> -----Original Message-----
> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Rick Fochtman
>
> ---------------------------------<snip>-----------------------------
>
> >It's hardly unusual to have fractional cents in calculations, which
> >are rounded to the nearest cent only for the final, billable number.
> >Doubtless the most common thing - but a very common thing indeed -
> >priced in small fractions of cents is telephone minutes. Lots of
> >carriers will have a price of e.g. 1.63 cents (i.e. $0.0163) per
> >minute to call a particular country. There's big trouble if the
> >numbers are smoothed over too early.
> >
> >
> -----------------------------<unsnip>----------------------------
> Agricultural commodities and futures are priced in dollars, cents and
> eighths of cents. As an example, corn could be priced a $5.40 3/8 per
> bushel. In this instance, the unit traded is a contract of 5,000
> bushels, so rounding becomes a non-issue. But precision is VERY
> important because you're shifting vast amounts of money between bank
> accounts during the trading day. At one time, CBOT was moving enough
> money around to pay the National Debt every week!
That must have been before the national debt grew to 95% of GDP. :-(
-jc-
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