[Info-vax] Off-topic: NASDAQ

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 5/7/2021 9:07 PM, abrsvc wrote:
> On Friday, 7 May 2021 at 16:20:16 UTC-4, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> Is NASDAQ still using NonStop?
>>
>> Their IT got in the news today:
>>
>> https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/warren-buffett-broke-nasdaq-system-is-unable-to-record-high-berkshire-hathaway-share-price/ar-BB1gqX4w

> That article doesn't make sense unless the value is stored as the
> number of 1000ths of cents per share as an integer value.  In this
> case, the actual value would be displayed inserting the decimal point
> in the proper place.  This is one of the reasons that Cobol is still
> used in finance because of packed decimal where there is really no
> limit to the number of digits.

That is what they say in the article.

<quote>
This is explained because its algorithm saves stock prices as a 32-bit 
number, which takes up less memory and makes the software more efficient.

In this format, the highest possible number is 2 ^ 32 -1, or 
4,294,967,295, according to Gizmondo . But since Nasdaq records prices 
to four decimal places, the largest figure it can store is the one quoted.
</quote>

There are plenty of solutions. Even a 64 bit integer would have done it.

Arne

PS: I don't think Cobol BCD size is unlimited - just more than big
     enough for this case.