I come from an art and science background. I love to paint just as much as I love to program. I was bored one day and programmed something that would translate market data into music via mathematics and a midi piano. I expected it to sound like junk, but it actually sounded like a great composition. I basically went through a bunch of procedures to turn the market data into binary units that corresponded to different notes based on momentum and volume information. Then I fed it end-of-day data for major stocks, along with intraday data. End-of-day data sounded more linear and Beethoven'ish, while the intraday data sounded a lot like Mozart on LSD. What surprised me was that the music sounded like a competition and not some monkey banging random notes on a piano -- I took this same principle and listened to Euler's constant and Pi and they, too, had some form of composition. I then ran a random number generator through it, and it sounded much different than any of the previous examples -- which confirms my initial suspicions that all these systems are not random, but can be interpretted in ways that are not always intuitive to the human mind. We concentrate so much on using certain senses to view the world that we sometimes forget that data can be interpolated into other forms that we intuitively know from observation that they are not "random" in nature but follow chaotic systems that, somehow, our brain can listen or watch and understand. You could take a reverse proposition and break down a Picasso painting into binary digits (like what is stored on your hard-drive) and then graph this binary information onto a graph were each 0 makes it go up and each 1 makes it go down. Will the graph look like the stock-market? If it does, then you know that there is some system that may convert the data we see from the stock-market into a more meaningful form. Blaaah aphie
Hey, wait, Alph. Victor Niederhoffer's brother did something like this I think, didn't he? Man, see my stuff on imposing order on chaos, imitating God, music, etc. O. You probably already did. Yadda.
I just did it as a fun little project to experiment with viewing data in different methods -- but I was just very impressed with how natural systems have a "musical" quality to them compared to so-called "random" system. Even the prime number distribution had a nice style to it. If there is a god, he's vastly more intelligent than I ever gave him credit for. aphie
I'd love to hear what you came up with. Something to check out if you have nothing better to do: see if there are any interesting relationships in an intermarket sense... run your thing on Stock Index, Bonds, and Commodity Index at the same time, assign them each a different octave/voice (soprano, alto, bar., bass, etc.) see if there is any cool polyphonic relationship between them. that would be great, thanks
Platypus, I will look for the program -- it is a year or two old, though. The importing of data has to be in ascii format. If there is enough interest and time on my part, I could spruce it up some and allow people to feed it any type of data and set their own parameters on how notes are played. Might make for an interesting side project if I have the spare time. aphie
That would be very cool. If you have a way, you may even post a wav file of an interesting snipet that you have found. I have been thinking along these lines for a while. (alternate ways of looking at markets) I just took a vacation and spent a week by the side of a river in Montana. I was amazed (at least intuitively) by the way markets seem to move like a river.. (just my little bit of insight for the evening..)
Platypus, Yeah, or go to the ocean and observe tides and wave formations. You'll get a good appreciation for trying to catch the wave -- especially if you've ever gone surfing. If you act to soon, you will get knocked cold by the wave and left dazed and confused. If you act to late, the wave misses you and all you get is a slight gentle push up in the water (behind the formation of the wave). However, if you catch the wave right while it is forming, you go surfing! That's my little gem of wisdom for this evening. Sweet dreams. aphie
chas, no disrespect to you or your beliefs, but that snippet of music you posted as sounding like the "devil" sounded more like the soundtrack to a bad hollywood horror film. the "devil" does not sound like this according to the Book that you qoute. the Book states that the "devil" appears as an angel of light, and is quite seductive/attractive. just thought i would clear up your misconception. best, surf
a very thoughtful post, surf. The devil <i>masquerades</i> with beauty. His true nature is repulsive. He can hijack and pervert beauty, but he cannot create it. On the other hand, everything God creates is beauty defined. Obviously I can't <i>prove</i> that that clip is the voice of the devil or his angels, but, absent a way to trade it, I took a position verbally. <i><font size=1>"On the road to Damascus I was hung on the ropes of success, 'til you ripped away the mask of life they had placed upon the face of death." -- Rich Mullins, "Damascus Road."</i></font size>