How does a CFD work behind the scenes?
There are several ways that the issuers profit from CFDs. If the broker has trades on both sides (buy and sell) they can net the volumes off against each other and profit off the spread whilst using the posted margins to cover p&l from both sides. Because settlement for most securities is not on the same day that the order is placed they can also buy the security with no intention of taking delivery and simply sell it off at the end of day to pass delivery on to someone else. Here again they profit from the spread and that their volumes give them really low commissions so their costs are much lower than the value of the spread. If they have to do this rather than netting the position out the spreads will be wider.  Sometimes that may be forced to buy the security outright but that is rare and the spreads will be even wider so that they can make a decent profit.
I believe the worst part about Surface is running Windows 8.  It's terrible.  Horrible!  And yes, most of the terrible experience for users is that everything is all different now, for little reason, just like shifting to the continual interface revamp of *every* version of Office since 2007.  Change for change's sake?  Users are saying no thanks.  I know not *all* of it is change for change's sake, and I know about the requirement for a new OS to handle a touch-based interface--I get that.  But users have too much interface-change fatigue and are getting tired of paying more and getting less, all the while having to relearn whole systems of interface design that doesn't truly add to their productivity--especially because the next interface change will occur in only 12 - 24 months.  The ribbon interface is a wonderful waste of space, just when every device now made has a much smaller vertical resolution than horizontal (widescreen formats).  So take up much more vertical space so now the user cannot see what they're working on.  Simply brilliant!  Or, they could have put the toolbars off to the side where they would be out of the way--maybe that's the next scheduled interface change?  Put a touch-based Windows 7 OS on Surface and I believe you'd see an instant jump in sales.  Part of my business is fixing/building computers for people.  Many of them have simply purchased the latest laptop/computer/whatever they could find in stores and when they attempt to *use* their nifty new speed machine, they face continual frustration with the bizarre, confusing, and seemingly disconnected double-interface with Windows 8.  The bugs have them utterly baffled, and using skype is a disaster, since they can no longer figure out how to quickly tell skype to use the in-system microphone and webcam for the 13th time this month when receiving a call (like they used to be able to do--never mind that skype continually forgets these settings, as usual).  They also have to create some pointless Microsoft account to use the software/hardware they just purchased.  Why?  People aren't interested in being a card-carrying member of the Mickey Mouse Club anymore--so why *require* it of them?  They generally need to get something productive done, and all this bullshit stands in their way.  Three separated versions of email--that aren't connected at all behind the scenes--is a recipe for confusion.  Another part of my business is industrial design, and with that, the creation of productive, comfortable interfaces.  Here's my secret--good interface design really isn't that difficult--you just need to listen to what the users want.  Bam!  Now even Microsoft can turn things around. Would if I had the capital it is an intensive and low margin area, it requires serious creativity and drive to do it and often needs at least one person per store that is seriously locally invested.   Not sure where anger comes from, just stating my opnion as a 20 year professional consultant who has worked at the executive level for BB, Target and GSK and a lifetime of being a customer. Sorry my opnion is both appreny offensive and entirely incorrect. I honestly don't read much of the retail distribution industry trade publications. I just work here.  EDIT: It's important to note that big box reailers and how they treated customers was already on the downslide and had been for nearly a decade prior to Amazon showing up. As such honestly very hard for one to make a direct comparision as the retailers had alredy given up much of thier competitive advantge prior to Amazon coming on the scene. Our Website : http://www.orpheumtheatreminneapolis.com Guests are asked to assist in creating a safe and enjoyable environment by reporting any inappropriate behavior to an Orpheum Theatre Usher or Security Officer. From well-known and lesser-known actors and actresses to the men and women behind the production, including playwrights, directors, wardrobe specialists, scene and lighting artists, and a score of other professionals, an investment in live theatre helps perpetuate a centuries-old craft and actually supports. It's also an investment in the arts Centre and general community that supports the theatre itself. That is what they said about search engines.  Uber have received a lot of negative press over the past few months. From board behaviour to how they treat their drivers.  Uber may have been the first on the scene but that doesn't guarantee their future. Ask yahoo or MySpace. The way I would use it is, every trade done by a broker has a client side and a street side.  The client side is for their brokerage account, and the street side is whoever they traded with Say, John Doe calls me at Charles Schwab and wants to buy 100 IBM.  I look at the market and decide that the best execution is on Arca.  I trade on Arca for the client.  Then, I book a client side trade into his account, and a street side trade against Arca.  If I myself was a dealer in IBM and executed against my inventory, the street side would basically be internal, booking a trade against my account. They remain navigable, so with enough warning they can fly out of the path. Which sort of sucks since it mans you lose connectivity *during* the hurricane.  From the videos, they say they fly these balloons into the stratosphere, up to 65 thousand feet; they may be able to fly these *above* the hurricane if it is small enough. Not sure if they would be too far away to provide LTE connectivity during that time though.  I don't think they can come down and be re-launched the way another comment said. They have a custom launching hardware you can see in the videos, and they would essentially need to re-inflate the balloons. Keeping this equipment safe and operable during a hurricane is going to be the real challenge with this, and afaik they only have a few launchers, and then juts fly the balloons to be in place, so much more likely they would fly them out of the way, then fly either those balloons or new balloons in place after the hurricane has passed. I just went through this process and found protolabs,  they did end up quite expensive once the tooling came in this was injection moulding. I was looking for 400 a year but would only make sense at 10000 per year. I ended up finding a company that does plastic forming custom design technology that were good on price and the quality was great. PM me if you want details, or just Google them, I'm not your supervisor. Well the idea is after getting the employees to put their best attempt to transition their processes to excel, afterwards the leftover advanced processes that absolutely require excel will be given an exception (until a better solution can be researched and prototyped). But at the moment until then I have to find out ways to get these advanced functionality in other ways!