4 ms·
A large swath of the finance industry (especially trading) is concerned with optimal speed, not outlier edge cases. They would rather ignore pathological cases
by tcbawo 10y ago
A large swath of the finance industry (especially trading) is concerned with optimal speed, not outlier edge cases. They would rather ignore pathological cases like the Zimbabwean currency than sacrifice performance.
- user5994461 10y agoDisagree with that. Overflows and rounding errors are not to be taken lightly.
- tcbawo 10y agoOf course overflow and rounding error must be accounted for in your data type. Exchanges have price boundaries, price quanta, or risk boundaries that would guide this decision. My point is that you would not rule out a data type for trading based on an obscure currency like the Zimbabwean dollar.
- smitherfield 10y agoThere are more commonly-traded currencies, such as the Russian ruble and the old Brazilian cruzeiro, that have had hyperinflation in the recent past. But you certainly could have a fast path for stable currencies that are very unlikely to hyperinflate (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY).