.virgil stared at the screen, he could see the spread was overbid and began to buy puts, but .traderO704 dissuaded him …

.traderO704 : don’t be too quick to judge, the underlying is inverted, they look overvalued, but its better to be cautious … check the pricing

.virgil plugged the spreads into the pricing algorithm and the spreads were actually undervalued according to the model, but he decided to buy the puts anyway, a gamble that his instinct had been correct and the pricing algorithm had another parameter creating the deceptive overvaluation

.traderO704 : you’re offering them anyway?

.virgil : just a hunch

.traderO704 : not much for pricing software …?

.virgil : it has limitations

.virgil was afloat in the middleware, hunting for inversions, hunting for their causes … the spreads widened and he cashed his puts, he had been correct, there was a double negative happening: the spreads were narrow, indicating they were oversold, except the underlying was inverted, causing the pricing model to indicate they were undersold, except they were in fact oversold, so something else was counterbalancing the inversion optics, what?

.traderO704 : how did you know?

.virgil : just a guess …

.traderO704 : guess.

.virgil knew that .traderO704 knew that there were seldom ‘guesses’ with old newcomers like .virgil ... he had to be careful to use his provenance to his advantage but not overplay ... if he let the completeness of his grasp of the underlying become known, his whereabouts would be revealed to the .mael.branche.

.virgil : what caused the inversion, do you know?

.traderO704 : its pervasive ... its been on and off for months, nobody knows …

.virgil : … what about now?

the spreads had narrowed again, the pricing model again read inversion, this time with spot on valuation … but now he wasn’t sure, had no instinct either way, better to hold

.traderO704 : no idea, … holding?

.virgil held

.traderO704 : well I’ll hold too

the holding paid off, the pricing model was on, they cashed position

.traderO704 : uncanny, how’d you know that time?

.virgil : I don’t know.

.traderO704 : well, I owe you for that …

it was a different thing for him being a user, but his admin level familiarity, especially with Thyme, still gave him an advantage ... part of him had wanted to know how he would do, it had been so long, but mostly he needed to know about the inversions

.virgil : you say there have been pervasive inversions for a while?

.traderO704 : on and off. That’s what makes it hard. It seems to be trying to find equilibrium, but can’t …

.virgil : and?

.traderO704 : well, the good days are real good, but the volatility.

.virgil : the bad days are bad

.traderO704 : I think we prefer slow and steady, no inversions

.virgil : like before Thyme.

.traderO704 : well, who knows if it’s the middleware

.virgil knew it was the middleware

.traderO704 : it could be the network, or just some wanky market conditions in the underlying

but .virgil knew it was pervasive across Thyme, not across the network and not specific to any market … he would be forced to adapt here, adjust his normal recalcitrant stance to a more accommodating nature, if he wanted to learn anything useful about the columns … if provenance were the only measure, .virgil would have been able to penetrate Thyme’s affirmation algorithm already from the seventeenth, but there were other relationships in Thyme’s architecture that prevented his access, even given his provenance … regardless, his task now was to penetrate the shimmering architecture of her columns, the elusive pillars that were key to sourcing the volatility spike … it wasn’t for the sake of the house of norfein that he was committed to sourcing the vol spike, it would be clear to the .mael.branche, and .uriel, who he left behind … unfortunately from within the middleware there were too many shimmering and ineffable instances for him to detect degrees of freedom sufficient to profile the elusive, so called, columns of the camerotilus, ostensibly incarnate from the central node of the middleware – but he had found that node to be empty, dysfunctional and no choice but to look deeper into the middleware systems for some insight as to the architecture of the columns – if .uriel had followed the trail, careful not to give up too much to the .mael.branche … what would .uriel encounter in the camerotilus? what image or insight would Thyme avail him …

.theDirector : Virgil, is it?

.virgil : yes …

.theDirector : that’s a heck of a position for one morning, where was it you came from?

.virgil : I was with .selva …

.theDirector : is that .moiræ?

.virgil : its pre-.norfein?

.theDirector : pre-.norfein?

.virgil was to use .uriel’s provenance as far as it would take him . not only would .virgil’s own provenance get him easily traced by the .mael.branche, it was too ancient to be plausible in any .moiræ environment, .uriel’s provenance was already a stretch

.theDirector : you’re really pre-.norfein? well, I guess that explains the performance … and we can use it with this volatility …

in Oxalis .virgil intended to {.establish himself as an earner; .achieve sufficient notoriety to have .theDirector’s attention; .avoid sufficient notoriety to generate .mael.branche level system warning; .engage market sufficient to trace columns; coerce .theDirector to reassign him as required} he now had .theDirector’s attention, was established as an earner and had presumably avoided a .branche level warning, so needed to quickly engage the market and get reassigned in order to maintain an object velocity sufficient to mask his formidable provenance … (on the seventeenth his .provenance measure was an asset, but here in the middleware it would be the primary attribute the .mael.branche use to trace him) … .virgil had only caught glimpses or heard fleeting mention of the shimmering columns of the camerotilus, the structure underlying the node on the central line of Thyme’s middleware … it wasn’t a fact of provenance that made the columns visible, it was a fact of fortitude, … fortitude he lacked in sufficient measure to allow him more than a glimpse of the underlying, but even the shimmering glimpse had altered his course to this extremity: quitting the seventeenth without notice or cause, abandoning .uriel to answer for his disappearance (it was in order to protect .uriel from the .mael.branche that he withheld his trajectory, but at the obvious expense of .uriel’s equilibrium), leaving scarcely a trail (although .uriel’s investigative acumen easily exceeded that of the .mael.branche by enough to ensure his own eventual traceless dissolution into the middleware, should he so choose …), and risking the evidentiary weight his disappearance in Thyme would lend to Thyme’s becoming an object of suspicion in .norfein, which must be avoided for as long as possible …

.traderO704 : so, what now?

the spreads had been widening since the last transaction

.virgil : I don’t know

.traderO704 : are they wide because they’re supposed to be wide or another inversion subterfuge?

.virgil studied the curve … he had witnessed enough Thyme with admin access from the seventeenth to sense that this was a retrograde repeat of the first narrowing pattern, so he knew the spreads were likely undervalued … but the cause of the inversion optics counterbalance still eluded him … so he had to decide quickly which trade would best to teach him something about that counterbalance, which trade would be best for his delicate position in Oxalis, and which trade to actually execute

.virgil : short puts

.traderO704 : really? … okay

they both offered puts and .virgil was correct, it paid off again, .traderO704 was happy, but .virgil had hedged his position by shorting offsetting calls in order to {test the underlying for arbitrage equilibrium inconsistencies; de-emphasize his knowledge of the underlying to avert .theDirector’s attention} but only the first was achieved because .traderO704 called attention to .virgil’s faultless accuracy and .theDirector returned

.theDirector : how are you able to detect such subtleties in the underlying optics, … you say you were with .selva before?

.virgil : .selva was a while ago, recently I was in admin …

he had no choice but to begin to reveal some provenance

.theDirector : admin? then what are you doing here if you were already with admin?

.virgil : I didn’t like admin, I have some interest in these spreads, I just want to trade again …

It was a flimsy story, but .theDirector seemed okay with it

.theDirector : we’re glad to have you, with this vol spike …

he walked away

.traderO704 : if you keep up the show, he will challenge you

.virgil : challenge?

.traderO704 : everyone’s been having trouble in this market, he hasn’t seemed to know how to approach the vol spike either … so you’re continuous gains will threaten his leadership

the challenge could be good or bad for .virgil, perhaps this was the way to ascertain what he knew he needed from Oxalis, he would need to move out soon and he must solidify his insight shortly or lose the opportunity …

.virgil : challenge?

.traderO704 : it’s a game we play in Oxalis … nona columna^note1

.virgil : ninth column

.traderO704 : you know it?

.virgil : yes

it was now clear that the nona columna was the insight he was here for and playing the .theDirector was essential … .virgil was relatively certain of his advantage over .theDirector in the challenge due to his admin familiarity with Thyme and the Oxalis node, and if he prevailed he could likely use the victory and .theDirector’s embarrassment as leverage to move with administrative sanction to his next middleware destination … he noted the current spread configuration

.traderO704 : I’m waiting for your signal … I have a feeling you aren’t going to be here much longer and I’d better tag along while I can

it now suited his goals to attract .theDirector’s attention and so he studied the spreads with the intention of maximizing continuous gain … these spreads were narrow again, but during the previous trade, using his hedge test for an arbitrage equilibrium violation, he determined that the counterbalancing factor influencing the inversion optics was related to the theta value, although he still couldn’t determine the cause, he now knew that theta was an indicator … in this case theta was order of magnitude low relative to the initial trade (when the spreads were narrow also) and so he intuited that the projection should be opposite … he therefore aggressively offered puts

.traderO704 : buying this time?

.virgil : yes, buy

.traderO704 also aggressively offered puts and together their position attracted the attention of much of the floor … .virgil’s theta observation was correct, the puts were immediately in the money and .virgil realized that the theta value would also act as a measure of when to discontinue offering and begin purchasing back the puts … when theta was at the threshold he reckoned, he (and, at his signal, .traderO704) switched to offering calls and within minutes the floor had earned more in this session than it’s book had netted since the inception of the vol spike … there was widespread adulation and .virgil was hailed as the session’s keeper … shortly, .theDirector arrived with cursory and obligatory congratulations and requested a private word with .virgil and .traderO704

^note1the Oxalis charter in Thyme indicates that the structure of the Oxalis underlying rests on the angle emanation ratio configuration of 3 to 5, so there are said to be 8 columns to the Oxalis rotation schedule in total (3 of the emanation y and 5 of the emanation x) … the game includes 2 players and a dealer, the dealer does not have a stake in the game and knows the identity of all 9 cards … the dealer presents 9 cards face down, representing the 8 columns of Oxalis plus one un-belonging, the exile pillar, the players’ object is to identify which card represents the exile pillar, and which 3 cards represent the emanation y columns (and so by default the remaining 5 emanation x columns) … 1) the dealer presents 9 cards face down. In the first move, the Challenger gives the Adversary the option to accept the first choice … a) if the Adversary accepts the first choice he overturns 2 cards and looks at 1 card without revealing the value to the other player (and therefore has personal awareness of 3 cards and common awareness of 2 cards) … b) if the Adversary yields, the Challenger will overturn 1 card and look at 1 card without revealing the value to the other player (and has personal awareness of 2 cards and common awareness of 1 card) … 2) In the second move, the player with the advantage (knowing the value of more cards) chooses to select or defer … If he chooses to select, he will select one of the remaining unknown cards to be his guess as to the identity of one of the 4 needed columns (one of the exile pillar plus the 3 emanation y columns), if he chooses to defer, the other player will make the selection … 3) In the third move the dealer reveals the identity of (7 – n) of the cards representing the emanation x columns, where {n = 6 if Adversary is selector and knows 3 cards; n = 4 if Adversary is selector and knows 1 card; n = 5 if the Challenger is selector (and knows 2 cards)} … 4) In the fourth move the selector reveals his choices for the 4 essential columns, correct selection of all 4 wins the game.