Fall Waxing Harvest Moon
First communication back from Mark in Saudi Arabia. He says he hasn’t set up his computer yet and that the school seems to have a good connection. He mentions the school is in Ha’il*. Guess that’s where he is now. So far that’s all I know.
Met with the Woolly’s last night at our once and forever location: the Black Forest. Tom Crane, Mark Odegard, Frank Broderick, Scott Simpson and Warren Wolfe showed up. We went around the table, catching each other up on this and that. Mark’s leaving. Our cruise. Tom and Roxann’s trip to Florida. Mark O’s knee. Warren’s upcoming article on Medicare.
Scott and I talked about something called latency trading. Here’s an article that explains some of it. The part it doesn’t explain is the drive, now well established, to position large supercomputer networks as close as physically possible to stock exchanges around the world. Why? To capture the millisecond advantage in data transmission that results from close proximity to the data feed itself. Each millisecond can mean tens of millions of dollars in trading advantage. According to Scott, physical proximity can yield as much as a 3 millisecond advantage. Do the math.
On the drive home, the half Autumn moon hung in the night sky. The moon roof was open and stars shone down through it. The air was mild, with just that hint of fall. Perfect.
*Ha’il (Arabic: حائل Ḥā’il), also spelled Hail, Ha’yel, or Hayil, is an oasis city in Nejd in northwestern Saudi Arabia. It is the capital of the Ha’il Province. The city has a population of 356,876 according to Ha’il Province.
Ha’il is largely agricultural, with significant grain, date, and fruit production. A large percentage of the kingdom’s wheat production comes from Ha’il Province, where the area to the northeast, 60 km to 100 km away, consists of irrigated gardens. Traditionally Ha’il derived its wealth from being on the camel caravan route of the Hajj. Ha’il is well known by the generosity of its people in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world as it is the place where Hatim al-Tai lived.