What have I missed from not trading in 6 months?

That is as direct as I can make my actual question. What I am really asking is not the current price of certain products but more a sense of what have I missed out on in terms of developments within the industry itself, rule changes for example, and also new software developments in the last 6 months.

For example a question I also have is: What is taking NinjaTrader 8 so long? and where does that all stand?

(Context for the 6 months off) No, I did not blow up my account. I liquidated most of it to fund starting a small business here in MA. The business is now "up to speed" and so I am eager to revisit my passion, trading, and I have this overwhelming feeling of "ok, what did I miss?" I know crude has plummeted and all that jazz but I still feel out of the loop.

Lastly, I feel that taking a 6 month leave from trading was an incredibly GOOD thing, my perspective towards trading has changed tremendously.

implied volatility has increased
EU may fall apart
congress is now 100% GOP-controlled

other than that, not much has changed

As far as NT8, don't hold your breath. It took forever to get v7 out the door too. It's all very typical. Plus, starting a data feed company and brokerage can be very distracting.

CL dropped 60 % in the past 6 months --(I noticed that you trade CL)
Congress passed the Keystone pipeline bill but Obama promised to Veto it....

Fibbie, same frustration here about NT 8 which is promised since 2012 if I remember well. It seems (from various websites) that they are aware about the shortcoming of NT 7 and hopefully will have a better programing and technology for NT 8 but I have the feeling that NT is more interested in making money as broker than offering a good platform. Based on what NT's CEO Raymond Deux presented during the webinar offered by Big Mike, it seems that changes presented are not justifying so many years without having NT 8 at least for beta testing.
Welcome back to trading and success with your business.