Tuesday, July 28, 2009

An insight to how the big boys play

Interesting read about how the world of High Frequency Trades operate. It sounds like it there's a lot of megabucks and serious computing power involved in major transactions around the world.

No wonder the small fries don't really stand a chance. We get overpowered, overclocked and even played by the big fishes. Sometimes in ways we don't even know. Caveat Emptor I guess.

But that might be changing with the recent introduction to stop "flash trading" or the esp-ish read supercomputers get on the markets due to them piggy backing on the stock exchange servers. We'll see how it goes but it feels good to even the playing field a little.

In a separate note, you always hear stories of how companies do not put enough thought in the naming of their products when selling them in foriegn markets. I recently had to deal with a company called Process Combustion Controls. A pretty innocous name by most standards but the moment I read their name I started snickering. It's pretty unprofessional but funny. Guys and masturbatory references always seem to get along well.

The funniest thing was, after I mentioned this to my colleague, he said that the name was appropos, since they were "a bunch of jerk-offs."

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Harry Potter

I'm no big fan of Harry Potter. I've only read 1 book and watched the first 2-3 movies. But this is kinda funny. Hermione isn't hot enough though. Though I think they got Harry spot on.