[leoedin]

What on earth is a "MM". I've been seeing this pop up on HN recently as a replacement for M (ie million or mega - they both mean * 10^6).

MM? Does it mean mega million (ie 10^6 * 10^6 = 10^12, otherwise known as a trillion)? If you take the SI system it might be megamoles perhaps?

If someone has a justifiable reason for using MM to represent million, I'd love to hear it.

[necubi]

It comes from the financial industry, and means a million. M stands not for million or mega, but for mille, which is Latin for a thousand. So it is in fact 1000*1000 = 1,000,000.

[mrkurt]

It's common in finance ... in theory it's supposed to mean "thousand thousand" but I think that's retroactive reasoning for something of a goofy abbreviation.