How the Bloomberg Terminal Changed Wall Street Forever
A Brief History of the Bloomberg Terminal
In 1981, after being fired from Salomon Brothers, Michael Bloomberg founded Innovative Market Systems to build a terminal that combined real-time data with instant analytics. The first Market Master terminals, delivered to Merrill Lynch in 1982, gave traders an unprecedented window on global markets. The terminal evolved from a closed network with a custom keyboard to a subscription-based service costing over $32,000 a year, becoming an icon of financial power.
For nearly two decades, Bloomberg Terminals commanded an aura of power and financial prowess. They were emblems of market mastery, with a brand that was distinct from other office computers.
- rbanffy
I have the highest regard for these terse, but information-dense displays that enable humans to quickly grasp all information they need to do their jobs, and nothing more. This is also something avionics provide - a modern cockpit displays are a work of art in layering needed information for what is happening at the time, both the dense PFD and the much specific that communicate aircraft status.
- jll29
For completeness' sake, here's also a history of competitor REUTERS' terminal:
• https://www.thebaron.info/archives/technology/reuter-monitor...
• https://www.thebaron.info/archives/technology/reuters-techni...
- mandevil
The modern Terminal is based on a private fork of Chromium to give it the look and feel of a VT100 terminal, and integrate their private networking and security technologies. The BBT predates HTTP, and backwards compatibility is hugely important to the company- they have a museum where a second-generation Terminal from ~1985 shows the current news, because they are so dedicated to backwards compatibility that they still can support the 1985 hardware.
- helsinkiandrew
Related: A look back: The Bloomberg Keyboard
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17079033 (104 comments)
- bbkane
I wish that article showed what the display looks like instead of just the keyboard. Others here have mentioned the lovely information density; I'll have to search elsewhere to see it
- graboid
Does someone know any font that is similar to the closed-source Bloomberg terminal font? I really love that font.
- mhh__
It may be of interest to some that Bloomberg has an ocaml based DSL built in for pricing exotic derivatives.
- johnhamlin
I did an internship in finance in college. Worked at a Bloomberg terminal that earned more money than me