Kind of funny. Computer nerds will instantly spot the (bit) reason for the limitation in $$ amount.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/buffetts-refusal-split-berkshire-stock-cre...
What's interesting is they are still allowing 4 "cents" digits. I guess it's a holdover from the fraction days where stocks were "10 1/8". I'm pretty sure no broker lets you trade in anything less than a cent these days.
I wonder if their fix is to switch to 2 digit cents, or move to 64-bit systems and storage. My guess is the former would be infinitely easier, though you may lose some historical precision if you make the change retroactive.
If they go 2-digit cents, Buffett can grow to $42M a share... which should take a decade at least (depending on inflation levels). :-)
Intriguing! Of course that so-called "compact format" (in the article) is a 32-bit unsigned integer, capped at 2^32-1. While going to 64-bit integer is a very clean solution (not the only one), interpreting the 32-bit integer as having 3 decimal digits would also preserve exact one-eighths (0.125) and result in a new cap of 10x the current cap.
Hartmut W Sager - Tel +1-204-339-8331
On Fri, 7 May 2021 at 12:34, Trevor Cordes trevor@tecnopolis.ca wrote:
Kind of funny. Computer nerds will instantly spot the (bit) reason for the limitation in $$ amount.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/buffetts-refusal-split-berkshire-stock-cre...
What's interesting is they are still allowing 4 "cents" digits. I guess it's a holdover from the fraction days where stocks were "10 1/8". I'm pretty sure no broker lets you trade in anything less than a cent these days.
I wonder if their fix is to switch to 2 digit cents, or move to 64-bit systems and storage. My guess is the former would be infinitely easier, though you may lose some historical precision if you make the change retroactive.
If they go 2-digit cents, Buffett can grow to $42M a share... which should take a decade at least (depending on inflation levels). :-) _______________________________________________ Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.ca https://muug.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
This is even more intriguing than I first thought below, as the following article shows:
https://thetchblog.com/2018/11/05/pricing-in-eighths/
It turns out that, before the U.S. exchanges were decimalized in 2000, there was already a prelude to a smaller increment, namely one-sixteenth dollar.
In 1997, the US Congress passed the “Common Cents Stock Pricing Act;”
later that year, trading in sixteenths began.
I love the pun (as in "common sense") in the name of the act, too!
So, my thought of going from 4 decimal places to 3 would prevent the retention of accurate records for 1997-2000, since 1/16 = 0.0625.
Hartmut W Sager - Tel +1-204-339-8331
On Sat, 8 May 2021 at 05:00, Hartmut W Sager hwsager@marityme.net wrote:
Intriguing! Of course that so-called "compact format" (in the article) is a 32-bit unsigned integer, capped at 2^32-1. While going to 64-bit integer is a very clean solution (not the only one), interpreting the 32-bit integer as having 3 decimal digits would also preserve exact one-eighths (0.125) and result in a new cap of 10x the current cap.
Hartmut W Sager - Tel +1-204-339-8331
On Fri, 7 May 2021 at 12:34, Trevor Cordes trevor@tecnopolis.ca wrote:
Kind of funny. Computer nerds will instantly spot the (bit) reason for the limitation in $$ amount.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/buffetts-refusal-split-berkshire-stock-cre...
What's interesting is they are still allowing 4 "cents" digits. I guess it's a holdover from the fraction days where stocks were "10 1/8". I'm pretty sure no broker lets you trade in anything less than a cent these days.
I wonder if their fix is to switch to 2 digit cents, or move to 64-bit systems and storage. My guess is the former would be infinitely easier, though you may lose some historical precision if you make the change retroactive.
If they go 2-digit cents, Buffett can grow to $42M a share... which should take a decade at least (depending on inflation levels). :-) _______________________________________________ Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.ca https://muug.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
-
Hartmut W Sager -
Trevor Cordes