I had an issue with a link to $37 billion. The preview - there and here - works just fine. But after the post is made, it no longer displays right.
This can be fixed - more or less - with \$37 billion by adding a backslash. I don't know anything about the syntax but I assume it's a variant of some programming language's escape character.
Still, why doesn't \$37 billion work once posted? The dollar sign isn't even in the link text any more.
I can't blame you for having some arcane markup - I'm sure there's a good reason for it if I'd found the manual to RTF - but not having the preview match the posted view is a Just Plain Bug.
Wups. Except HERE it worked just FINE when posted. Same copy and pasted text as failed in the other post on Worldbuilding. But it wasn't just me - a whole crew of helpful people turned up who were having the same trouble with it.
Update: Apparently it was another dollar sign a paragraph later that fouled things up? Let's see: \$37 billion \$ That previews with an intact link, now let's see the final posting...
Okay, that DID foul up on the posting. But there's another thing that went into this. I had not enabled a script from Cloudflare on the page. With that script off, the preview looks fine and the post is different. With that script on, both look fouled up the same way. So the difference is in what is done when that script isn't active.
They still should work the same, but at least I know why the bug wasn't noticed.
\$. Works in text and in the text of the links (the part between [brackets]). Not needed (and should not be used) is code formatted text (between backquotes). No bug. This is how Markdown has worked on MathJax-enabled sites since forever. $\endgroup$