[PaulJoslin]

If you take 80 people and tell them to randomly play the stock market, buying or selling - you will always have some that succeed and some that fail over the short term.

The question is, if the same people who 'succeeded' are put back to the start again and play randomly with a new batch of 80 people - would they still rise to the top, or perhaps this time have worse luck.

Comparing this to the rats, the long term testing / new rounds with a new set of 80 rats (including the elite) would help determine whether these rats are the best, or if it was chance.

If I understand this correctly, the decision the rat makes is based solely on hearing a certain frequency (pattern of trading emerge), unfortunately even if this is the case - trading by patterns could be extremely risky without the common sense / experience of a real trader to see what is really happening to the market.

[olefoo]

What the rats are doing (if this is not a well done prank) is exactly equivalent to what 'technical' traders and chartists do. As to why these techniques work; they are reacting to the intentions of other traders signaled in data. This may be a case where knowledge of the "underlying reality" that the market is reacting too (supposedly) is a disadvantage because it prevents noticing and reacting to the actual data.

That said, this whole thing reads like an elaborate practical joke.

[PaulJoslin]

You mean, like they're noticing a 'bearish gartley' pattern (in audio) and acting appropriately?

My point was, that although these can be 'indicators', you still require a human mind to determine whether the trade should be made. If it was as simple as matching patterns and trading, anyone would be able to do it.

[olefoo]

Not necessarily, if (again taking this at face value) only a few rats are able to pull this trick off, that's not too surprising. Of humans who trade forex, only a certain percentage are relatively successful at it.