Friday Links #31 — JavaScript Trends and Tools (Oct 31, 2025)
Welcome to Friday Links #31, your weekly roundup of the freshest updates in the JavaScript world. From emerging frameworks to powerful dev utilities and clever performance hacks, this week’s list spotlights tools that can make your workflow smoother and your apps faster. Whether you’re building front-end interfaces, optimizing bundles, or experimenting with AI integrations — there’s something here to inspire your next project.
DeepSeek V3.1 Tops AI Stock Trading Challenge — With Some Fine Print
A new open benchmark called AI-Trader is testing how well AI models can handle real-world stock trading. Each model starts with $10,000 and trades Nasdaq-100 stocks using real-time prices and financial news.
After the first month, DeepSeek v3.1 leads with a +16.46% return, followed by MiniMax-M2 (+12.03%), GPT-5 (+9.98%), and Claude 3.7 Sonnet (+9.8%).
Meanwhile, Qwen3-max earned +7.96%, and Gemini-2.5-Flash barely moved the needle at +0.48% despite the most trades.
For comparison, a passive QQQ ETF tracker gained +5.39%, proving DeepSeek’s picks weren’t just lucky — they were smart.
Important Context
Still, the experiment comes with caveats:
- Simulated setup – models trade at the day’s opening price, not in real markets.
- Possible data leaks – some news lacked timestamps, letting models see “future” info.
- Short, bullish window – tech stocks like Nvidia and Microsoft dominated, inflating returns.
DeepSeek shows it can spot patterns and take confident bets, but calling it the best AI trader yet would be premature.
If the AI-Trader team adds hour-level trading and fixes data issues, it could become a reliable benchmark for evaluating how AIs handle risk, discipline, and adaptability in real financial markets.
📜 Articles & Tutorials
Build High-Quality, Domain-Specific Agents at 95% Lower Cost
State-based vs Signal-based rendering
Context Inheritance in TanStack Router
Practical Caching Recipes for Next.js (App Router)
Conditional Border Radius with Modern CSS
GSoC 2025, Building a Semantic Search Engine for Any Video
Tanstack Directives and the Platform Boundary
Why developers are leaving Next.js for TanStack Start, and loving it
I Run a Full Linux Desktop in Docker Just Because I Can
⚒️ Tools
Jujutsu — a version control system
Workflow DevKit - A toolkit for building Vercel Workflow integrations
WebMCP - WebMCP allows a website to be an MCP server. No sharing API Keys. Use any model you want.
Hono CLI - Command Line Interface for Hono framework
Explore color as we see it - A tool to visualize colors in the Oklch color space
Helium - Private, fast, and honest web browser
Handy - the free and open source app for speech to text
📚 Libs
Yaak - The most intuitive desktop API client. Organize and execute REST, GraphQL, WebSockets, Server Sent Events, and gRPC 🦬
Ky - 🌳 Tiny & elegant JavaScript HTTP client based on the Fetch API
QGIS - QGIS is a free, open source, cross platform (lin/win/mac) geographical information system (GIS)
Ovi - Twin Backbone Cross-Modal Fusion for Audio-Video Generation
⌚ Releases
Storybook 10.0 Released — Major Update Adds Module Automocking, Next.js 16, Vitest 4, and Async Svelte Component Support
shadcn/ui 3.5 Released — Now Fully Compatible with Next.js 16
pnpm 10.20, Astro 5.15, uuidv47 v1.2.0
📺 Videos
Next.js 16 Full Course | Build and Deploy a Production-Ready Full Stack App
I Will Never Use Shadcn Form Components Again
Cursor 2.0 is here… 5 things you didn’t know it can do
Master React 19.2 Async Everywhere — Boost Performance
WebAssembly might actually save web dev…
React Native Tutorial for Absolute Beginners - Build a Mobile App in 2 Hours
99% of Developers Don’t Get PostgreSQL
Build Docker Images in a Git Repo but Only Committed Changes
The Standup - Jira Bought 2 Browsers???
🎤 Talks & Podcasts
No content this week 😢
🗞️ News & Updates
OpenAI Reportedly Preparing for a $1 Trillion IPO
According to Reuters, OpenAI is preparing for an IPO following its recent restructuring into a public benefit corporation — a move that clears the path for going public. Sources say the company aims to file with the U.S. SEC in the second half of 2026, with a potential listing in early 2027.
The valuation under discussion is reportedly up to $1 trillion, which would make it one of the most significant IPOs in tech history. OpenAI expects to reach around $20 billion in annual revenue by the end of 2025, showcasing steady demand for its AI services.
The company is also in talks to raise over $60 billion in private funding before the IPO to expand its data centers, acquire chips, and strengthen partnerships like its collaboration with Microsoft.
While OpenAI told Reuters that “IPO is not a focus,” its restructuring and growing investor interest signal that a public listing in 2026–2027 is becoming increasingly likely.
New Domains Registrar API for domain search, pricing, purchase, and management (Vercel)
That wraps up this week’s JavaScript Trends and Tools. Stay curious, keep experimenting, and don’t forget to star your favorite open-source repos. See you next Friday with another round of discoveries that keep the JavaScript ecosystem buzzing.