The GOAT of Bloomberg swag was a mug that revealed charts when filled with hot water.

The mugs were given to clients in the early 1990s.

Over time the resin faded, making it possible to see the underlying picture all the time.

I have a small, but growing collection. (I just added a fourth. It was $39 on Ebay!)

The “benchmark” mug was a chart of the U.S. Treasury yield curve.

It was the {C15 <go>} function on the terminal.

The function was created the last time inflation mattered, in the 1980s, which is Jurrassic by Bloomberg standards.

That mnemonic still works, though is used by far fewer clients these days than a general charting application {GC <go> }.

One lesson from the mug: The curve was steeper in those days!

Another popular mug chart showed currency charts.

It’s a bit of a time capsule since it includes the Deutsche Mark among four major currencies. The others are the British Pound, U.S. Dollar and Canadian dollar.