1. A method of processing high-volume continuous streams of data, said method comprising: receiving a query comprising query data and operator semantics, said query representing a request for data; translating the received query into a plurality of stream algebra operators; defining an execution plan representing a data flow implemented by the stream algebra operators; receiving a first event from a high-volume continuous data stream while maintaining minimal state information associated with the data; assigning an expiration time to the received first event as a function of the query data; receiving a plurality of second events from the data stream; executing one or more of the stream algebra operators according to the defined execution plan and as a function of the operator semantics from the received query to find a match between the received first event and at least one of the received plurality of second events prior to expiration of the first event based on the assigned expiration time associated with the first event wherein: if one of the second events does not match the first event, then continuing to wait until another second event is received; and if one of the second events matches the first event, then combining the first and second events to produce a third event; and executing the third event according to the execution plan.