Michael Bloomberg, world-renowned entrepreneur, founder of Bloomberg, LP, and former mayor of New York City, developed a revolutionary financial tool in the 1980s: the Bloomberg Terminal. It is a sophisticated computer system used by financial professionals to keep abreast of the latest market movements, execute trades, and monitor portfolios.

A Bloomberg Terminal consists of two main components - hardware and software. The hardware consists of a display monitor and a keyboard. The software contains proprietary market data, analytics tools, and trading platforms. It also includes third-party tools for analysis, market surveillance, and order management.

The system is designed to help investors access real-time data, make informed trades, and take advantage of opportunities in the financial markets. It also gives users a wide array of resources to analyze investments, plan strategies, track portfolio performance, and generate forecasts. The Bloomberg Terminal provides years of data history on more than 10 million securities, commodities, and currencies. It also provides an array of research tools, charting tools, and a library of more than 850,000 news and economic reports.

The cost of a single Bloomberg Terminal subscription runs into the tens of thousands of dollars annually, making it too expensive for individual investors. But it is particularly attractive to large institutional investors, fund managers, and financial professionals who need access to real-time data and in-depth analytics on multiple asset classes.

Today, Bloomberg remains the preeminent leader when it comes to financial analysis, trading, and news. Its main competitors in this space are Thomson Reuters and other products like Capital IQ, FactSet, and Tradar. Although these firms offer similar products at lower prices, Bloomberg has a long-standing reputation for top-notch, high-quality services.