In the 1970s and for most of the 1980s, it would have been against the rules of the Chicago Board Options Exchange to use a computer on the trading floor, and to my knowledge no one tried: the computers of the period were too cumbersome. … Most traders seem to have regarded calculators as too slow for use in a pit. Even the few seconds it would take to input parameter values and wait for a solution could mean a loss of profitable trading opportunities. Furthermore, making the necessary adjustment to take into account the payment of dividends was "difficult and time-consuming." In consequence, few "use [programmable calculators] regularly for option evaluation after the initial novelty wears off" (Gastineau 1979, pp.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 714