DEFINITIONS

THE NOMOTHETIC THEOREM: A belief that our universe exists in the context of a balance between opposing forces that struggle against each other. The theorem is a dualism consisting of two theories that are themselves interdependent as polar opposites: The Theory of Stability, and the Theory of Volatility.

THE THEORY OF STABILITY: In the absence of exogenous forces, there is a tendency for all complex systems to evolve toward increasing levels of stability.

THE THEORY OF VOLATILITY: All complex systems experience continuous random motion.

NORM: One (or more) points of stability around which the system tends to fluctuate.

NORMAL RANGE OF VOLATILITY: Since the forces that cause closed systems to evolve toward stability counteract volatility, the Theory of Volatility, while stating that random fluctuation exists, accepts the fact that there is a limit to the degree of normal fluctuation in a closed system. The outer limits of the normal, random fluctuations define a "normal range of volatility". By definition, motion or changes that occur within the normal range of volatility are random.

TRENDING NORM: The "norm" is a balance point, a point of stability that the system, at one instant in time, is evolving toward. As the "norm" changes over time, its path describes a "trending norm" which depicts the trend of the system, regardless of its intermediate volatility.

DEVIATION: Since all complex systems tend to evolve toward stability at their "norm", any movement away from the "norm" is considered to be a "deviation".

EVENT: An "event" is an outcome that represents a "deviation" from the "norm" of sufficient magnitude to be outside the "normal range of volatility". While the next movement from any point within the "normal range of volatility" is unpredictable, the "norm" acts as an attractor to positions from outside the "normal range of volatility" that represent significant "deviations" from the "norm".