Patterns in the Dark offers an entirely new perspective on an issue of ongoing concern to investors: the unpredictability of financial markets. In this work, leading investment strategist and authority of chaos theory Edgar Peters makes accessible ways of understanding market behavior that - until now - were known only to specialists. Peters explains how processes with a large number of independent agents, such as free markets, can spontaneously organize themselves into a coherent system. He draws on the work of the Austrian school of economics and complexity theory to show how free markets are by their nature continually evolving complex systems that require uncertainty to operate successfully. Peters illuminates the complex operation of the marketplace by including keen observations drawn from science, mathematics, and artistic creation as well as economics. His models include the social vision of the Austrian economists, Darwinian ideas of evolution, the laws of physics, and the creative risks of the artist. His meditations on financial markets weigh the effects of limitations vs. rules, risk vs. uncertainty, and order vs. chaos.