Predicting financial markets is more of a gamble than traditional economists will admit, and making sense of such numbers is more like trying to decipher noise blasting from a loudspeaker, says Professor Joseph McCauley, a UH econophysicist. He leads one of the world’s most preeminent groups of its kind. The team’s main discovery is that financial markets are unstable. Rounding out the group are Kevin Bassler, associate professor of physics; Gemunu Gunaratne, professor and associate chair of physics; and George Reiter, professor of physics. Applying their models and methods to solve problems in economics, they contend markets are made up of “noise”—using techniques developed in physics to challenge the belief in economics that market statistics have structure and tend toward equilibrium. Addressing the randomness, the econophysicists say markets do not exhibit symmetry and normal distribution, but instead are more like radio static, with stock prices continually moving up and down in ways that puzzle standard statisticians. UH has one of only a handful of Ph.D. programs worldwide that has an econophysics specialization.