The functions are prompted by certain codes - so for looking up a stock, it’s EQUITY, and for News, it’s N.

Users can use it to track oil tankers as they move around the world, see where there are wildfires, and decipher supply chains. The terminal hosts mountains of data and research on companies, financial instruments, and exchanges from all over the world, and it can be used to do financial calculations, make trades, compare potential investments, and perform analyses. Thomas Yau/South China Morning Post via Getty Images You’ve actually probably seen the Bloomberg terminal in the background of pictures and movies about Wall Street - you might just not have realized it. “It looks the same, but it actually does more, and it has evolved with the markets and its needs.”īloomberg LP brought in about $10 billion in revenue in 2018, and Taylor estimates that three-quarters of that is still terminal-based. Taylor, managing director of data research and consulting firm Burton-Taylor International Consulting and who spent years working for Bloomberg’s primary competitor, Reuters. But he generally delivered, and he continually improved his product for the last 30 years,” said Douglas B. “When was building the company, he was a little bit like Elon Musk in that he might be bold or boisterous or arrogant in some ways about what he said about he products, he was always telling people it was the best. You’re not going to win the Super Bowl if you aren’t even playing in the right stadium. And because so many of the movers and shakers are already there, if you want to be the next big thing in finance, you want to be there, too.

Subscriptions cost between $20,000 and $24,000 annually, and right now, there are more than 325,000 subscribers signed up.īasically, it’s still the place a lot of traders, analysts, and executives prefer to do their work. It still looks like it’s straight out of the ’80s - it’s got a black background, lots of neon text, early days computing-style block letters, and a funny-looking keyboard - and it isn’t the easiest system to navigate, but it’s established a grip on Wall Street that competitors haven’t really been able to shake. Today, the company does a lot of things - it deals in data, in technology, and in media - but it came to prominence because of the Bloomberg Terminal, a computer software system for the financial industry that basically puts all the relevant information, capabilities, and people in the same place.

How he got there: a computer system most people have never heard of, let alone seen.īloomberg is the founder of Bloomberg LP, a private, multibillion-dollar firm he launched in 1981. And not just billionaire rich - he’s one of the richest people in the world, clocking in at more than $50 billion.

Bloomberg terminal subscription price