Friday 31 October 2014

Low latency trading - an interesting reaction.

I occasionally comment on a LinkedIn forum which has automated wholesale financial trading as its primary focus. My background comes from this arena of developing and supporting real-time trading systems and market data distribution systems.

One discussion topic raised was whether low latency trading has a long term future. Essentially this technique works by recognising market conditions, such as arbitrage opportunities, and creating almost instantaneous trades before your competition spots the opportunity. If the principal sums involved are sufficiently large it is possible to make a healthy profit.

I added a comment to the effect: "Low latency is irrelevant in investment, but important in trading." I'm firmly of the opinion that true investment needs careful research and consideration before any investment decisions are made. Trading can be very different, often just speculation.

I noticed that shortly after posting that comment my LinkedIn profile had been visited by forum moderator. I wonder if I touched a nerve somewhere in the Trading community?!

Wednesday 29 October 2014

Corruption of a Brand Name

My son bought me a pair of "mountain boots" from the UK store called Millets. The brand name of the boots is "The North Face" and they were made in China. These boots were not cheap; costing around 150 GBP retail, yet have been poorly constructed. The rubber rand on the sides of the boots at the position of the ball of the foot has developed a long vertical crack(s) at both sides of each boot. This not fair wear and tear, I've had several pairs of good boots which have lasted  several times as long. When I check inside the boot I find no leather underneath that part of the rand. "The North Face" used to be a respected brand, but manufacturers/retailers trying to maximise their profits have ruined it. 

I'd go as far as saying that I regard the boots as fundamentally unsafe for use on the mountains. They are just okay for street walking, provided there's no rain or you'd end up with wet feet.



In the lower picture you can see where two crack met to form a triangular flap. If you look behind the flap there appear to be no sign of leather, just cloth, In a properly made boot the leather should extend down to the welt.


Friday 10 October 2014

Is Google Docs feeling the strain?

We've used Google Docs in conjunction with Chromebooks to provide a low cost office environment. Google seem to keep changing the name at one point they called it Business Apps. There is a free version which has good functionality, but we've elected for the paid version to gain access to the Google Management facilities. At approx. £3 per person per month it is not exactly a massive spend.

However we have been noticing that loading documents from the system has become somewhat erratic and unreliable of late. We often see the spinning circle on the browser tab, then after about one minute's delay we're told there was a browser error and we should "refresh". Then the cycle repeats and eventually the document will load.  It is not the reliable service we'd come to expect from Google.

Their performance page does not appear to reflect these problems.

At quiet times of the day (6 am London time) there are no problems with these delays and we do have a fast Internet connection.  I'd expect these types of problems from Microsoft, but not Google. Currently I'm taking Google Docs off the recommended list. Given it is an underlying foundation of the Chromebook concept I'm not a happy bunny.

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Electrifying against terrorists

We're awaiting delivery of the components for a 150 metres electric fence. After a lot of research we've decided to go for a six strand fence running at 9000 volts. The energiser will deliver a 3 Joule shock. It needs to to be that powerful because some of the potential intruders resort to insulation to protect themselves. If we were protecting against a herd of elephants  it would only be 4000 volts. 

Government legislation requires we identify the electric fence by warning signs, but we don't necessarily have to use a notices in the first language of the intruders. It will need new permanent fence posts installed, stringing galvanised braided steel wire, wire tensioning, myriad insulators carefully placed and trimming back of stray vegetation to prevent shorting of the current. We'll also install a comprehensive electrical grounding scheme both through the earth and also on selected wires to ensure the electric shock load is delivered to an unwary invader.

We had a break-in last winter through an insecure fence at our remote site. After a ram raid the intruders did a lot of damage, but once we were alerted we were able to drive them away from our property. We restored the fences and it kept the intruders at bay.  The local police were not interested. The electric fence will present an additional layer of security and deterrence to keep these cunning intruders at bay. The intruders are of course sheep from a neighbouring field trying to raid our orchard when our winter grass looks more attractive than their field. 

The fence will protect our investment in recently planted fruit trees and also a hedge recently relayed in a the traditional manner (expensive). Protecting the hedge for a couple of years will allow it to regrow the natural defence of sharp thorns and intertwined branches.

The set-up cost, excluding labour, is only £5/metre or approx $3/foot of fence. Extending the fence costs less than £1 a metre. Planning the installation was quite a useful refresher course on planning for security situations where deterrence is required for human intruders.