Hacker News Reader

Comment by fnord77 | Hacker News Reader

it's funny - in the banking world, at least with bonds, 'M' is 1000 and 'MM' is 1 million

then you have fox news who uses "G" for 1000, as in 1 grand.

That is sad. We have standards like SI units to help us communicate. Something as wide and non-specialized as Fox News should be using common standards.

Fox News literally had a segment where Tucker Carlson and a guest ranted about how the metric system is a tyrannical globalist plot. I don't think they're interested in such standards.

Is there a better way to signal that you've never worked with your hands?

The way M is used so inconsistently always means I have to stop and ponder the context when I read it.

I do not think the convention of using multiple Ms makes sense anymore in a world of billions and trillions. No reason to use MMM or MMMM instead of k, M, B, T, and eventually Q.

The usage of G is just regrettable, although I guess there is a population that does not associate k with thousand. But that’s more of an indictment in lack of adequate education that they would not have experience with sufficient science courses.

Why is G regrettable? Would you prefer they use K? Or would M be better?

I personally find G for grand to make a lot of sense when talking about money. K doesn't make sense because no one says kilodollars. And M is too easily confused for million.

k is short for kilo, the SI prefix for 1,000. It makes sense that anything with prefix k or kilo is 1,000 of that, and it’s known globally. Grand is American English slang.

Also, the dollar sign prefix tells you you’re talking about money. And M is for million.

Fox is an American company is it not? It makes sense to use American slang if you're target market is America.

How about 't.' for thousand?

That would be confusing with T for trillion.

Not sure of the history of the Ms, but it could come from French: 1000 = mille 10e6 = million 10e9 = millard

Mille is originally latin though. Thats probably where the econ people use it from. (Though milliard is French)

B is ambiguous. G isn't.

Billion is the only commonly used quantity that starts with B. Grand is slang, that may not be known to non Native American English speakers.

There are two values for billion.

I think you'd have a bad time in equities if you were to use M for a thousand. K is a bit less ambiguous.

Not G, it should be k, of course. For a multiple of 1024.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com