The Bloomberg Terminal started as a keyboard. Not a screen — a keyboard. When Mike Bloomberg built the first version in 1982, traders navigated it through typed commands: EQUITY GO, DES, HP. No mouse. No drag-and-drop. No chart you could pinch to zoom. Your hands never left the keyboard, and that was the point, because in markets, the distance between your hand and the execute button is measured in dollars.
Forty years later, every new trading product ships a dashboard. Real-time charts, color-coded heatmaps, streaming candlesticks, portfolio pie charts, notification badges. The modern retail trading interface is a spectacle — and Robinhood completed the arc by literally showering you with confetti when you made a trade, turning the act of putting money at risk into a celebration.
We've spent two decades turning traders into an audience. I think this was a wrong turn. And I think the next generation of trading infrastructure looks less like TradingView and more like a terminal.
sparkco123•1h ago
If you think about it, how humans interact with the entire world is through a "CLI". Your brain sends a signal that commands you to do stuff
patrickspff•1h ago
Forty years later, every new trading product ships a dashboard. Real-time charts, color-coded heatmaps, streaming candlesticks, portfolio pie charts, notification badges. The modern retail trading interface is a spectacle — and Robinhood completed the arc by literally showering you with confetti when you made a trade, turning the act of putting money at risk into a celebration.
We've spent two decades turning traders into an audience. I think this was a wrong turn. And I think the next generation of trading infrastructure looks less like TradingView and more like a terminal.