The Black-Scholes model entered trading floors via paper sheets, not computers

Evidence

Instead, an old technology paper was the most important mediator between the mathematics of the Black-Scholes-Merton model and what was sometimes the scrum of human bodies on trading floors. Away from the hubbub, computers were used to generate Black-Scholes prices. Those prices were reproduced on sets of paper sheets which floor traders could carry around, often tightly wound cylindrically with only immediately relevant rows visible so that a quick squint would reveal the relevant price. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 716

Categorization

• XREF: This is the concrete material substrate of the performativity thesis — the model only shaped markets through a low-tech mediation. Connects to the book’s broader argument about material mediators (pricing machines, terminals) rather than abstract ideas.
• DEFINE: Documents how a “material performativity” of the model worked: paper, not silicon, carried the price into the pit.