an apparatus and method for assessing market conditions , or for analyzing of other parameters that appear to fluctuate randomly , compare the changing conditions to the changes that would be predicted by brownian motion . when the changes exceed those predicted by brownian motion , a trend is considered to exist and can be expected to continue , and when the changes are less than those predicted by brownian motion , then a congestion condition exists . when enough measurements are taken , the length of the trend or congestion can be predicted . in one embodiment , the computation necessary to analyze the data on the condition being monitored is distributed among computers of subscribers to a monitoring service based on the method .