Sunday, December 4, 2011

Mainframe programmers wanted

Looks like my investment in JCL may just pay off yet.


Mainframes have relied on Cobol and assembler as their programming languages. But these days, not a lot of people are teaching these languages or mainframe management, Semerjian says. Meanwhile, today's university students are preoccupied with learning newer technologies such as .Net and Java. "Despite the fact that [mainframe] apps are core to so many large businesses, to newer programmers there's not as much sizzle in learning mainframe programming," Vallely says.

Hacker's Delight

Everyone's favorite book of programming tricks! Or at least I think it will be mine, when I get around to buying a copy. The sample sections do look excellent though.

NYSE and sub-penny


In October, the two NYSE Euronext exchanges asked the SEC for permission to set up a special program intended to make the NYSE a more competitive destination for retail orders. The service would compete with those of brokers that internalize retail orders, such as wholesalers like Knight. The NYSE is also positioning the service to attract flow from those internalizers.

. . . .

Joyce is not the only executive of a wholesaler to view the NYSE's proposal with skepticism. Jeff Martin, president of ATD/Citi, found fault with the idea of letting a market maker's hidden order take precedence over a displayed quote.


Unless I'm missing something, a market maker's hidden order already takes precedence over a displayed quote, if that market maker is the retail client's broker. So basically, this opposition amounts to the privileged few not wanting to share.