as interest in the SCX continues to grow.

Now the ever popular Top 5

Position	Name	Wealth
1	Banque de Alexandrie au Stormark	1629643.57
2	Andreas the Wise	1292768.14
3	Gerk	641091.01
4	Jonas	440542.89
5	Constantijn	279162.59

Again, positions remain unchanged this week, but outside of this table a brand new trader has catapulted into 6th place, and is nipping at the heels of Constantijn.  All investors have grown this week except for Constantijn, who has fallen slightly as the NBB declines.  Better watch out, Constantijn, or you'll soon drop out of the top 5!

The ASTEX this week has risen 84 points to close at 1004 points, breaking the 1000 point barrier for the first time since early September.  Most of those gains flow directly from Andreas' Shop, which posted some amazing growth as they completed a number of wiki articles on the Gralan Wiki.

The FIEX has been quiet this week, gaining only 20 points to close at 1596.  JASO work on the VERA Moonshot continues to provide a small boost to its price, and Ptia Bread also had surprise gains as it expanded to operate also in Gralus.

Meanwhile the NBB has suffered from large falls in Batavian GDP, losing 70 points this week to close at 478 points.  The depressing effect of Batavian recession caused companies to lose over 10% of their stock value over the week.

Finally, the NSX has posted minor losses, falling 8 points to close at 562 points, as investors realised the gains of the past month were not sustainable long term.  However, hope remains that new economic initiatives from the Gralan government will push up the NSX in weeks to come.

The differing market movements have caused some changes in relative positioning of the Top 5 this week.

Position	Name	Wealth
1	Banque de Alexandrie au Stormark	1569409.01
2	Andreas the Wise	1256226.2
3	Gerk	603767.34
4	Jonas	432890.39
5	Constantijn	282079.95

The Banque de Alexandrie has gained 30 000 this week, staying in first place.  However, Andreas the Wise is closing in behind, with almost a 100 000 gained this week, partly due to an impressive dividend payout from Andreas' Shop.  Gerk has fallen 10 000 as the NSX declined, as has Jonas on NBB declines.  Finally, Constantijn has lost over 30 000.  If someone wanted to move into the top 5, this is the week to do it.

This week the SCX has seen some quiet consolidation of past gains, with renewed investment interest late in the week on the possibility of Gralus taking a more active role in the economy.  The SCX has also released the first of several exciting new upgrades planned.

Regulars Lounge
Regular Investors (those who own assets worth more than 100 000 credits, or who have traded in 1000 units of SCUE currency) can now access the Regulars Lounge, a most exciting part of the SCX.  Entering the lounge you can immediately see the latest daily and weekly movements of the market, as well as the next five dividends to be paid out.  But that's just the start.  There are various factsheets which will become available over time, beginning with one listing the dividends for all companies in the one place.  And the Quant hanging around the bar will be happy to calculate your profitability for you, showing how well your credits have been put to work.  Expect to see more exciting people and options around the Regulars Lounge in the future!

Moving onto the markets, the ASTEX has continued its hearty gains this week, rising 112 points to close at 922 points.  The release of Shirithian dividends provided a modest boost to GDP, but the main returns continue to be Andreas' Shop, on the back of a number of initiatives by VBNC in recent times.  Due to pay out dividends tomorrow, Andreas' Shop is this week's best buy.

The FIEX has also been in on the action, rising 83 points to close at 1576 points.  The Big 4 (JASO, BGI, QUARREL and the Apollo Aurora) continue to drive up the FIEX with the Apollo Aurora gaining an impressive 10.7% this week alone.  Hopefully the new President of the Nelaga Territories, Demon of Fides will continue to improve their economy.

Gains on the NBB have been far more modest this week, rising 13 points to 547 points.  Most companies have gained more than 3% this week, with only BB, BBC and HVdB performing below that.

Finally, the NSX started slowly but has picked up interest as the week went on.  As it stands, it has gone up 26 points this week to close at 573 points, but investors and the team here at Apollo Aurora both expect that to increase significantly in coming weeks.  News of a new Inactivity Tax and Post Payout on the books for Gralus lead investors to expect a boost in GDP to follow.  The biggest winner has been the little SOL, which has risen 45% this week to close at the still tiny cost of 0.51 per share.  Guess the little boys can still bring out the big guns!

Let's close with the ever popular Top 5 Traders. 

Position	Name	Wealth
1	Banque de Alexandrie au Stormark	1539505.46
2	Andreas the Wise	1166815.89
3	Gerk	612649.69
4	Jonas	446045.39
5	Constantijn	318344.75

This week has seen no change in the overall positions but big jumps in the standings of each investor.   The Banque du Alexandrie continues to grow, gaining 100 000 in the last week.  Andreas gained about 40 000 and Gerk about 20 000.  Jonas and Constantijn brought up the rear with gains of about 10 000 each.  While the gaps continue to widen, the lifting of the exchange rate in to 75 for anyone and 120 for regulars means that anyone could still get into the top five with only a small amount of starting capital.

Another exciting week on the SCX.  Apollo Aurora here to bring you all the inside news.

The ASTEX rose 20 points this week to close at 845 points.  Andreas' Shop continues to grow as VBNC step up their international profile as investment manager for the Banque du Alexandrie.  Kildfare has also grown this week as investors bought into the company, driving up the price.

The NBB has been a quiet market, rising only 3 points this week to close at 534 points.  Once again, there is a mix in performance across the market but HvDB and BCK continue to lead the growth, each growing above 2% this week.  This is partly due to an increase in investment as more non-Batavian investors move into the NBB.

But the main market excitement has been on the FIEX and NSX.

In it's single largest surge, the FIEX has risen 321 points this week, to close at 1535 points.  There was a mass of investor interest across the market with big buy-ins ahead of a surge in Nelagan GDP due to the investment efforts of the Banque du Alexandrie.  Some investors offloaded their holdings after this, driving down prices in PTB and FGD somewhat, but even they posted gains of over 14%, while the other FIEX companies posted gains of over 25%.  Nelaga companies continue to output quality work which has been responsible for their consistent price rises over time, and this week has been no difference.

Finally, the NSX fell 17 points this week, to close at 547 points.  After posting massive gains with the huge boost to Gralan GDP last week, a number of investors have liquidated their holdings in the NSX while the price was high, unwilling to risk downfalls in the future.  Many companies have gone down up to 10% this week as various investors sold out.  However, the lure of easy money was too much for some - several companies due to pay out substantial dividends in the next few weeks were bought back into, including HWB, MOT and PEP.  With the Gralan economy booming we can probably expect some more high dividends in the future, and more investors chasing these returns.

Finally, the SCX has raised the credit rate in to 75 for new traders and 120 for regulars.  This raise is tipped to be permanent and reflect the rising exchange rate out as SCX shareholders grow in value.  Let us close, as we always do, with the top 5 investors this week.

Position	Name	Wealth
1	Banque de Alexandrie au Stormark	1420798.32
2	Andreas the Wise	1125193.32
3	Gerk	593691.69
4	Jonas	434432.66
5	Constantijn	308371.44

In top place remains the Banque de Alexandrie, which has so far made a very tidy return on their initial investment, earning over 150 000 credits this week.  Meanwhile, second place Andreas the Wise has made 150 000 credits of his own, and topped the one million mark, though neither look likely to claim the prize for reaching 1 million credits.
Gerk's value declined somewhat this week, but he remains in third place.  Jonas has made some nice boosts to continue in fourth, and Constantijn brings up the rear with modest improvements this week.

Welcome to our 'What's happening in' section, where we sporadically get people from different micronations to write in and tell us 'What's happening in your micronation'.  Today's entry comes from Gralus, written by Andreas, who IC occupies the post of Lord General with the character 'Vincent Waldgrave''

In the last two months, a lot of exciting things have happened in Gralus.  A long Skype conversation between some of our leading citizens has led to a number of exciting ideas, most of which are now fully developed.  We've given recwar a reboot, trying to come up with something that would resolve issues of disputes, descriptions and crazy missile launches, and also treat magic natively (unlike trying to impose a magic charter on Anunia/SNARL).  What we've ended up with is a really exciting points based, division based framework, where your points represent resources, which are consumed in attacking, defending, moving and recon.  Depending how awesome your tactics and backstory for your attack are compared to your opponent's defence, you'll get a tactics modifer chosen by the judge, which will determine how much damage they take (based on how many points you committed to the attack).  We've given it a lot of further thought and are now having a test recwar starting next Monday.  We're very excited, should be lots of fun.

A recwar system like this allows us to be much more flexible in magic, and that's exactly what we've done.  While the details aren't quite sorted yet, we're going with the approach of creating a meta-system within which people can create and RP their own magic systems.  Gone are the days when the whole world has to change from NCM to CCM when we do.  The meta-system will have six overarching rules of magic which define how magic works in the world, and cannot be broken - very much like how physical laws determine how non-magic weapons work in the world, and cannot be broken.  It will soon all be written up nicely in our guide which will be an OOC explanation of everything within Gralus.  Pretty neat, eh?

Also neat is our shiny new wiki which is slowly getting populated.  We're trying to make it a resource with a lot more direct and long term use - so we're adding things like pages on all our main characters as well as nice infoboxes and pictures for our articles on cities and regions.  We're also hoping to soon install a mod that makes wiki accounts the same as accounts for our phpBB3 forum - won't that be awesomely useful!

On the IC front, we've been having some interesting events.  Nargoth, our previous Lord General, is being tracked down (he was wanted for terrorism, though we expect he didn't do it).  Meanwhile our new Lord General (me) has announced an exciting new institute to develop exciting Gralan military stuff and train crack teams in magic and non-magic fighting.  The LG's also dealing with an influx of draconians from New Malthar and hoping our famed guild, the CAA, will return to Gralan soils and the defence of the Empire.

Finally, we continue to be excited by the awesome work VBNC is doing with the SCX, which now includes dividends every 60 days, and a host of other new features coming out soon.

The most exciting news on the SCX this week was the long awaited Alexandrian Investment (see our previous article), which boosted Gralan GDP considerably.  The NSX has soared accordingly and this has really affected the placement of the top five.  The good news is that the Alexandrian investment is not yet complete - expect further investments into the Small Commonwealth Bank Stock Market and QUARREL in the near future.  The SCX also released some increased functionality, with live updates going to the Gralan Announcement Box.

The ASTEX this week was up 15 points, to close at 839 points.  Andreas' Shop led that growth with continued activity by VBNC, rising 3.45% this week.  Otherwise, the ASTEX has been quiet, and investors continue to look forward to the hope of more Shirithian companies floating on it in the future.

The FIEX was up 45 points this week, rising to close at 1253 points.  JASO continues to drive the pack, with 7.4% growth as the VERA Moonshot continues.  BGI, QUARREL and the Apollo Aurora also continue to grow, especially with news of a QUARREL update this holidays.  Meanwhile PTB and FGD declined slightly.

The NBB was a quiet performer this week, only rising 8 points.  We welcome HvDB and the BCK who have joined us recently - together with BRIM, they have all posted 4%+ growth.

The NSX remains the huge winner this week, soaring 143 points to close at 564 points.  Many companies have now been bought into the by Banque du Alexandrie, driving up prices across the market, but plenty of choices still remain for other investors.  Keep watching the NSX - the Apollo Aurora predicts continued excitement over the next few weeks, as new investors buy in.

Closing with the Top 5 traders, we've seen a lot of movement this week as those who invested in the NSX have found it pays off.  The Banque du Alexandrie are firmly in first place, but have invested a lot more than other investors.  Andreas' net wealth has risen to over 960 000, and Gerk's to 600 000, leaving them in second and third place.  Jonas and Constantijn bring up the rear.

Position	Name	Wealth
1	Banque de Alexandrie au Stormark	1254875.88
2	Andreas the Wise	966630.69
3	Gerk	614422.13
4	Jonas	393722.66
5	Constantijn	304987.24

This just in: VBNC has received the access codes it requires to invest on behalf of the Banque du Alexndrie.  Inside sources suggest that their first source of investment will be the SCX, leading to big share buyouts and a big boost to Gralan GDP.  We have yet to see if investors will have time to react to this news before the market soars.

Apollo Aurora - the news you need, when you need it.

Another exciting week on the SCX as the new updates attract new and old faces back to invest.  Apollo Aurora has all the news.

Let's start with the SCX.  The latest news release from the SCX explains their generous new offer to float companies for free for the next fortnight.  If you've ever wanted to see your company up among the big players on the SCX, now is your chance.  See their news release for all the details.

Onto the market, the ASTEX has been up 144 points this week, to close at 840.  While Kildfare and the Bank of Safiria rose slightly (in the latter case on the back of some excited trading), the big winner remains Andreas' Shop.  Continued programmatic updates as well as the completion of a contract for the VERA moonshot led to modest gains as the week closed, capping off high activity throughout the week.

The FIEX also continues to perform strongly, up 16 points today to close at 1205.  Gains early in the week helped BGI to post a 5% improvement, but the biggest movers were JASO and the Apollo Aurora.  The final mission roster for the VERA moonshot was posted, including two projects awarded to JASO, and we expect to see continued growth on that front as the projects become fulfilled, in addition to interest in their dividend, due out on the 28th.  The Apollo Aurora also gained 8% on the back of renewed quality reporting, mainly in regard to financial matters, and as many stock remain there, that could be a good site for future investment.

The NBB posted modest gains, rising 6 points this week to hit 466 points.  BRIM and DAP grew steadily - BRIM up over 6% on the back of some fantastic wiki work;  and DAP rising 4% with continued news reporting.  However, overall these gains were offset by losses to KPG and MG of over 2% each, which was reflected in the low overall rise in the NBB.

Finally the NSX seems to have finally left its slump, up 24 points this week to close at 422 points.  Interest came from a number of sources.  GDP growth has picked up for the nation, which reflects in the expected future profitability of the companies.  Trading has also picked up as investors try to pick more winners.  And the recent resource contracts completed by VBNC for the aforementioned VERA moonshot have reflected directly in the prices of those companies who benefited from it, including SAM, RIZ, YUN, WEL and FEX. 

Top Ten Traders has also seen a lot of movement in the past few days as prices change and new funds are invested.  Andreas the Wise soared ahead of the opposition with massive further investment, said to have been partly funded by a short term loan from VBNC.  He also cleaned up on the BGI dividend payout yesterday.  In second place, rising from third last week, is Gerk, who underwent some smaller reinvestment.  Jonas and Constantijn both rose slightly in net wealth but not position, and Alejandro continues to bring up the rear between these trading tycoons.  Fifth place remains anyone's market and the Apollo Aurora would be delighted to find one of our loyal readers there next week!

Position	Name	Wealth
1	Andreas the Wise	823239.56
2	Gerk	456671.18
3	Jonas	406177
4	Constantijn	256359.69
5	Alejandro	42573

While it may have been a quiet few months on the reporting front, the SCX has been anything but quiet, particularly in this month.  Once again the Apollo Aurora is here to give you all the details and the inside scoop other papers just can't provide.  The Apollo Aurora - for all your world finance needs.

The biggest news on the SCX is undoubtedly the release of dividend functionality, full details of which are available at the SCX subforum.  Basically, it means the following:
Every company will post a profit statement every 60 days, revealing their profit for the last period.
14 days later, that company will pay a dividend out of that profit (if it is positive).  Each CEO has the power to choose the dividend rate for the company - between 0 and 1 - and that proportion of profits will be divided between the shareholders and paid out as dividends.
The rest of the profit will be kept as retained earnings.  Retained earnings will contribute to price increases and profitability in the future, and CEOs must decide how to trade off between current and future profits.

The SCX continue to highlight a number of exciting updates for the future, including automatic notifications and a regulars lounge; but for now the Apollo Aurora applaud this crucial dividend updating, adding greater depth and profitability to the SCX.

What others are saying about dividends:

"Nice! The Sim is getting pretty real."

"This is a welcome feature"

"I'm very enthusiast by this."

"That's.. really cool. "


To cap it off, until this Friday the SCX trade in rate for credit has been increased to 75 for normal investors and 115 for regulars.  Invest now before this special offer expires!
Moving beyond SCX functionality, it's also been an exciting fortnight on the markets.  Let's go through each by turn:

The ASTEX has been up up up recently, mainly thanks to huge growth in Andreas' Shop.  Acting as a proxy for VBNC, their work on the SCX has contributed significantly to share increases.  Investors have taken note, snapping up the shares so there are now none remaining on the SCX.  One loan share stands between the current CEO and a full takeover of the company, and we hear that a significant offer has been made to buy that one share.  This month has also seen the floating of Kildfare, the Kildarian transport company, and we hope to see other new floats in the future.

Though officially the FIEX has decreased in value over the last fortnight, this is entirely due to the floating of a new company - Fides Graphical Designs.  The last fortnight has actually seen considerable growth in both BGI and JASO.  BGI continues to release updates for the long awaited CoD 2 game; and JASO has embarked on an ambitious new attempt to reach Tarsica, a program which will undoubtedly continue in the future and generate further price increases.  JASO is another company that investors have snapped up, though strong existing shareholders means that it is nowhere near takeover.  Its CEO, holding power by a narrow margin, has opted for a dividend rate of 1 and a full payout of JASO's high profits of almost 65000.  BGI posted the highest profits this period, posting almost 135000, and we expect investors will be buying further into BGI to take advantage of this for the future.  BGI pays out tomorrow and JASO on the 28th, so buy in soon!

The NBB has been comparatively quiet, remaining reasonably steady over the past fortnight.  Several companies have posted losses as GDP declines slightly, but BBC and DAP have posted reasonable gains, offsetting that effect.  The NBB remains a market to watch as the Batavian economy continues to remain active.

The NSX, finally, has been a disappointment over the past few months but has rallied this week.  Ongoing recession in the Gralan economy has led to a steady decline over the last few months, but this has picked up recently both with capital inflows to the SCX and with news of direct payments to Gralan citizens for work on their wiki.  Despite poor performance over the past few months, the NSX is the Apollo Aurora's tip for "Best Investment Destination for October", as we predict strong GDP growth and accompanying profits in the future.  Particularly exciting is news that VBNC's investment deal with the Banque du Alexandrie might finally go through - a prospect which will have definite affects on the market and is well worth following up.

To conclude, let us look at the top traders.  Though Gerk held the position of top trader for some time, the systemic decline of the NSX in recent months has pushed down his fortune.  Instead, he's been overtaken by Jonas and Andreas the Wise - though in the latter's case that seems due more to heavy new investment than particular skill in trading.  Constantijn remains a close fourth, with all other traders far behind.

Position	Name	Wealth
1	Andreas the Wise	567846.1
2	Jonas	391839.51
3	Gerk	322349.21
4	Constantijn	253618.31
5	Alejandro	42429

The Apollo Aurora apologises for the lack of SCX Updates in the last two months - due to analysts being absent.  We now return to your regularly scheduled updates.

This month the SCX has been an exciting place to be.  Tune in for all the updates.

The ASTEX has seen some decline since the end of June, with a slump for almost a week in mid-July; but renewed spending in the Shirithian sector returned prices to the higher level soon after.  In the last few days the ASTEX has soared as Andreas' Shop parent company, VBNC undergoes a lot of new spending, including the release of All-Mart, your all in one convenience outlet.  The ASTEX closed at 1292 points.

The FIEX was relatively stable over the last month; but as Nelaga heated up in activity, so did the FIEX.  New announcements in JASO and the BGI drove up prices in those companies; and QUARREL and the Apollo Aurora also made minor advances.  This led to the FIEX climbing in the last few days to  close at 917 points.

The NBB has continued to have GDP woes as Batavia lost ground mid-July, slashing almost 7% off the NBB.  However, renewed GDP data in the last week have led to the NBB climbing almost twice as much as it fell.  It has closed at 439 points.

Finally, the NSX has gone into free fall as Gralan GDP declined from it's heights at 64 000 GELT.  Despite several rallies, the NSX kept falling down through the middle of July - very much a bear market.  New advances by VBNC have encouraged the markets to renew their rally in the last week, however, with the NSX closing at 605 points, back to where it was at mid-June, down from almost 700.