Mar

28

Tenths, from George Zachar

March 28, 2007 |

I just noticed that on CNBC they have a countdown to Bernanke's testimony incremented in tenths of a second.

Is this a new feature or have I just been unaware?

Scott Brooks remarks:

In a game situation, especially in basketball, tenths of seconds make a huge difference.

When I was playing we had clocks that measured only full seconds. When we had an inbounds pass with one second on the clock the question was always, "Do we have a long second or a short second?"

The difference between 1.5 seconds and 0.5 seconds was huge. It meant the difference between a rushed shot (almost having to push the ball toward the basket as soon as it hit your hand) and being able to make a quick deceptive move (maybe a fake step left, the fadeaway jumper to the right).

Unfortunately, in the markets, you can't stop the clock.

Mike Ott adds:

The clock in NCAA tournament games measures seconds. After it drops below one minute, the clock measures tenths of seconds. There is no difference, but time seems to go by faster because you have numbers spinning away faster than you can read them. It certainly works to increase my excitement, even in a relatively boring game. 


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  1. Ronald Weber on March 29, 2007 2:39 am

    It’s an optical illusion, it gives a sens of urgency and drama to the markets. But the reality is different: the best performance are usually achieved over very long periods of time and most of the returns are generated overnight while you’re sleeping !

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