ABSTRACT
At the time of the 1987 crash, some 43,000 subscribers paid substantial monthly fees to rent 131,000 Reuters computer screens; these screens would display data from a wide range of financial markets, delivered over what Reuters states is the world’s largest private communications network. Its Monitor service (since 1973) has provided subscribers with the most comprehensive real-time database commercially available; the Monitor Dealing service (launched in 1981) enables subscribers to contact each other in seconds and carry out transactions on their Monitor terminals. Monitor has, for a generation now, epitomized Reuters’ technological and financial success.
