concise, complete taxonomy of tape qualities that matter for a serious tape + time engine.

concise, complete taxonomy of tape qualities that matter for a serious tape + time engine.

Core Tape Qualities

Durability – persistence of information through time

Continuity – absence of abrupt state resets

Memory – whether past order flow influences future behavior

Resolution – whether conflicts are decided via price, not jumps

Decay – gradual weakening of signals instead of sudden invalidation

Structural Qualities

Adjudicability – ability for time to resolve disagreement

Symmetry – balanced expression of up vs down intent

Alternation – clean rotation between dominant directions

Proportionality – price response scales with time spent

Hierarchy – consistency across tenors (T0 → T1 → T2)

Informational Qualities

Signal Density – meaningful signals per unit time

Signal Purity – low contamination by noise or artifacts

Signal Integrity – signals correspond to actual participation

Predictive Conditioning – signals bias future outcomes

False-Intent Visibility – ability to identify failed intent

Microstructure Qualities

Absorption Visibility – detectability of supply/demand absorption

Aggression Clarity – clean separation of passive vs aggressive flow

Depth Honesty – consistency between displayed depth and execution

Liquidity Elasticity – how liquidity responds to pressure

Reversion Traceability – ability to see mean-reversion forming

Regime Qualities

Stability – persistence of regime labels

Transition Legibility – clarity when regimes change

Override Frequency – how often exogenous events invalidate tape

Session Consistency – similarity across trading sessions

Market-Type Coherence – fit with adjudication vs repricing

Operational Qualities

Latency Tolerance – robustness to delayed or partial data

Scalability – behavior stability across contract sizes

Observability – ease of monitoring without overfitting

Reproducibility – consistent behavior across samples

Composability – compatibility with time/structure engines

Psychological / Decision Qualities

Patience Reward – does waiting improve outcomes

Forcing Penalty – does forcing trades degrade results

Conflict Value – usefulness of BLOCK / WAIT states

Narrative Resistance – immunity to story-driven bias

Trustworthiness – confidence to act or not act

Meta Qualities (Advanced)

Learnability – speed at which behavior becomes understandable

Explainability – ability to justify decisions post-hoc

Failure Legibility – clarity when signals fail

Edge Longevity – resistance to decay over time

Market Fitness – alignment with the engine’s purpose