When we talk about the “noisiness” of the markets, we usually mean it metaphorically, with noise referring to the component of a series of price movements which carries no informational content. A new crop of software products brings very literal market noise to traders’ desks. The idea is to recreate the environmental noise from a real trading pit and broadcast it to those who are not working directly in the pit. Some believe that hearing the rising and falling volume and frequency of chatter, and the yells of current prices, help traders gain an intuitive feel for market movement and dynamics. For traders reared in the pit who now work elsewhere, the sounds may simply serve as comforting background noise, helping them focus and concentrate by mimicking a familiar environment.

MarketSound is designed to generate a realistic mix of background noises that fluctuate in time with the market, as well as spoken prices in a choice of three voices. Its automated voices read out stock quotes and other market data. A companion product, Virtual Pit, generates fake sounds of people shuffling around, talking and, occasionally, yelling in the background.

One voice, recorded by a British nightclub singer, clears her throat, saying “ahem, excuse me,” before reading her next price. It is programmed to happen randomly, once every month or so. In 2003, the program’s creators received patent No. 6,507,818 on the algorithms used to produce natural-sounding crescendos that rise and fall smoothly in line with the peaks and troughs of actual, real-life trading.

Read more: Traders Are All Over, But for the Shouting, Some Use Software

Via Mahalanobis