XPost: rec.arts.comics.strips   
   From: psperson@old.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Mon, 5 Jan 2026 19:17:29 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott   
   Dorsey) wrote:   
      
   >Cryptoengineer   wrote:   
   >>A few years ago we had a guy on here who did that. He claimed he was   
   >>about to become rich playing the stock market, using technical   
   >>analysis to predict short term changes (ie, he was like most "day   
   >>traders").   
   >   
   >Years ago we had an engineer who basically wasted the branch's annual   
   >computer budget to buy an SGI Crimson computer in order to run FFTs on   
   >Standard and Poors data.  He was convinced he could tease out repeating   
   >patterns in the market in isolation with no need to examine external   
   >influences.   
      
   There is a film /Pi/ (the actual title is the Greek letter, about a   
   genius who prints out a mysterious number that can predict the market.   
      
   As might be imagined, chaos ensues, particularly when a group of   
   Hasidic Jews decide it is really the True Name of God with which they   
   can return to absolute power.   
      
   >>Every example he used to 'prove' it would work involved cherry picked   
   >>examples where the result had already occurred. Challenged to predict   
   >>an event that hadn't actually happened yet, he failed miserably.   
   >   
   >The good news is that the engineer in my example lost a lot of money and   
   >had to sell his boat.  The bad news is that he was not put into jail for   
   >misappropriation of funds.  The intermediate news is that it did introduce   
   >Matlab to the organization.   
      
   Well, /some/ good came out of it, then.   
   --    
   "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,   
   Who evil spoke of everyone but God,   
   Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)