THE NUMBER GENERATION BOX

Here's an explanation of the parts of the number generation box.

Picks Generated From:

This selector sets the strategy that Analysis Lotto uses to choose numbers. After changing this setting, a new set of numbers will appear in the Generated Numbers box, and in the Loto Number window, based on the setting you choose. Here's a brief discussion of each of the methods you can choose:

Random Number Patterns

Numbers are chosen by pure random chance. The Lookback and Looseness settings will have no effect.


Typical Delta Patterns

This is the strategy that you may be familiar with from the lotto calculator on our website. Basically, the typical Delta number distribution that we find in a winning lotto number is emphasized, and the focus is placed on low Delta numbers, which occur much more often in winners. We find patterns like this in better than half the winning numbers, and it's relatively easy to come up with good quality predictions.


Historic Delta Patterns

This method tries to match the distribution of Delta numbers in the generated numbers with the exact distribution of deltas that are found in the historical data. The Lookback setting will determine how much of the past data is considered when calculating new numbers. You can watch how this works by charting the Delta Distribution of the historical data, then compare to the generated numbers by pressing the Next button on the chart.


Delta Trends

This one is somewhat experimental, as there are several possible approaches to playing trends. If you look at the Delta Trends chart, you will get an idea of how this works. The program is trying to predict which Delta numbers are going to be occurring more often than they are now, and play those more often.

NOTE: another good strategy with trends is to pick the numbers by ANOTHER system of your choice, then examine the trends charts to identify trends. Identify the numbers that are beginning to trend upward, and choose lotto picks from your generated list that contain those numbers. In this way you are combining trend analysis with your favorite system.


Random Delta Patterns

The Delta numbers arrived at by this method are chosen randomly, though they will still loosely conform to a typical Delta distribution. The lookback and looseness controls will have no effect.


Typical Number Patterns

The numbers chosen by this strategy are made to conform to the number distribution of a much larger sample of random numbers. In other words, the amount of statistical fluctuation you might see in a small, randomly chosen group of numbers has been greatly reduced. While in a group of random numbers normal chance might make some digits occur much more often and others less so, in the numbers generated by this method you will tend to see each digit nearly equally represented throughout the 100 numbers in the generated list. To see what this does to the numbers, first set your calculation type to Random Numbers, chart the Number Distribution and press Next to see the number distribution of the program's randomly generated numbers. Now, set your calculation type to Typical Number Patterns. Look at the same chart (press Prev then Next to make the chart redraw.) Notice how the numbers are distributed much more evenly. (If this chart looks too strange, set looseness to a higher value, and it should begin to look more natural.)


Historic Number Patterns

This method tries to match the distribution of numbers generated by the software with the exact distribution of numbers that are found in the historical data. The Lookback setting will determine how much of the past data is considered when calculating new numbers. You can watch how this works by charting the Number Distribution of the historical data, then compare to the generated numbers by pressing the Next button on the chart. The charts should have a similar shape.


Number Trends

This one is somewhat experimental, as there are several possible approaches to playing trends. If you look at the Number Trends chart, you will get an idea of how this works. The program is trying to predict which numbers are going to be occurring more often than they are now, and play those more often. Like the Delta Trends method discussed above, but the numbers themselves are used in place of the deltas.


Historical Lookback:

For calculation methods that analyze historical data, this setting determines how far back into the past we will look. Setting this to a low number gives the recent past more weight when calculating possible winners. Setting it to a higher number will allow more of the past to be considered.

You may be tempted to set it to a very low number, but this will probably cause the generated numbers to skew unnaturally toward very few numbers. Larger settings, around 50-100 if you have enough data, are recommended. If you would like to experiment with low settings, to give the recent past more weight, I suggest setting Looseness to a high number. This should allow the program to come up with much more realistic numbers.


Looseness:

Higher Looseness settings will cause the generated numbers of any method to tend toward randomness.

You may notice when playing with the various calculation systems that leaving Looseness set toward zero can cause the generated numbers to occasionally have odd number distribution characteristics. (Look at the generated numbers on the Number Distribution and Delta Distribution charts.) This happens because the computer is trying very hard to make the numbers exactly match the historical data, while not creating exactly the same combinations of lotto numbers as exists there, and this is not always possible.

The solution is to set Looseness to a small value away from zero, in most cases around 5-15 . This loosens the restraints on the computer so that it does not have to match the historical distribution targets exactly, resulting in generated numbers which are much more natural.

Higher settings will give you a system which is a cross between the chosen method and pure random numbers. In some cases, you may find this useful.


Filter:

The filter is designed to create unique opportunities to perform testing and research with your historical data. When you enter a winning number into the game database, you are given an opportunity to include the drawing date and any other information that you think useful. If you move the horizontal scrollbar on the historical numbers window, you will see that this information is stored to the right of the lotto number, just past the colon. Likewise, when using the Import function - which enables you to add numbers found on the internet to your data - the original data, which may contain dates and other information, is stored in the same way. This extra data is what the filter function examines.

Using the filter, you can "zero in" on only that data you wish to see, and use only those particular drawing dates when calculating your picks. The best way to illustrate is with an example. Here's part of the number history file from the former Multistate Big Game:

04 09 26 30 31 ( 04 ) [ 04 05 17 04 01 ] : Fri. Sep. 1, 2000 4, 9, 26, 30, 31,Bonus 4
31 39 43 45 48 ( 28 ) [ 31 08 04 02 03 ] : Tue. Sep. 5, 2000 31, 39, 43, 45, 48,Bonus 28
10 12 20 33 40 ( 30 ) [ 10 02 08 13 07 ] : Fri. Sep. 8, 2000 10, 12, 20, 33, 40,Bonus 30
04 11 18 27 38 ( 23 ) [ 04 07 07 09 11 ] : Tue. Sep. 12, 2000 4, 11, 18, 27, 38,Bonus 23
02 06 10 26 39 ( 03 ) [ 02 04 04 16 13 ] : Fri. Sep. 15, 2000 2, 6, 10, 26, 39,Bonus 3
08 10 28 34 35 ( 17 ) [ 08 02 18 06 01 ] : Tue. Sep. 19, 2000 8, 10, 28, 34, 35,Bonus 17
06 11 26 28 36 ( 06 ) [ 06 05 15 02 08 ] : Fri. Sep. 22, 2000 6, 11, 26, 28, 36,Bonus 6
02 13 31 41 44 ( 03 ) [ 02 11 18 10 03 ] : Tue. Sep. 26, 2000 2, 13, 31, 41, 44,Bonus 3
08 10 30 32 40 ( 18 ) [ 08 02 20 02 08 ] : Fri. Sep. 29, 2000 8, 10, 30, 32, 40,Bonus 18
16 25 32 33 40 ( 04 ) [ 16 09 07 01 07 ] : Tue. Oct. 3, 2000 16, 25, 32, 33, 40,Bonus 4
12 17 36 38 44 ( 16 ) [ 12 05 19 02 06 ] : Fri. Oct. 6, 2000 12, 17, 36, 38, 44,Bonus 16
05 23 29 30 39 ( 08 ) [ 05 18 06 01 09 ] : Tue. Oct. 10, 2000 5, 23, 29, 30, 39,Bonus 8
02 13 20 39 43 ( 31 ) [ 02 11 07 19 04 ] : Fri. Oct. 13, 2000 2, 13, 20, 39, 43,Bonus 31
09 16 41 43 48 ( 02 ) [ 09 07 25 02 05 ] : Tue. Oct. 17, 2000 9, 16, 41, 43, 48,Bonus 2
30 36 37 42 46 ( 04 ) [ 30 06 01 05 04 ] : Fri. Oct. 20, 2000 30, 36, 37, 42, 46,Bonus 4

Each line contains the winning lotto number, (powerball), and [delta number], followed by a colon and then the original text that came from the Multistate Lotto website. I can use the filter on this ORIGINAL TEXT in several interesting ways. Let's say that I wanted to see only drawings that happened on Friday: I would type Fri. into the filter window. (press ENTER or Click with the mouse somewhere outside the filter window after typing it, to cause the filter to execute.) Here's what appears in the history window:

04 09 26 30 31 ( 04 ) [ 04 05 17 04 01 ] : Fri. Sep. 1, 2000 4, 9, 26, 30, 31,Bonus 4
10 12 20 33 40 ( 30 ) [ 10 02 08 13 07 ] : Fri. Sep. 8, 2000 10, 12, 20, 33, 40,Bonus 30
02 06 10 26 39 ( 03 ) [ 02 04 04 16 13 ] : Fri. Sep. 15, 2000 2, 6, 10, 26, 39,Bonus 3
06 11 26 28 36 ( 06 ) [ 06 05 15 02 08 ] : Fri. Sep. 22, 2000 6, 11, 26, 28, 36,Bonus 6
08 10 30 32 40 ( 18 ) [ 08 02 20 02 08 ] : Fri. Sep. 29, 2000 8, 10, 30, 32, 40,Bonus 18
12 17 36 38 44 ( 16 ) [ 12 05 19 02 06 ] : Fri. Oct. 6, 2000 12, 17, 36, 38, 44,Bonus 16
02 13 20 39 43 ( 31 ) [ 02 11 07 19 04 ] : Fri. Oct. 13, 2000 2, 13, 20, 39, 43,Bonus 31
30 36 37 42 46 ( 04 ) [ 30 06 01 05 04 ] : Fri. Oct. 20, 2000 30, 36, 37, 42, 46,Bonus 4

The Tuesday drawings no longer appear - they aren't gone, you just don't see them. To again display all the data, just erase what you typed into the filter. When the filter is active, any analysis performed by Analysis Lotto takes place using only the filtered data. So the calculations performed by the program will be based on only the data you have chosen.

The operation of the filter is the same as described in the Import section. It's also very similar to the advanced search capabilities of many internet search engines, and will operate in a similar way. If you wanted to look at all Friday drawings except those in October, you could enter Fri. -Oct. into the filter box. All Friday drawings would be selected again, but the minus sign in front of the month entry would cause those lines containing "Oct." to be rejected.

Use quote marks to specify complete phrases to the filter, or when including spaces anywhere in the search term. You can also use the words (uppercase) AND and OR to join search terms. Note also that the filter is case-sensitive, and will only match to the exact combination of upper-lowercase letters you have entered.

The Delta Calculator Box! --->


Tutorials are available on the Delta Lotto DVD now at a great price!