I don't have any post-high school advanced math training/education, and I'm struggling to accurately describe the problem, so I'm hoping someone here has some ideas, can point me in the right direction, or at least help me quantify the problem a bit more :)
The problem in a nutshell I've got is: is there a general mathematical way to account for a pool of X numbers taken from a sorted set of more than X numbers, where sometimes the X numbers are taken from the start of the set, but sometimes from the end of the set (when it's usually taken from the start, but apparently no discernable pattern as to when it's taken from the end)?
To elaborate a bit, I've been playing with the draw results for a local lottery, basically taking frequency and skip charts and plugging the numbers into various ratios and formulas, and seeing if any possibly predictive patterns emerge.
I'm still in the process of back-testing, but it seems I'm having some success with sorting the drawn numbers by a particular formula in descending order, and selecting a pool of X numbers from the sorted set, and having a good number of the drawn numbers from the next draw show up in that pool.
However, so far I've encountered a relatively major issue in terms of coming up with a generalized formula/procedure; it looks like most of the time a consistent pool of drawn numbers (in the next draw) come from the start of this sorted set, but at times the next drawn numbers come from a pool of the same size at the end of the sorted set.
As I mentioned, I'm still back-testing, but at the moment there doesn't seem to be an apparent pattern as to when this "inversion" of results occurs - doesn't seem to happen with any regularity in terms of numbers of draws, and all of the other relationships between numbers look very similar between a "normal" draw and one that's "inverted".
So, just wondering if anyone has any ideas while I continue back-testing :)
Thanks!!