---
title: "Algorithms: The Four Things"
canonical: https://thestrat.ai/docs/algorithms/
updated: 2026-10-21
author: Alex Sopa (AlexsOptions)
source: TheStrat docs (https://thestrat.ai/docs/)
---

Tools for AI agents: https://mcp.thestrat.ai — see https://thestrat.ai/agents/

# Algorithms: The Four Things

By [Alex Sopa (AlexsOptions)](https://thestrat.ai/docs/alex-sopa/) · Updated October 21, 2026

**Definition** An algorithm has to be told exactly four things: what symbol, buy or sell, how (sit on the bid or take the offer), and when. [Full timeframe continuity](https://thestrat.ai/docs/full-timeframe-continuity/) is the fourth instruction showing on the chart: price above (or below) the month, week, day, and 60 opens at once is the market literally displaying “buy, take the offer, this month, this week, today, right now.”

Most of the tape is not people. 70 to 75%+ of US equity volume is executed by programs ([SEC Staff Report on Algorithmic Trading, 2020](https://www.sec.gov/files/Algo_Trading_Report_2020.pdf); [JPMorgan estimate, CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/05/sell-offs-could-be-down-to-machines-that-control-80percent-of-us-stocks-fund-manager-says.html)), and a program cannot improvise. Algorithms are dumb: someone has to give each one its instructions. That is the edge: instructions are finite, and the chart shows you what they were.

## The four things

Rob’s formulation: you have to tell a computer program four things. (1) What symbol? Tesla. (2) Buy or sell? Buy. (3) How? Sit on the bid, or take the offer. Take the offer. (4) When? Now. Four questions, four answers, and the order flow that follows is fully determined. The “how” is the aggression switch: a program sitting on the bid supplies liquidity and waits; a program told to take the offer causes price movement, the same distinction that makes a bar green or red in the first place.

[Figure: The four instructions. The fourth one, when, is what the opens measure. Above the month, week, day, and 60 opens at once, the answer to “when?” was: this month, this week, today, right now.]

## The chart shows you the instructions

Price does not move so much as aggregate: for every buyer there is a seller, and the last sale is the running record of who is getting their price. So when every timeframe is green at the same time, buyers are the aggressive side on every timeframe at once, taking the offer monthly, weekly, daily, and hourly. It is the only thing that could produce the condition. FTFC up reads, literally: “Tesla, buy, take the offer, now.” And if it were all humans instead of machines, the read would be identical: buyers are more aggressive. The algorithms just make it literal.

Moves accelerate when a machine is told to take the offer and the move starts [stopping people out](https://thestrat.ai/docs/corrective-activity/): the stop orders remove liquidity from the book, which makes it go faster. Forced exits plus instructed aggression in the same direction is the fuel behind every fast move (see [the pivot machine gun](https://thestrat.ai/docs/pivot-machine-gun/) and [the kicker](https://thestrat.ai/docs/kicker/)).

## The fourth instruction is timeframe continuity

“When” has four answers: this month, this week, today, and right now. Each one is measured from an [open](https://thestrat.ai/docs/opening-price/), and each open defines a participation group. That is why [FTFC](https://thestrat.ai/docs/full-timeframe-continuity/) identifies algorithmic behavior: all four answers visible at once. It is also why [the flip](https://thestrat.ai/docs/the-flip/) matters: every new 60-minute open at the bottom of the hour re-asks “right now?”, and the answer either re-confirms or it does not.

The tape below (real data, MRVL, July 1 to 2 2026) shows the instructions switching sides live. The morning prints FTFC up: buy, take the offer, now. Sellers press the fresh month open, two outside hours expand the range, and when the last sale takes the week open every group is red: the instructions are now sell, hit the bid, this month, this week, today, right now, and 2d follows 2d until the order is done (the full anatomy is on [meta-orders](https://thestrat.ai/docs/meta-orders/) and [execution algorithms](https://thestrat.ai/docs/execution-algorithms/)).

[Figure: MRVL, July 1 to 2 2026, aggregated up from the 5-minute stream. FTFC flips from up to down (the four instructions switching sides) and the follow-through runs until the sell order is complete. The background turns red the moment every group is losing from its open.]

**Related:** [Full Timeframe Continuity](https://thestrat.ai/docs/full-timeframe-continuity/) · [Meta-Orders](https://thestrat.ai/docs/meta-orders/) · [Execution Algorithms](https://thestrat.ai/docs/execution-algorithms/) · [Urgency & Impact](https://thestrat.ai/docs/urgency-and-impact/) · [The Flip](https://thestrat.ai/docs/the-flip/)
**Next:** [Truth #3: broadening formations time the next target →](https://thestrat.ai/docs/price-discovery-broadening-formation/)
**Back to:** [Full Timeframe Continuity →](https://thestrat.ai/docs/full-timeframe-continuity/)

TheStrat was developed by Rob Smith. These docs are written by Alex Sopa (AlexsOptions) and quote his teaching.