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How would have the stock computers worked in trading places.

M

Mr. Horse

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Anyone remember the movie trading places from 83?
Near the beginning of the movie the two Duke brothers are in the back of a rolls royce looking at a computer screen with real time stock quotes.
Every time I watch this movie im stuck wondering how that would have worked in 83.
I know there were terminals back then that gave real time stock prices, but a system that would work remotely in a car?
My only guess is that it somehow used a car phone to tellnet/dial out or something.

I can't find a clip of the scene but at the end of this clip the same computer is seen.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uI4fVgVVpiw
 
Car phones were fairly common for about a decade before. Stock market terminals of various types were also widely available. Attach a modem to the computer and pass the signal through the car phone. The price would be excessive and the reliability lacking. Errors in transmission would mean getting incorrect quotes leading to the ending of the movie at about the 15 minute mark.
 
When I started with CDC i worked out of an office that shared a commercial 2-way radio shop. In the 70's we installed custom data terminals in police cars/utility vehicles/etc that communicated over VHF radio.

In the Navy in the 60's our shipboard data terminals communicated using with other NTDS ships over HF radio data links, running SSB in 2-30mhz range. Due to skip, one time when we were in the Gulf of Tonkin our ship picked up the target tracking from another ship that was entering San Francisco Bay.
 
I would believe it was cellular data transmission to some stockmarket terminal. They were filthy rich mind you, they would afford even super expensive toys; although for them it was a lifeline im sure.
 
Doug G said:
When I started with CDC i worked out of an office that shared a commercial 2-way radio shop. In the 70's we installed custom data terminals in police cars/utility vehicles/etc that communicated over VHF radio.

In the Navy in the 60's our shipboard data terminals communicated using with other NTDS ships over HF radio data links, running SSB in 2-30mhz range. Due to skip, one time when we were in the Gulf of Tonkin our ship picked up the target tracking from another ship that was entering San Francisco Bay.
Click to expand...

HF is a wonderful thing. When performing HF radio checks from a C-117 at NAS Corpus Christi, TX, we were able to make contact with Mexico City departure control as well as Miami International on a regular basis using an AN/ART-13 at somewhere just above 5 MHz. .
 
The screen in the movie shows "Telerate", which was a market-oriented news service that was available since the 1970s, according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telerate. The terminal in the office is a green-screen of who-knows manufacture. I have a DVD of the movie (yes, I'm that old); I'll have to go back and review to see if I can identify the mobile setup.

But briefly stated, yes it was possible back then. The first portable phone I ever saw was a briefcase-sized unit. That was back in the '80s. Some very self-important guy brought it to his kid's soccer game. If you've got the money...

-CH-
 
Thanks for the info everyone. I thought it would likely been done with a car phone and modem of some sort.
 
clh333 said:
The screen in the movie shows "Telerate", which was a market-oriented news service that was available since the 1970s, according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telerate. The terminal in the office is a green-screen of who-knows manufacture. I have a DVD of the movie (yes, I'm that old); I'll have to go back and review to see if I can identify the mobile setup.

But briefly stated, yes it was possible back then. The first portable phone I ever saw was a briefcase-sized unit. That was back in the '80s. Some very self-important guy brought it to his kid's soccer game. If you've got the money...

-CH-
Click to expand...

That old? Ha! I still have it on VHS from when I recorded it the first time it was on network television.

Pretty sure I have it on CED, too.
 
The font on the terminal looks like the font in the TRS-80 Color Computer, so I would assume it used some sort of Motorola video chip... or it's just a coincidence.
 
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