Quote from NoDoji:
I was forced to quantify everything I do when I asked my resident Geek to automate my trading. There were many weeks of conversations like this:
NoD: "You want to look at a previous pivot low and---"
Mr. NoD: "Define 'pivot low'."
NoD: "You know, the low of the last pivot point."
Mr. NoD: "Quantify 'pivot point''.
NoD (sighing forcefully): "You know, the place where price was going down and then it started going up."
Mr. NoD: "Define 'place', 'down', 'started' and 'up' in a form I can code."
NoD (exasperatedly): "Just look at a chart and you'll see a place where price was dropping and then it started going up and it went higher than the previous down bar's high and closed higher, then started going up some more---"
Mr. NoD: "Quantify 'started going up some more'."
NoD: "Here, come in my office and look at this! Just look at the f*cking chart---"
Mr. NoD: "Define 'the'."
NoD (preparing to slam door): "I'll be back later. I'm going to have a glass of vodka with my friend Arthur."
Hahahahaha! Many times have I had similar conversations with my coder, Joe Doaks. Eventually he built up tens of thousands of lines of code quantifying all of my delusions. Occasionally I will rag his old ass by asking something like "Would you please hack me out code taking a long at the open on a Wednesday following a Tuesday which fell in the second week of the month when the previous month ended on a Monday?"