Hello and welcome to the war economy and state podcast. This is a new podcast here from the Mises Institute I'm Ryan McMacon. I'm a senior editor with the Mises Institute and joining me today And who will be my regular co-host is? Zachary Yoast and I know Zachary from Mises University and from the Mises Institute He's done policy work on foreign policy in Washington and is recently a 2021 Marcellus policy fellow at the John Quincy Adams Society and so we'll just be getting here together For this podcast about every month to discuss geopolitical issues. So these involve war Foreign policy in general the State Department, but also things like immigration Free trade maybe even things like water and resource usage and the importance of the location of mountain ranges and anything that might really be Relevant to how states view their local environment and how they would seek to maximize power So we'll be discussing a lot about the state the nature of the state and how this relates to States view of themselves in relation to other states and their borders and the people in other states in their own state. So this is Not not really going to focus on domestic policy at all except as how it relates to geopolitical issues and So that's just to give you an idea of what this new podcast is all about and so Zach Thanks for joining me today. Thanks so much for having me on. I'm pretty excited I think we're gonna learn a lot and talk a lot about interesting things over our episodes Well, I thought we would just start out with a fairly easy topic that being NATO Which these days is in the news a lot because Sweden and Finland have said they want to join NATO and this has a real fun wrinkle in it because Turkey has announced it is Opposed to it just to set up the issue then We've got NATO the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That's basically a A common defense league of sorts that's existed since 1949 but what a lot of people don't know about it is That it doesn't include all European countries or even all Western European countries There have long been parts of Europe that have declared themselves to be neutral and this includes Austria of course, Switzerland, but also Sweden and Finland and it includes some countries that you wouldn't expect to be part of what is often generally seen as a European group which specifically is Turkey and So this has been a source of some conflict over the years, but it hasn't really been anything critically problematic But now that Sweden and Finland in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine have said they want to join NATO And Turkey has has said no We're going to veto that because members have a veto. It has to apparently be unanimous for approval of new members and Turkey's opposed and this this is very interesting. I did not see this coming at Zach so What tells a little bit about the demands Turkey's making I mean what what does this mean? Is this likely to make any real difference? Will Sweden and Finland really be kept out? Or is this just a negotiating tactic is does this spell trouble for the future of NATO? What do you think? Yeah, so I also was not expecting Turkey to object and ultimately I don't think they'll really hold things up in the end. I think it's just a tactic to basically get a bribe From potentially other NATO members, but also Finland and Sweden specifically Erdogans gripes are one both countries Have sanctioned Turkey Because of things related to the Syrian Civil War, I believe and also both countries Are sort of have people who are friendly to I believe it's called the pkk, which is this Kurdish political group that Turkey considers terrorists and also blames that coup that happened a few years ago on So if I'm not really sure what to expect Erdogan flat-out said like don't bother trying to come here to convince us to let you in but I suspect that's just a Negotiating tactic on the other hand it is kind of hard to imagine Sweden extra-diting Kurds to you know be tortured in a Turkish prison somewhere but Something I suspect will be worked out Eventually, but what exactly I'm not sure. Well another thing I saw suggested about what Turkey should maybe negotiate about is full membership in the EU Oh, yeah, because if you've been around a while you might remember that I don't know maybe was 10 years ago That Turkey was really making and putting on a press to get Into the EU as a full member and I think back then even the Pope came out against it And a lot of these Europeans are like look Turkey is not really a European Country the EU is really sort of a Christian civilization thing some people were just outright saying that and Turkey was like fine Whatever you don't want to you don't want us in EU. Well, we don't like you either And so that was a source of of some problems and now think about adding insult to injury, right? You got Turkey, which is a pretty big important country and You've got at the same time EU is now saying oh, we should get you we should fast-track Ukrainian Membership in the EU and you create is the backwater of backwaters, right? It has a very contrary to what the Russians in the American Regimes think I do not think Ukraine holds the key to geopolitical power in the world But it's what's not nothing but this idea that this really dirt poor country that has a GDP half the size of Russians GDP per capita Should be fast-tracked into the EU is quite remarkable from I think the standpoint of Turkey if you're sitting there Looking at this given the importance of a country of a city like Istanbul to Europe overall So again just another big insult to the Turks and I mean This talk of fast-tracking Moldova as well, which is I think the poorest state it in Backwater of a backwater of a backwater. I mean, yeah, they suddenly ran. Well, yeah Joseph Solis Mullen who writes articles for Mises.org that's MISES.org by the way If you're listening would like to get more content similar to what you're hearing right now But Joseph who writes a lot of foreign policy We were joking around and saying that's it won't be long before we start to see articles in the Washington Post about How important it is to protect the democracy in Moldova and in Transnistria and how these places are key partners in Western defense. I mean suddenly these places that nobody ever heard of six months ago are Absolutely central to the discussion in Washington. And so I think Turkey looks at that and And they they think what what a joke, right? I mean really and I was as I mentioned earlier I just to make sure I wasn't throwing out bad dates I went back and checked when Turkey joined NATO and it was way back in 1952 what they first initial I think 12 members joining in 1949 and then you had some members joined soon after that in the early 50s And Turkey was among those and that was really quite a coup I would think for for NATO right because really if you get Turkey in there you're really constraining the Soviets in Their power in terms of the Eastern Mediterranean because like you know your your clothes you can close off the Dardanelles and There's not this free travel between the Black Sea and The Aegean Sea which I guess if the Russians had free movement there that would be a pretty big deal, but Turkey's been a problem all along right it was caught after the Cuban Missile Crisis It that it turns out a big motivation for the Soviets in that was because the Americans were keeping nukes in Turkey which was just too close to the Soviets really back then bordered the Soviet Union directly in the Caucasus and So it's just been a constant headache Yeah, I mean Turkey I can't even remember how many coups it's had much more than any other European state in the past hundred years which I mean the U.S. Yeah, it had missiles in Turkey that were kind of part of the deal for the Cuban Missile Crisis But even after that we still to this day we have tactical nuclear weapons stationed at a base in Turkey And people have questioned the wisdom of that especially when there was a coup I think that was in 2016 what an attempted coup that one failed, but Yeah, it definitely has a strategic position especially in regards to then the Soviet Union and now Russia I mean it has closed the Dardanelles to any To the the inflow of any warships to the Black Sea so I mean it and it also has an advanced drone program which it's been selling to Ukraine and Turkish drones also played a large role in the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan back in 2020. I think it was so they They have one of the most substantial Non-U.S. military's in NATO, so they're not they're not nothing Well, yeah, some smart person. I was ready and once said that if Turkey had oil It would be basically a world power that I mean given its Given its physical position the size of its military Its neighbors if it was just if it just had an easy source of cash It would like the Saudis right it would be it would be this continent straddling world power I right between Asia and Europe and it would be a big important thing that would essentially control the eastern Mediterranean But as it is they've never really embraced markets. They've never really understood that whole Western economic thing similar to the Russians in many ways who have had many chances to get rich and squander it each time And they're just they're just still economically a backwater But how would you describe?  They say they have a complex relationship, right? I think a little bit of the relationship between the Russians and the Turks as a complex Relationship it because it seems that no matter what happens Moscow's always making overtures to Ankara and they're they're having negotiations and I guess Turkey's now attempting to somehow facilitate peace talks, even though that's not going well between the Russians and the Ukrainians I mean what what aspects of is the reason to believe that Turkey could really be pulled further away From NATO somehow. I mean I couldn't expect that the Turks would give up that position no matter what but maybe they they can be really good at at playing both sides and getting constant concessions from both the Russians and From NATO countries, I don't know. What do you think of that? That seems definitely in the realm of possibility, especially in the past few years Turkey has been more assertive It's all run together now, so I can't remember if it's in 2020 or 2021 there was a kerfuffle in the eastern Mediterranean over disputed basically mineral and gas and oil rights out at sea and the Russians had some kind of like oil exploratory vessel and I think the French Navy was actually deployed kind of to be like Get out of here Can't remember if it was in Cyprus's territorial waters or I think it was a combination of Greek and Israel and Cypriot claims and things like that and There's just there has been some writing over the past few years that Turkey's becoming more assertive and that Erdogan has his own kind of Civilizational vision for Turkey. I should have looked it up beforehand. I'm curious what Turkey's Birth rate is if they're above replacement rate Which could be quite a long-term advantage for them compared to the rest of Europe but like Erdogan Declared that the Hagia Sophia was no longer going to be a Museum it was going to be a mosque again Just this kind of idea of we're Turkey. We have this Turkish identity and We're going to be more assertive. So as the West There's like places like France and Germany have come under fire for trying to be too conciliatory towards Russia before attacking Macron for Apparently suggesting to Zelensky that Ukraine just needs to make some territorial concessions to the Russians so the war can end and Putin won't lose face and all these people were angry like okay Yeah, what parts of France are we going to give to Russia and things like that? So it's a completely different attitude from what Eastern European countries think about the situation So it's very possible that you know, France and Germany will be willing to make deals with Turkey that Eastern European countries might not like and That Western European countries will be more willing to tolerate Turkey Making deals with Russia as well. I would say Yeah, because there's not there's not I imagine There's no method certainly nothing that's been tried to expel NATO members And yeah, not not that I know of Yeah, I don't think anyone's actually tried to take kick Turkey or anyone else out not that not that comes to mind But then just the very existence in nature of Turkey I think calls into question just the whole structure of NATO and how it's grown too large and too diverse This has been a discussion right among Rothbard and Lou Rockwell has talked a little bit about it at Mises.org is the issue of these collective security Organizations right and you can see the benefit of a collective security organization obviously right the US began back in the 1770s is essentially a collective defense organization against the British and they tacked a customs union on top of that but really these are supposed to be sovereign countries working together for defense and They didn't invent that idea and So why not have that among Western European countries where they're they're right next to each other. They have very similar views Maybe even in some cases you could see any sort of group of countries that had maybe all in a language in common Should perhaps join together or at least similar languages and so on but when you start to get really big as The case with NATO right where you've got so now you've got countries from Latvia to For to California Right, you got the West the Western side of North America's in the same defense union as the far Eastern reaches of Eastern Europe in some cases the Russian border that That that seems a little harder to manage so you've got all these countries with very different geopolitical concerns and The the Turkish situation just makes you wonder and I think Papua canon always just ask these rhetorical questions, right? Will Americans how many Americans will be required to die for Finland if Finland joins NATO and gets into some sort of Conflict with Russia, but of course one good question has long been how many Americans will be asked to die for Turkey If Turkey gets into some sort of conflict and it doesn't have to be just Russia by the way Article 5 could apply to any country that attacks a NATO country and I believe that article 5 The only time it's actually been formally invoked was after 9 11 Was when the US the US decided to invoke and say hey, we've been attacked so now all of our NATO members have to help Yes, that's correct and on our article 5. I have read some takes that That it could be Understood in a different way If Turkey actually causes too much trouble Well, it tells us real quick for the people listening at home. Well, what article 5 says. Oh, yeah So article 5 is generally people just think article 5. It's a collective Collective defense an attack on one member is an attack on all members of the alliance And people usually think oh automatically Every NATO member has to declare war on whoever attacked whoever But there is wiggle room there and I recently looked it up because of Because of the talk of further NATO expansion There is the legal argument that the Being a member of NATO Signatory of the NATO Treaty to just not give the president the unilateral authority to declare war that The legislator didn't delegate its power to the president In regards because we joined NATO that technically That still have to be a declaration of war from congress For the us to enter into war. I mean I doubt that would even happen if article 5 was invoked But regarding turkey there's just there's talk that That could people might be a little more like oh, you know uh, we have the wiggle room to aid turkey in Whatever way we see fit as is within our constitutional processes um, so Uh, it's possible that turkey could be well. I mean in the long run that could be good for the u.s No matter how it's how that kind of change in the norm could be introduced but um uh Short of kicking turkey out. I would say that's The most that might be done To punish them in going forward well You bring up the issue of offering aid right without actually entering a war And that of course brings us to the ukraine situation Uh, which raises an important issue in terms of is the united states really required As a part of nato anymore, right? So of course nato was found as an anti-soviet organization, right and and then You had the warsaw pact spring up And so this idea was you had these two common defense blocks that we're going to fight each other if necessary Basically guaranteeing world war three if one warsaw pack country got into a conflict with one nato country and this of course was always the problem that Uh people like lou rockwell bring up in terms of these big common defense organizations You could have one country that's out there that has pretty different territorial realities and ideal ideologies and motivations And they could go out and actually Try and cultivate conflict With another country and then they end up dragging all these other con countries and if if those If those if that first country that that court's conflict ends up doing that with another major power Now you've got world war three on your hands between this huge nato block and then this other country That really only has a beef with country a That that tried to do the conflict and so you can see now why people then back to what you were just saying That people are now trying to think of well, maybe there's maybe there's a way that Article five doesn't require actually world war three by everybody That maybe we just pledge our support and we try and downplay the conflict somehow And that brings us to the ukraine situation, right? You're looking at ukraine And you're seeing russia's success there now I do think russia's doing better than the propaganda says which is that russia's Decimated and they'll they'll soon be completely out of it and they'll have to retreat with their tail between their legs Uh, I I have a hard time believing that russia's ever giving up mario poll at this point that I think that's permanently russian that The sea of azov is russian territory now that uh the water supply for Crimea which was key in A key part of seizing southern ukraine that's going to be seen as non-negotiable So I don't think russia's giving that stuff up and I think they'll be able to hold on to it Also, especially if they go through with these votes with the locals to decide whether they're going to join russia or not, but at the same time It's clear that this idea that we were supposed to believe early on that russia was going to come in and just occupy the whole country And then they were going to roll on to budapest and on to berlin from there and people were saying that right They were trying to get us to believe not only it was the domino theory discredited in the days of the soviets But they were trying to get us to believe a new version of it where the russians were going to roll through central europe Any day now? Well, that's obviously not going to happen They obviously have no ability to do that and russia's essentially been fought really quite well by just shipping arms to the ukranians And this has clearly been a problem for them Um enough to drive them completely out of ukraine perhaps not but they're clearly not a threat to the core of nato Or central europe or anything like that So the question is If russia was so easy to really counter by just shipping weapons And since it's so abundantly clear that russia does not have any ability to attack any country that's not right on its frontier Why is the united states need to be in this alliance to somehow counter russia? You've got countries like france nuclear armed by the way uk nuclear armed You've got germany which could become a nuclear country in a matter of weeks Uh a huge economy you take any two of these large european countries and you've got a whole you've got an economy That rivals that or exceeds that of russia and then if you take Half of nato and throw it together you've got a a economic alliance far far larger than russia So russia's this small player in terms of its gdp per capita in terms of its resources in terms of its military capability Just compared to russia you don't need the us in there So there are people out there saying to span nato and all that that's not necessary, right? Just just get the us out of nato.  I mean, obviously we get why the us wants why the us regime wants to be a nato, but from a military standpoint I mean can't can't europe really They've got lots of wealth and resources is is america really necessary to this equation Looking at this perceived need to counter russia at every turn Right so back Back back in the good old days Of the of the cold war This the saying was that nato's purpose is to keep the americans in Keep the soviets out and to keep the germans down So for sure the us elites want to stay in nato and because they get to have a lot of say on Of what what happens in western europe and also they can drag along european countries into whatever Misadventure usually in the middle east right now that we get ourselves into Part of the issue is that the european countries have been free riding On the us for so long In march kind of right i can't remember if it was Said right before the invasion or right when the invasion started Kind of like the head of the german military the bundswehr or however it said Said basically the the german army could not actually contribute to any nato combat operations it's and The the german government is like we're going to double our military spending We're going to get everything up to shape and in like 10 years They'll be up to snuff basically um So part of the issue is the europeans are so used to free riding on the us That to some degree They're not really prepared to take care of themselves not that i think that's america's problem And we see that there is some Good developments, uh, I think it happened right before the invasion or right right around when it started The polish government announced that they were Increasing military spending and that they were going to double the size of their military And from my perspective that makes perfect sense for a country with poland's history They're kind of terrible geographic position And you know right next to belarus, which is basically to some extent a russian puppet state Um, so it'd be nice if european countries took steps like that more, but they're not going to As long as the u.s. Is there to take care of them and we can see this in the The great disparity in the flow of military aid to ukraine when this 40 billion dollar bill Aid package gets the pass probably this week. Well when we're recording this Uh, us military aid, I believe will be about 57 billion dollars and the war started like three months ago I think that the military aid europe has sent to ukraine is a little over a billion dollars We don't live next to ukraine You know russia is not next door to us. It's next door to you poland. It's next door to you germany Why are we? Dumping all this money in. Um, so I think it's The us being in nato is a horrible deal For the us it's a great deal for us elites who get to you know pester and boss Badger europeans around into doing whatever we want. Well us elites want, but it's a horrible deal for uh american people who are Paying all this money in taxes that is subsidizing wealthy european states To no benefit to the american national interest our security is not improved Because we're already so secure Which I think is a key point the united states Is dominates the western hemisphere. There's no rival power in the western hemisphere And to the east we have the atlantic ocean To the west we have the pacific ocean And I think people I don't know if it's from video games or movies or what but people Have forgotten That it's it's a huge undertaking to cross large bodies of water just crossing the english channel for d-day was A massive huge undertaking if china were to try to attack taiwan. It's about 90 miles away It would be one of the largest undertakings Logistically in human history It's not like russia or china which have no distance power projection capabilities can just sail across the pacific and Attack We're so safe and secure nato is a bad deal for us and it'd be great if we could leave and maybe In 20 or 30 years we can get there when all of the people who think the cold war is still going on have retired, I guess but Yeah, it's a rotten deal Well, I look forward to the situation improving when i'm 78 years old. It's all it'll be great Well, we'll go ahead and wrap up with that for this episode of war economy and state Thank you. Zachary for joining me this time and we will be back in a few weeks for another episode We'll see you next time


This 2018 Ford F350 Crew Cab Short Box XLTFX4 is stock number 12253Z. We are here at Summit Automotive in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. You're new and used heavy-duty truck headquarters. This 2018 Ford F350 has the 6.2 liter V8 engine, which has 385 horsepower. This truck has been fully-safetyed and inspected by our service shop. It has a fresh oil and filter change, all the fluids have been checked and topped off. And this truck is 100% ready to go. Super clean all the way around, inside and out. I would highly recommend it from a quality and condition standpoint. Shadow Black is the color we shoot all of our videos in 1080p, 60 frames per second. So if you have HD capabilities on your computer, tablet, smartphone, or television, I would highly recommend turning the monitor right now because it is your best way to check out the quality, and condition, and options of the truck before seeing it in person. And if you like the video and want to subscribe to our YouTube channel, where we do videos like this one each and every day here at Summit Auto, in the lower right-hand part of the screen is a subscribe button. Click that, and then click the bell notifications. You'll get updates on the videos we do each and every day here at Summit Auto. This one comes with the 18-inch chromed alloy rims, and it has Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain adventure LT27570R18 tires. And these tires have right around, I'd say, 50% to 60% of the tread left. Frame and underbody is exceptionally clean on this truck. And the front fender is in great shape. I didn't see any dents or dings on there. Headlight lenses are nice and clear, and it does have the factory fog lights. Front bumper and lower valence, really nice condition as well. Get the chrome-trimmed grille. The hood is in very nice shape too. You get the clearance lights up top on the cab. And the passenger side front fender looks really good as well. Passenger side rim, no scuffs or scrapes. And as you go down this side of the truck, take note of how clean that body is, how reflective and mirror-like that paint is. This is exactly how this truck came to us. We basically ran it through our shop, gave it an oil change, made sure everything was working good, and gave it a quick wash here. I mean, this is how nice this truck came in. So you know it was kept really well maintained for its entire life. And down this side, very nice and clean. We take these HD videos, so if you are far away or even if you're close by and just can't make the trip down, you can still see the truck here, the truck end of confidence in the vehicle you're looking at before you even get here. Back tires have just as much tread as the front tires. So when you do get here, there's no surprises. And you can make a smart and informed buying decision. Frame and underbody, exceptionally clean on this truck. Has all the remaining factory exhaust and the lower rockers all look really good. Has the factory chrome step bars. Those are in nice shape. FX4 off-road suspension package. You get the chrome tipped exhaust. Rear bumper is in excellent shape. Backup parking sensors, full towing package, which includes a receiver hitch four pin and seven pin wiring. That tailgate is in very nice condition as well. Has the back of the camera there. And the bed looks like it's hardly ever been used. And very nice and clean. Tailgate shuts solidly. And as you go down the driver's side, just as clean as that passenger side, no dents or dings on the box. And for full disclosure, this back rim is in very nice shape as well. Rest of the side of the truck looks really good. It does have the door code entry. We have the door code for this truck. If you want to find out how to find your 17 to 21 Super Duty door code in the upper right hand part screen is a link to that video. We show you how to find yours. Heated mirrors, directional signals, LED side lights. These are power scopes, so they power fold in. They also power telescope out. Inside the XLT package gives you the gray cloth interior. There are no rips, there are no tears, there are no stains on the seats. Very nice and clean. It does have power driver's seat with lumbar factory floor mats throughout auto headlamps. That's for your LED side lights on those mirrors. Power pedals, telescopic steering wheel, power windows, power locks, power mirrors. These mirrors do power fold in. I always like showing both sides so that you know that both sides are working properly. And then they do power telescope out and in. Once again, both sides are working well. We'll hop inside, turn the ignition on, check out the miles and the radio and everything that this interior has to offer. You can see that this one has 15,207 miles on it. Digital speedometer, compass display, instrument cluster is very nice and clean. You get cruise and information center controls on the steering wheel. Bluetooth and audio controls on the right hand side of the steering wheel. Six speed automatic transmission with the optional tap shift. This one does have the factory navigation system on it on the sync eight inch radio. You have AM, FM, and I believe serious satellite radio capabilities on here. It also has a CD player. And then you can also do projection on this one with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. Project your cell phone to the screen. So if you have a different navigation system you like better such as Waze or Google Maps or just want to play music through the radio on your phone, you can do it that way. It's pretty cool. System stability control, downhill assist control, turned out four wheel drive factory brake controller. You do have heated seats in this truck, climate controls and radio controls. Down here there's two USBs, a 12 volt power point as well as a 110 volt four under watt plug-in dual glove boxes. And the passenger side format and seat are in excellent condition as well. No rips or tears on there. And the headliner is absolutely perfect on this truck. This truck has never been smoked in, smells very clean inside. And it does have six auxiliary up-fit switches right there. Map lights. And we'll check out the back seats and then we'll start it up and take a look under the hood. The back seats are just as clean as the front seats. No rips, no tears back here. It does have the latch child safety system. For any child car seats you may want to put back here. Fixed glass rear window with the built-in rear defrost. These headrests do fold down for better visibility when nobody's riding back here. And those seats are in excellent condition as is the carpeting and floor mats.  So if that seat was up a little bit more we could put that up fully. But then you can see it does fold down nice and flat. Back here you get two USBs, a 110 volt, 400 watt plug-in and then another 12 volt power point. We'll take a quick look under the hood and then we'll start it up. We'll start it up and then take a quick look under the hood. Child safety locks, bottoms of the doors all look really good. Starts right up. No check engine lights or anything like that. I would personally like to thank you for checking out the video today and hopefully from this HD video you will have been able to tell just how clean this truck is all the way around inside out, verify its condition and options. And under the hood we have the 6.2 liter V8 engine. 385 horsepower engine bay is very clean, runs very smooth. Once again this truck has been fully safe and inspected by our service shop as a fresh oil and filter change. All the fluids have been checked and topped off. And this truck is 100% ready to go.  There is your emission sticker and yeah this truck is 100% ready to go and I honestly would highly recommend this truck from a quality and condition standpoint. Just seeing it come in and seeing the condition it was in when we first got it just as nice as it is now. The owner definitely took very good care of this truck previously. And to see more pictures of this truck or one of other 450 new and used cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, Wranglers, half tons, three quarter tons, one tons you name it we got to go to that website right there www.summitauto.com Full pictures and descriptions of every single vehicle from two locations all at summitauto.com If you'd like to check out more HD videos you can go to youtube.com slash summitauto remember to like, subscribe and share on this video and all the videos that you see there click those bell notifications you'll get updates on the videos we do each and every day here at Summit Auto In fact any second you will see a link to subscribe to our YouTube channel the upper left a link to more F350 videos like this one the upper right a link to this vehicle on our website in the lower left and a link to one of our latest YouTube videos in the lower right click those check us out and we're super excited to help you with this ultra ultra clean 2018 Ford F350 Crew cab, short box, single rear wheel, XLT FX4 with nav and heated seats in shadow black clear coat thanks again for checking out the video


Hey, welcome back to VMworld 2013. This is theCUBE live in San Francisco, California, Muscle, South Lobby. This is theCUBE, our flagship program. We go out to the events. Extract the signal from the noise. I'm John Furrier, the founder of SiliconANG. I'm joined by co-host Dave Vellante at wikibon.org. Hi, everybody. We're going to talk Flash with Ken Groey. He's here from Virenit. He's a worldwide vice president of CustomerOps. Ken, welcome to theCUBE. Thank you for a long time. Watcher. Glad to be finally here. Great timing. Great timing. Thank you for everything that happens right here. Appreciate that. Yeah, so you're in a obviously smoking hot space. We've been talking about Flash all week. You saw the announcements of V-SAN from VMware. That's great news for you guys. And just give us the update on Virenit. You guys have really, we know Mike, saw Mike come on. All of a sudden things started happening and did the deal with Seagate. So what's the latest? Well, the crux is numbers speak more than anything. So I'm pleased to see that our company's grown 300% this year, which is a huge change. And I realize Flash is everything. If you walk the floor right now, and there's a lot of vibe, I think about 23,000 people across the show, I think almost 80% of the exhibitors are all around Flash. So the good news about Virenit, though, is we're really beginning to invest. We started generally availability of our FlashMax Connect software as of April. So there's a lot of talk about creating a Flash platform, but really we're really walking the walk now by having the product available, having our high availability software available, having our shareability software. So it's not just selling Flash for the performance aspects, Dave. It's really building and creating and leading a Flash platform transformation. And that's where we're going to get through. I think you've talked about prior questions about how do we get it to the enterprise space? So the web scale I think we all know is all PCI Flash-based, but how do we get to the brick-and-mortar enterprise space? And I think the familiarity of getting to a platform that looks like a sand, that feels like a sand, and has the data services of a sand, with albeit with the respect of the performance that microseconds that Flash, and only PCI Flash can provide from Verden. I think that's how you get to the enterprise accounts that everyone would like to see. Yeah, I mean, when you talk to the people in the labs, they tout your product as one of the best, if not the best out there, but so that Flash transformation, that's largely software-led. Absolutely, good catch. So talk about that a little bit. Well, it has to be software-led because at some point, basically if you, one of the troubles we have going through is do you want to buy a Flash array and some of the end-users might say where's PCI Flash makes more sense? Where it does make more sense is the heritage behind it. If you want to get close to the app and you want to be closer to the actual performance behind it, you want to get that performance, but you also want the familiarity so you can go back to the IT director, the sand administrator, and have the same type of data services or high availability that you might be accustomed to. So that kind of bridges the gap between the person who's representing or maybe being the database administrator, or maybe the application owner, or actually the people that are administrating the sand. So I mentioned the word transformation is I just didn't talk about how we're transforming the data center with Flash and getting a greener. I talk about how the people who manage the storage, how they need to be professionally transformed. I liken it to, we've been in the business for a while, I liken it to back when the first sands were sold. People were putting raid storage out there, but it wasn't until the transformation happened to sand and the IT professionals actually had to decide how you could have networking and actually have that available to everybody. That transformation's happening today, but with Flash, the building blocks PCI Flash, our company's uniquely equipped to actually bring out, for lack of a better word, a Veritas-like what they do on a sand basis, but actually have the high availability software, the shareability software actually in place so people can have the comfort and the familiarity with the actual sand in place and have the speed as far as PCI Flash. Ken, talk about the dynamic in the marketplace. I always talk to tele-entrepreneurs this, you get in the market as you're an entrepreneur, you build a company, you got to get on the field. You can't score a touchdown or hit a home run if you're not swinging at the plate or being on the field. You can't really do anything from the stands. You guys hit the Flash thermal growth, like all of a sudden the market was just realized, spun in your direction, your technology right there, you're right where the puck came to you, as they say in the Wayne Gretzky analogy, you guys were where the puck, you skated to where the puck was coming. What is it about Veritas that makes it today really hot?  What's the 300% growth reason why that customers are buying tele? Share with the audience up there why. Three three. And what it is. Thanks for the question, John. I appreciate it. And thanks for acknowledging our growth. And I shout out to our founders, Kumar and Vijay, who started this company seven years ago and then basically morphed it from Nor Flash and the appliance over to PCI Flash two years ago. But the reason for the growth is really threefold.  The higher you beat up this car, the more there is an OEM would actually perform better for their applications. And that's why we're becoming a choice, given the Flash marketplace that's out there. So performance number one. Oh, unconditioned performance. If you go to our website, that's our tagline, unconditioned performance. However, you mentioned Wayne Gretzky, you're going with the pucks going to. With the pucks going to, and I think you will see our tagline kind of move towards, is more of a leading the Flash platform transformation. So I mean by that, it's the integration as Dave, you mentioned before, with high availability, with shareability, with caching software. At the kernel level, the actual design for Flash, having that available so you actually can make that transition. So no longer you clinging on to the sand tree, you move into the performance of actual Flash. So that helps in the end user. And what I've kind of done since I moved over in May is build what I think is a pretty good end user sales force. And September 10th, we'll talk about a partner community we'll be building as well. But if you get the end user, that creates a demand. We've been bringing on more and more OEMs. I mentioned this card before. So you got OEM, direct sales? OEMs, direct sales. Indirect? Indirect. Indirect will be announced December 10th. So, Ken, who are some of your big customers? I'm sorry. That's a big OEM, EMC, yes. EMC. Okay, so if you know Extreme Server Flash, that's it. You just got to scoop, EMC's doing it. Yeah, and then Seagate, of course, X8, their product. We're very happy to be one of the providers of them as an OEM. But over 50% of our sales to date have been to the direct end users. That's where a big part of our business and that's where it really resonates with people. If you look, I think Pat's first slide was, he talked about how the applications going from first to second to third. It's all consumer based. It's all, I carry an iPhone 5 everywhere I go when I try to work at that type of real time speed. With that type of transition to consumerized type applications, you need a third generation type, you know, building blocks. And that would be PCI Flash by Verde. So I wonder if we could unpack a little bit more how you guys differentiate. Sean, I've been talking all week, you know, we just had Jerry on from Craylock. Just talking about the number of players. I heard he really thought it was a big flip slide. And yeah, but of course the flip side of that is people saying, she's like the Winchester disk drives in the 1980s, you had 80 companies and you know, can the market sustain them all? So how do you guys differentiate from all the, you know, we always say extract the signal from the noise. How do you differentiate from the other players out there? Well, first off, for the people who know the business, the people that buy them by the pallet full, let's call it the scale and accounts, the people that are leading us there. You've probably named the names before. Those customers, the Flash innovators, they're buying pervasive Flash. They're the people who enjoy using the customer, using the actual product itself because it's got the highest high-end performance. So on condition performance, you don't have the outliers. The more you hit it with the high-thread writes, the higher-thread reads, that's where you really shine. So thanks for noticing that. As far as the customer base, I mean, the ability to have a V-caching product with a right back, no one else had, well, one of two players that have that. As far as the VHA software, it's uniquely positioned so you have the same familiarity out there. And then every time we give an end user presentation for my Salesforce, when you see the V-sharing capability as far as software, that's truly unique, Dave, in the marketplace. Talk about that V-caching with the right back. As I said, that's unique. So describe what that is and what makes it so hard. Well, the reason why it's hard is you've got to have it so it conforms to the existing systems. You have to have in place so that the actual methodology in place as far as the applications in the accounts are used to having different situations where you have the same familiarity, the same data services you have in place. With right back, you have different choices. You have right through, you have right around, a right back cache. And the fact that we've been in the flashing business, you mentioned and acknowledged the new appliance with our founders, this is known our first attempt in the flash marketplace. We've been in the business in five years before we went to PCI Flash. We can do the hard business and we can do the different choices for customers, whether it be right back, right through, or right around as far as the V-caching. But the truth is, when we go in and use our sales calls, they always resonate around shareability. They like the fact that you can put, this is a 2.2 terabyte card. They like to can share some of the namespaces and we call them V-shares across the different, so you actually have a shared pool of V-spaces around the different pool of flash. I think earlier today, I know Carl mentioned it. I know Pat mentioned it yesterday. That's truly unique for us. The ability to share and access is across more users. But you had mentioned, I think when the RAID vendors were out there, there was like 20 something RAID vendors, but then after the change to the same marketplace to get down to two or three, I think you didn't see that type of change around flash as well. There are five or six PCI flash vendors. I think we're going to be one of the three or four that people bet their business on because we have the familiarity of having that software and that's where our investments are. Ken, talk about something that's, I've always get a stickler on buzzwords, but do some of these things matter? High availability is a word that's like a punchline. It's like cost of ownership. It's relevant, but I want to ask you specifically, what has changed in the current marketplace around high availability? High availability is a table stakes kind of deal for a lot of the infrastructure side. I mean, that's a goal everyone wants high availability. It's like freedom, right? So, but what is about high availability today? Well, that's different than what's a couple years ago. I'll give a tangible example. One of our best use cases with the VHA software that you just mentioned as well is Oracle Rack. Some of our customers want the demands of Oracle Rack and the way that that can seamlessly work in their environment. And to be blunt with you, you get the speed of PCI flash, but the affordability of putting a few cards in your environment and have that be able to do it, but you have the blessing and the endorsement of actually having a rack environment have it out there. So that's the way I view high availability at the highest levels, five-ninth type availability where the customers can depend upon it. And that's something you guys pitch a lot with your clients? All day, it's probably your second most proficient use case. So performance and high availability kind of go hand in hand. I mean, well, sometimes they don't. I mean, people don't have high availability if they don't go down. They're not performing. So it's kind of like a implied benefit. John, it's database. We're doing great in the retailing marketplace. So think the bricks and mortar type companies that are putting a front end that looks amazing like Google or amazing like Amazon or amazing like Facebook, but there's still the large retailers you might go shop on a weekend with. So the people at the show are talking about two major themes we're hearing. Follow the applications, application-centric infrastructure and enabling infrastructure that's going to be available to enable the apps to basically run DevOps and or create infrastructure. So what are you guys doing? What's the innovation strategy around the, enabling the middle of the stack? Because VMware can't get to the top of the stack and innovate until they fix the middle of the stack, which is performance, availability, but enabling apps. Flash seems to really sit beautifully for the apps. It's like a memory tier. It's not also, you can put it for disk. So what are you guys doing in that area? What can you talk about for customers? Whatever we can do to make it seamless. So people enjoy using VMotion. What we can do to enjoy so that seamless for VMotion, I mentioned Oracle Rack before. One thing I'd like to do is in my past, we enjoyed seeing VMware and I think Pat went through the slides before where VMware has got to a point there's more virtual servers in place than physical servers. I think three, four years ago it went above 50%. Merits, Merits, 2010. Okay, thank you. So what we need to do in the value we provide to our OEM partners and our end users, that last 25%. So even the most proficient, virtualized customer out there, they need that last minute to get their tier one critical applications, fully virtualized. And I think it's one of the mantas that I know Carl was talking about, was Pat was talking about. This flash technology gets the mission critical applications so they can be virtualized as well. Because I think this whole robust environment here, 23,000 people, would benefit if it was 100% virtualized. So final question for you, we're up on time here, Ken, you guys have got great growth. What's next? What's around the corner? Can you just give us a peek around the corner for you guys? Did you mention messaging, some new messaging that might be coming around? But what else is, what's going to be new for you guys? Well, thank you for acknowledging it. So it's leading the flash platform transformation. September tends to see a big announcement of our channel ecosystem, I appreciate that. You will see denser cards, but more importantly, we're investing all we can in our software. We want to lead that flash platform transformation. You will see future releases about different availability starts, card management and other sophisticated ways. So we can make it seamless as you're used to running your sand, but for flash network, flash network. So having that fabric in place, and again, it's addicting work in microseconds. The fact that the product can bring in 50 microseconds versus a familiarity where you should have around four to 10 milliseconds. People are going to like being close to the applications on the consumer side, and it's exciting time for us. We will keep the growth. For the potential new customers that might not know Viridin, explain to them real quick, we'll give you the final word of the segment. Why you've helped other customers that might be like them, and what should they know about Viridin? We'll wrap it up. Okay, great. On your third generation applications, you might add there a sequel, a new database that might be in place. Viridin is exactly your choice to put out there. It will give the speed you need that's out there in the familiarity of actually having the data services around our software, FlashMax Connect. If you have an existing second generation application that you'd like to get end of life, or a little more kick out of it, or a midlife kicker, whether it be Oracle, SAP, we even have a huge use case in one of the largest companies in China just put it in their exchange environment. That's a great use case as well. So today's performance, next generation type performance, but familiarity of data services that you've been around for 15, 20 years. And that's why I think we're leading the Flash platform transformation. So thank you. That's awesome. Flash is hot. As I always tell, Dave and I always talk about it. Under the hood is the engine of innovation. The apps are what's driving the car. All the instrumentation is there with big data. And Flash is a big part of it. Congratulations to you guys. So watch Viridin. We're going to be watching you guys. Viridin inside theCUBE. This is John and Dave here. We'll be right back with our next guest after this short break.


Hello everybody, good evening and welcome to this other webinar about the series Let's Discover the Volumetric Outreading Platform. Last week I said it was the last webinar, but actually I was wrong. So apparently I'm still here. It was my mistake because I had mistaken the calendar of the webinars. So apparently there was a topic we had left behind, which is the aggravate volume and large traits, which will be the topic we will be talking about tonight. So please take a look at the disclaimer, so we will be getting started in a bit. And then of course, if some of you want to have a quick recap of the things we said about order flow last time, of course, we can have a look at the market together and trying to include the topics we're going to talk about tonight with all we said about the volume analysis in the previous webinars. So before we get started, let me just remind you the offer being still available in partnership with Volumetrica and TickMail. So for those already TickMail customers, you can get a license for Volsys platform for a discounted price, of course terms and conditions apply. If some of you are not customers of TickMail customers already, you can email the Volumetrica trading team and request a free demo with full functionalities over a limited period of time. You can do that by clicking the contact form here on the Volumetrica website. And if you want to ask me some questions, this is my email address. You can mail me and ask me whatever you want about the topics we discussed in the webinars. So let's get started and let's get the platform. I hope all of you can see my shared screen. And let's take a look at the first of all, let's talk about what big trades and aggregate volume is. So we will also have a look out to include the indicator showing that evidence in the platform for those of you already using Volsys platform. First of all, what is aggregate or what is aggregate volume? What do we mean when we talk about large big trades and aggregate volume? Let's say just to introduce the concept in a very easy way, it is an order being splitted, a large order splitted into many small orders. Of course, the aggregation is the main part allowing us to reconstruct what happens in the tenant sales. So basically, surely you remember what we said about market microstructure. So when aggressive volume gets into the market, there is always a track left by those trades in the tenant sales, which is this tool here. Sorry, let me just, yeah, like this. I already showed you this tool during the dedicated webinar where we were talking about market microstructure. Basically, all of those green and red squares you can see quite quickly moving in the tenant sales, those are aggressive trades. And when we have a green square, this is a market order lifting the offer in an aggressive way. So basically, aggressive buying. When we have a red square, that shows aggressive selling order. So along with that, we can also see some many other information, like for example, the time where the trade has happened, its volume in terms of volume lifting the offer or hitting the bid. And of course, the price, which has been hit in terms of bid or ask side of the book. So this is what normally happens whilst market trades. That means that normally, we aren't really able by just reading the tenant sales, we aren't really able to detect when a large volume is entering the trade, because there are two chances actually, either the volume hits the bid with a very large order, which is hitting the ask or the bid with its entire size. So we might have something like here in the tenant sales, something like this, time 7 minutes past 19, volume maybe 230, at the price 3956.75. We can either have a situation like this, but let me be honest, this is something that quite never happens. It never happens because normally, when there is a large intention by large traders to place, of course, large orders into the market, they rarely happen all of the same level and all on the same order, under the same trade. So what normally happens is that those large orders, they just get split into smaller orders, which sometimes don't even happen at the same price level. So they tend to happen around similar price area. So it is more likely, we are more likely to have a situation like this, to have a print, so a row appearing here in the tenant sales, 19 and 7 minutes, 10 lots at this price, 19, 7 minutes past 19, other 30 lots at 3956.0. So unless those trades happen very, very quickly, it is quite hard for us retail traders to understand when a large trading is, a large trade is hitting the market or which that would actually mean that a large trader is initiating in a certain specific direction. And this is where aggregate volume comes to help because some of the most advanced tool in terms of order flow analysis are able to reconstruct the timing sales. So basically, in that case, we have a reconstructed tape, which is able to recognize when small orders comes into the market in the same direction. But if they are occurring at similar price level, so with a specific offsetting ticks, and with a distance of a few milliseconds from the first one to the last one, then this algorithm is able to reconstruct the tape and recognize what a large order has been trading over that levels. So this is what basically aggregate volume is. This is something which, of course, it is very, very useful in terms of reading the order flow. Why? Because it acts as a confirmation of a commitment of large traders in a specific direction, so by or sell, in a specific price level, which, for example, it might have been object of our previous volume profile analysis, or VWAP analysis, or just the lowest of the day, the high of the day, and so on. So basically, if we have a level, which for many other reasons we were considering as an important inflection point where we would have to attention what happens when price reaches that level, if we have the evidence of a great aggregate volume coming in, that might be a huge confirmation of what our bias was. And therefore, we can use this information to help us in making a trading decision. This faction, this possibility comes actually with different, yeah, sorry, with different chance. I mean, we can have that evidence shown in different situations. For example, Volsys platform offers an indicator called Big Trades, this one, so you can reach the indicator by right clicking on the chart. And if it's not already attached in the chart we are using, we can easily just scroll down the indicator list and choose it from the selected, from the main list with a double click that will be immediately attached to our main, to the list of the indicator used in this chart. And of course, as it is once it's attached to the chart, all we have to do is of course set it up. What's the best way to set it according to the instrument we are using it with? First of all, we need to think in terms of thresholds. Of course, if we are using, if you want to have this information on the S&P 500, we need to know what a specific relevant volume would be for that instrument. For instance, I am using it set to with a filter of 500 volume, a volume of 500. Why? Because of course, I know that S&P 500 will need at least 500 aggregate volume for it to be significant in terms of analysis. If we want to use the same information, for example, on the NASDAQ, which is a much lighter instrument in terms of market liquidity. So in terms of volume traded, we will have to set it lower at a lower threshold. So something like, for example, normally I use it at 100. Okay, so I would set my threshold for the NASDAQ at 100 volume. Then of course, the most important part of this indicator is that it needs to be specified here that the volume that we want to have shown, it is an aggregate volume achieved by aggregate trades. And after we have set up the indicator with these settings, of course the indicator will calculate the amount of trades hitting the timing cells. And it will reconstruct the tape in terms of the settings we have indicated here. So once it happens, when the algorithm starts detecting more than 500 volume entering the market, either by order cell side, if those volume are respecting the criteria of aggregate trades, so that means that they are entering the market at close price levels and within a specific execution time expressed in milliseconds between one trade and the next trade, then we have the aggregation parameter met. So in that case, the indicator will put a small square on the chart with the indicated the volume of the aggregate trades detected in that area. Let's look back if we can see an example of this. All right, so of course, this is something that it doesn't happen all the time. So we will have to scroll back the chart a little bit until we find a specific situation where that has happened. Let me just be a little bit patient. And so we can also add a quick explanation of how we can use this information in order to fit our trading criteria. Here it is. As you can see, the price at this very top has shown an aggregate volume of 583 volume hitting the ask side of the book. Why do I say so? Because we can see the small square at the small rectangle actually at the top of this bar, it comes with a light blue color. So that means, of course, this is something you can change in the indicator settings. This is the color indicated for the ask side. So that means that over here, over the last few ticks, an aggregate volume hitting the buying side of the book, the ask side of the book of 583 contracts has hit the market. So we can definitely tell that somebody has been trading quite a large buy position right at this level. Of course, when we have the opposite situation, so we have a large aggregate volume hitting the sell side of the book, so basically the bid side of the book, that rectangle will be colored in pink. And the same thing inside the rectangle will be plotted the number of the contract detecting to be an aggregate volume. So it's like this indicator kind of reconstructs the tape and joins all of these small orders hitting very quickly that side of the book and makes a sum of them all. So we can have an idea of what the aggregate volume over that specific area is. So how do we use this evidence of large order as an aggregate volume for our trading? Let's say, first of all, we always need to remember that this is of course a trade that has been initiated in a specific direction. So basically, this is always to be considered as a strong buying pressure. So this is an objective reading of this information. This is a heavy buying activity over these levels. But then outcome didn't the market follow through this volume and continued moving upwards. Because sometimes this aggregate volume is not always left by big boys, big large traders. Sometimes it is left by HFTs, so basically high frequency trading algorithms, which don't necessarily are initiated in a position. They are just making some very quick and very short sculpting trades among specific price levels. So first thing we need to pay attention to is always price action. That means, yeah, this is an evidence of heavy buying activity. But what kind of effect did this heavy trade buying activity left in the market? Was it absorbed? As we said the last time what absorption is, or did it make it actually initiate price to move in a specific direction and was actually price moving in that direction supported by that heavy body? This is the answer. This is the question we always need to ask ourselves before deciding to take a trade based on aggregate volume. Let's say the most powerful indication by this evidence, it occurs when this volume gets absorbed. So when we have a follow through, most of the time it is incredibly quick in order for us to have a benefit to go in continuation of that move. So most of the time we are just not able to follow through that move unless a specific situation which I will go through in a while in a bit. But let's say normally it gets more powerful when we have evidence of absorption of this aggregate volume. Like in this example right here you can see that price was pushing higher. As you can see we have lots of bars showing just to have a reading of the order flow considering what we said last time as well. We have basically a directional delta. As you can see price is mostly mostly a trading buying volume. So we always have directional delta. Suddenly we have this evidence of a big trade which actually leads to an immediate absorption. Also acts as an excess of this already already here already evident initiative acts as an excess and then we can see that market already in the in the next in the very next bar is showing a huge a huge exhaustion of that heavy buying activity was taking place at the very top of this ring high. Of course in an aggressive way that could have already have been an indication for a quick scalp reversal trade. When we did have evidence of that once we can see that the aggregate volume area. So basically the area intended as a few ticks. So something like five or six ticks area where the aggregate trade has happened. We wait for it to be retested also in the very next bar and if in the on its pullback we can spot exhaustion. So volume experiencing a drop. Then in that case we can have an still an aggressive but a good one confirmation that that volume was absorbed. So wasn't able to move the market straight away in that direction. So they why why is that interesting because first of all we can have a very evident a very clear idea of the of that volume being unable to move the market immediately. So there is most of the time some space for a quick retracement of the price. Okay this is of course because we don't know actually if that trade is to be considered as a the last leg of HFT activity or if big boys are really initiating right here. We have a confirmation of that where only when price we basically we just need to wait a little bit what happens when the price does when it comes back to the area of the aggregate volume. Okay if we we don't see volume coming in in this area this volume is more likely to be intended as final the final activity of an HFT. Otherwise if those those levels those price levels are showing through the aggregate volume the activity of a big boy a big trader we would never see exhaustion here we would never see exhaustion here and in that case of course it is a little bit more complicated because we need some further evidences in terms of but definitely that would now would completely change the way we want to trade this evidence because if we can detect that this volume this aggregate volume has been left by big traders large traders willing to initiate buying at this at this at those prices then of course we want we don't want to trade it as a fading of that move on the on the opposite we want to go with the big boys right but this is not the case why we because we can see that once price as the chance to trade again once again all of those areas these price areas it gets completely exhausted and actually what does afterwards starts initiating the other way why do we have these evidence we have these evidence when we can see delta increasing over the next bar and also in the second next bar we can see strong selling imbalance coming in so as we said two webinars ago this is an evidence of power in the short direction after we had a wall this time not given by the absorption but given by a different kind of absorption which is actually the inefficiency of whoever has left this aggregate volume to push the market higher of course this is something that it needs to be in order to be powerful information it needs to be put in the right context I have made an easy example an example which can easily being spotted while market trades and you can detect actually if you have this indicator set properly you can make an analysis and see how price reacts once it shows the evidence of course this is a very basic explanation which I can make you know not for an hour but normally it is a huge it is a huge confirmation of what that important price level has been either if this shows big traders activity then if it shows HFT final lag okay but let's say just to keep things easy most of the time those evidence are more powerful if we treat it as a point of excess of the market so if we treat it the other way they have hit the market compared to the one to the way the aggregate volume I said the market so in this case of course it was hitting the buying side of the of the ladder of the order book and I want to trade it short of course after the confirmation that we can see exhaustion here why exhaustion and not absorption because normally these big trades tend to occur in low volume areas so when we are trading in low volume areas we don't normally have I mean absorption is less likely to happen because in that area not that much liquidity is provided that means not so many limit orders are available to to execute aggressive orders that means market won't have the chance to trade that much volume so we tend to have either exhaustion like in this example or otherwise we will have a follow-through of pressure to the upside so in the same direction of the big trade and the market will just follow through straight away and go in the same direction of the of the big trade so it is really impossible to get the situation wrong all right so let's have a check if we have another example maybe to the downside let's say those trades of course are more likely to happen in the first minutes of the us opening session or in the last minutes of the us session so let's say 10 minutes 10 15 minutes before the closing of the market but this is just a rule of thumb I mean sometimes they would just occur during normal trading hours but when they normally happens they will just move the market very very quickly and its reaction on that level when we can spot those situations are very very clear then so as you can see I was scrolling back the chart through the entire session of today the only evidence we had it was that one I was showing you earlier so as you can see they're not that frequent but this is a good thing actually yeah like yeah this one we have another one here that's from Friday as you can see we have something very similar in this situation we have 502 lots dating the bit sorry the ask side still respecting the aggregation criteria but in this case as you can see the market has had an immediate follow-through and wasn't exhausted at all at this price area so in this case of course we could have used this situation to direct to trade it short to the short side on the opposite if we just give it some time and we analyze what happens bar by bar what do we have afterwards we have yeah market follows through immediately comes back here doesn't give that much of an evidence when it comes back to the area at least in this bar but then what happens in the next bar we have absorption we have absorption that means as we were talking about last time uh heavy sellers the amount of sellers try to trying to sell and take the market down to the downside which gets absorbed though gets stopped out by gets stopped by uh buyers which actually we assume are the same buyers want wanting to defend defend those price level where they have placed their big trade and markets continues to the upside this is basically the opposite situation than the one we were looking at earlier of course this could have been a very nice trade to the alps that to the upside using the information of the aggregate volume because we can see that price wasn't exhausted at all over the price levels where he had test traded and on the opposite side what happens sellers try to sell but they can make it so once price starts again to move to the upside with some pressure to the upside as well of course in this stage we have one two and three confirmation leading to the same direction leading to the same confirming the same idea for a possible long trade all right somebody is saying thanks for this content i'm very glad to hear that uh i really hope you all like this uh series of content we have talked about over these 10 weeks tonight tonight i'm sure it's gonna be the last webinar i'm not getting that wrong i hope so no sorry i'm just joking of course yeah that was the last uh was the last topic we have included in the full program of this series of webinars uh of course in terms of order flow analysis uh volume analysis there is much more we could have to talk about but there is it is a never-ending topic if you want to be accurate but of course over these last 10 weeks we were able to have a quick overview of many different aspects of what the what the proper uh volume analysis and order flow analysis can be uh i am really glad to uh for having the chance to present this series of webinar to all of you i hope you uh could appreciate this i hope you have all liked the content and of course if you want to make some questions about we have talked about i feel free to email me and i'll give you a reply that's it so thanks for your attention and i wish you a good evening and a good trading


So I'm too little bit, I'm going to talk about OpenCL in LibreOffice and how it has been used and how it is used and how it could perhaps be used in the future. And I work for Collabora. I don't know how many of you know what OpenCL is, but it is a vendor-neutral programming language that is supposed to be used for calculations that can be sped up by using massively parallel commutations. And you would use it when you have, for instance, GPUs that have several, maybe even dozens of these computational units available. OpenCL is not very new. It has been around for maybe five years or even more. But anyway, it's clearly newer than OpenGL, and it's not really not that much related, even if its name is almost the same. So some people confuse them sometimes. And OpenCL is available on all the desktop platforms that we use, but in practice it's perhaps mostly relevant only for Windows anyway. Because on the Mac, I think that Apple, even if Apple was one of the vendors that initially started, the OpenCL thing, they don't seem to be that horribly interested in it anymore. And on Linux again, it's always complicated. We never know what drivers for which hardware have the support on which not, and so on. So this is the next slide. So OpenCL, as a programming language, it looks quite much like C. It has a few extra keywords and types and so on. And some library functions that are then used for typical numerical calculations and for manipulating data types and for moving data. And then out of, or between the actual host program and the OpenCL program. And the things that you actually run in OpenCL are called kernels. They are quite similar to the concept of shader in OpenGL. And occasionally one even talks about or uses shader, the term shader also for this, but the correct name is kernel. And just like these OpenGL shaders, also OpenCL kernels are compiled at runtime. You have the OpenCL source code inside your C++ or C program as a string or in a file or whatever, or you construct it at runtime. And then you compile it into some totally platform-specific code and then execute it. But you can also save these binaries in a file if you like. And we actually do that for our OpenCL code. The typical implementations of OpenCL, they have a separate one for the instruction set on the CPU and also one then for a GPU. And depending on whether you have like a separate discrete graphics card or an integrated GPU in the same chip. There are different OpenCL devices for this. And OpenCL calculations can be quite fast, like 100 times faster than using C++. But of course moving large amounts of data to a discrete GPU can be slow. So for those cases then it's of course much better if both the GPU and CPU have access to the same memory than you don't need to actually move anything. Or it's not the calling host code that would do the move anyway, it's the implementation. And this is quite small, so I guess you don't really see it. But this is some sample OpenCL code from Wikipedia to calculate some Fourier transform. This looks quite much like C code, it has comments and it is, well this one is not indented, because there are no if statements, but anyway it is clearly written by hand and so on. And then the host code to call it looks like this. Where is the pointer, is it the same? Anyway, you create a context first for the computation and then you create a command queue. Oh, okay.  And you create the program from some source code that's not included here, but it's one of the parameters there. And then you build the program and create the kernel and set the arguments for it and then you call it. So it's quite a lot of code to call this one OpenCL kernel. Now then in LibreOffice we don't use like kernels that would have been written by hand beforehand, but we generate them at runtime from these calc formulas. So depending on how the formula looks, the generated OpenCL code will be quite different. And both our code that generates OpenCL and then the generated OpenCL itself can be quite hard to understand. Even if you don't start experimenting with it, you can actually particularly notice what does what and do some modifications to it. Debugging OpenCL is not really straightforward, at least in LibreOffice. The only way I have found out to do it is to have this C++ code that generates OpenCL, insert these printf statements into the generated OpenCL. And this will be then printed out when the code is, when the OpenCL is run, when the kernel is run. There are some more traditional interactive GUI debugging tools for OpenCL, but they are quite hard, would be quite hard to like take into use in a typical LibreOffice development environment. Because they are, would be typical use if you like write the OpenCL code from scratch yourself and so on. And here is a sample of the code in LibreOffice that generates OpenCL. OpenCL, if you see there this stream SS, it outputs into the stream these fragments of what looks like C code, but is then the OpenCL code like first it outputs the name of the function it is generating. And then the arguments and then a block of code, there are some variables and then it continues generating more, more code. And it is quite confusing because it mixes this actual C++ code and then the OpenCL code that goes into the generated kernel. You have to look carefully to, carefully to see which things are actually C++ and which are OpenCL. And here is then the corresponding result. This is not the actual kernel entry point, but it's a function used, used by the kernel and the code we generate for, this is for a call of the average function in a calc formula. And there are, I left out quite many of those steps but there are quite many equal or almost equal segments. So if you then want to debug what is actually going on when you are using the average function in OpenCL, you need to modify this previous code to emit print of statements that then will be, would appear in this code. And then you can see what's going on when you run the calc formula. In order to use OpenCL, the thing that had to be done was to introduce this formula group concept. That means that this is like, this was done already three years ago I think. That if you have identical formulas in a column in calc or in a sheet and there are enough of them, then you instead get one formula group. And this formula group can also be used by the so called software interpreter, which is not really OpenCL but it's a bit related. And then during 2013 and 14, we got or there was written OpenCL implementations for most of the operators and functions in calc and even for string functions. Unfortunately, we had not very complete unit tests for them, so there were lots of corner cases that we didn't notice were incorrectly implemented. And then to make this situation a bit better, we decided to start using OpenCL only for those cases that we know that actually work or where it makes sense. To restrict it to only formula statutes, only op codes that are from a small subset and only if the formula group is large enough. And the op codes in this subset are like basic arithmetic operators, average some minimum maximum and some statistical functions and trigonometrical functions. In the beginning, these were made into options that were even visible to the user, that turned out perhaps not to be a good idea, so it was changed later. And then we also had like white lists and black lists of which vendor and driver version combinations that were known to be good or known to be bad. But it was a bit unclear whether end users actually found much use for this, so trust them later, later removed. And the current situation is that most, I hope, of these corner case bugs have been fixed and we no longer even tried to use OpenCL in any way for operations or formulas that involves string data. And these OpenCL, I mean op codes, not implementations that are trusted have been quite fairly, quite well tested. We do need to extend the unit tests a bit more still and we dropped, as I said, these options because they were not really, really useful after all. And we now, now in 5.1, we actually, when the user first starts a fresh installation of LibreOffice, we test the implementation of OpenCL, how correct it is. And if it doesn't work as it should, we just turn OpenCL off automatically and without any message or anything. And now we come to the actual title of the talk which is very short because as far as I see, so we can continue to use OpenCL as we use it now. And we could also use it for some other calculations not related to formula single. Those that have come first to mind would be like image format encoding and decoding. In those cases, those can be implemented in OpenCL and image scaling also. We currently use OpenGL for that, but OpenCL might be a better fit actually. And yes, there's collaboration and that's it.