Hooking up using the Bloomberg terminal

Hillary Reinsberg of BuzzFeed writes Wednesday about how some people who work on Wall Street use the Bloomberg terminal for social and sexual encounters.

Reinsberg writes, “‘My friend’s boss discovered very graphic sexting between an FX sales girl and a guy on the Russian sales team,’ explained a woman who formerly worked in derivatives sales at a British investment bank. ‘There were details from positions they did the night before, their favorite things to do to each other, their weekend escapes. The girl was engaged and the guy was married at the time.’

“The woman, who asked her name and former employer not be mentioned, said she frequently met men in bars and clubs who later looked her up on Instant Bloomberg. ‘Being asked out happens a lot, especially if you are a good-looking sales woman,’ she said. ‘A lot of people who work on the trading floor don’t go out much and their dating pool is each other.’

“The advances occasionally came from clients. ‘The most uncomfortable for me was always flirting from clients. There were messages like, ‘You looked really great in that dress at dinner,’ or, ‘You drink like a man, I wonder what else you do like a man.’’

“Because most banks ban access to Gmail, Facebook, and other chat clients, Instant Bloomberg is the only outlet for many traders glued to their terminals. ‘The IM is used a lot for personal use and there is a lot of chat and gossip behind everyone’s back, like, ‘She dresses so slutty, he is such a asshole, that person said this, did this did that,’’ the woman who worked in derivatives sales explained.

“At her firm, she said, managers could more easily read employees’ corporate email than their Bloomberg messages, which made people more laid back in their IMs.”

Read more here. Such conversations could end if investment banks decide to ban the function in their shops, notes Reinsberg.