Beginner’s Guide to the Bloomberg Terminal

If you presently work in the finance industry, or have aspirations of doing so, chances are you have heard of a Bloomberg terminal. This Beginner ‘s Guide to Bloomberg tutorial will introduce you to one of the industry ‘s most wide used sources for real-time fiscal data. This template is aimed at new Bloomberg users, and will provide an overview of how to use a Bloomberg terminal. If you are a more experienced user, or if after reading this guide you want to go into more contingent on Bloomberg ‘s capabilities, please be on the lookout for the Advanced Guide to Bloomberg .

In this basic guide, we will examine how to sign up for, install, and access Bloomberg. We will then go on to covering basic navigation on the Bloomberg system. Navigating Bloomberg is reasonably alone in that the system uses a special keyboard with some keys that are different from those found on a “ convention ” keyboard. therefore, the seafaring section of this lead will be important to newcomers. After gaining a working cognition of these basics, we will then move on to discuss some of the market and newsworthiness monitor functions that are available on Bloomberg. The remainder of the tutorial will include information on analyzing securities equally well as some tips and tricks for getting the utmost possible benefit from this noteworthy machine .

Key Takeaways

• The Bloomberg Terminal has been an indispensable data and information system for financial professionals for decades.
• Once standalone terminals, today subscribers can download and run the Bloomberg software on PC or Mac.
• Today’s terminal offers a wealth of news & headlines, real-time quotes in numerous markets, tools for fundamental and technical analysis, economic research, and more.

facility and Access

There are two ways to begin using Bloomberg. The first is to subscribe to the Bloomberg service. You can do so by contacting them ( general liaison numeral is ( 212 ) 318-2000 ). The representative you speak with can then take down details of what you are looking for and have person from the sales team contact you. Pricing and terms of the narrow are singular to each user and would be discussed when the sales team contacts you .

however, be mindful that Bloomberg is an expensive organization and that having your own terminal may not be virtual for all users. Should you decide to subscribe to your own avail, Bloomberg can help you install the software over the call, or can come out to visit you and assist in installation. note : the software can be installed on most PCs or Macs, but the company will give you a special keyboard for navigating the arrangement .

The second method acting of accessing Bloomberg is to find a public adeptness that has a Bloomberg terminal. many larger libraries and universities have one, so that is a full place to start looking. The downside of this approach is that you wo n’t be able to customize the system and will have to share it with other users. however, for many users these drawbacks may be outweighed by the cost savings over subscribing to the system as an individual .

once you have accessed the system, the next antic is to figure out how to navigate. A good begin home would be either to schedule a visit from a Bloomberg customer service representative or to call customer servicing for some help. Bloomberg is normally quite estimable at providing technical support and aid, and a congressman should be able to give you a good starting signal on using the terminal .

Bloomberg .
The screenshot above shows the Bloomberg log in page. Each exploiter has a user mention and password that will allow them to access the system, although at populace facilities you might partake this with early users. once you have logged in, you ‘re quick to begin using the Bloomberg arrangement .

basic Navigation

The Bloomberg terminal, from the perspective of the end-user, is a Windows-based application, making it compatible with the popular Excel program, a very important aspect of the system for those in the finance diligence. Bloomberg besides offers users entree to the application on-line and through mobile devices, via its Bloomberg Anywhere service. For portfolio managers and brokers, having the ability to access real-time market information from about anywhere in the universe, is an incredibly commodious and important advantage of a Bloomberg subscription .

The first thing most people notice when they sit down in front man of a Bloomberg terminal, is the keyboard. Although it is similar to a standard desktop keyboard, Bloomberg terminals substitute the affair keys on a standard keyboard ( i.e., F4 ) with market sector keys. additionally, Bloomberg keyboards incorporate color code to make consumption more intuitive. The serve keys along the top of the keyboard are by and large discolor coded yellow and allow a user to navigate by asset class : politics bonds, corporate bonds, municipals, commodities, equity, currentness, and more .

For example, if a user is concern in examining a stock, they will generally access it through the key. If they want to look at trading the US $ versus the Euro, most functions would be accessed with the key. There are besides extra function keys for prefer stocks and funds. The Bloomberg keyboard besides has a special key for communicating with early users via electronic mail or clamant message arsenic well as a keystone that can be used when you require aid .

Image courtesy of Wikipedia .

Bloomberg Tickers

Bloomberg uses abbreviations and tickers for most of its functions. For exemplar, person looking for a quote on Microsoft neckcloth would type in the symbol for Microsoft ( MSFT ) followed by the key and then hit figure. This would bring up a menu of options relating to Microsoft stock. Since very few users know more than a small divide of the about unlimited number of available Bloomberg options, these menus award an excellent way to see what kind of analytics are available for a given security or market .

once you are familiar with Bloomberg, you might begin to memorize some of the shortcuts, thereby saving a step for familiar functions ( as opposed to going through the menu. ) For case, if you want to see the basic description page for Microsoft ‘s sprout, rather of accessing it through the menu, you could rather type and then hit enter. The “ des ” is the abbreviation for description pages on Bloomberg, and this common affair will provide a good general overview of most securities .

note : Because there are an about unlimited total of functions in Bloomberg, the best way to begin navigating the organization is probably to use menus and then select your favored functions from there. Over time, you can begin to memorize the shortcuts for your most normally use functions, while continuing to use the menu for less frequent choices .

aid

You will notice that there is a greens key on the Bloomberg keyboard. This key can be your best ally, specially when you are new to the system. By hitting the help key once, you can get information about the shield that you are presently viewing. Hitting avail twice will send an clamant message to the Bloomberg aid desk. You can then ask your interrogate via be old world chat with a Bloomberg specialist who can guide you on using the terminal equally well as on whatever particular officiate you are trying to access .

Messaging

One of the dainty features of Bloomberg is that it has a fairly robust message system. This system allows users to stay in contact with early users and is one of the reasons that Bloomberg is so omnipresent in the fiscal industry. You can look up early users of the system in regulate to send them a message, and if you contact person regularly, you can set them up on speed-dial as well. When message, you have two choices .

The first is to send a traditional message, which is basically like an electronic mail. The moment is to open up an moment message window with the early user, which, as the name implies, is exchangeable to traditional instant message. Both methods work bang-up, so which one you chose is largely a matter of personal preference .

News and Market Monitors

In addition to analyzing individual securities, a common function of the Bloomberg terminal is to monitor newsworthiness updates and fiscal market movements. here excessively, there is an endless array of possibilities, and which one users prefer is frequently a topic of personal choice. however, there are a pair of coarse screens that can serve as a depart point for newly users. note : When in doubt, the menu functions can besides help here. The general menu that you see for most asset classes ( including equities, currencies, commodities, etc. ) will normally contain listings for market monitors that provide a dependable get down rate for analysis .

News

The best place to begin looking for news on Bloomberg is by typing or and then hitting. These function bring up a page of the acme newsworthiness stories of the day, which are updated on an ongoing footing. Selecting any of these headlines will bring up the full moon report. Within the officiate, there are extra sub-menus that will allow you to view news program stories that are filtered by asset class, geographic region, or topic .

For case, you can choose to see the crown cosmopolitan stories, the exceed U.S. stories, or the exceed stories for stocks, for bonds, or for about any other category you choose. You can besides ( if you are using your own personal Bloomberg ) choose to set the nonpayment for top news to whichever class you prefer, indeed that when you type in you see the news class that is most authoritative to you. The screenshot below shows an exemplar of the screen for crown worldwide news headlines .

News .
As mentioned above, news can besides be customized in a wide variety show of ways. For exemplify, if you are chiefly concern in the stock market, you can entree top newsworthiness for stocks. The screenshot below displays this. As you can see, the stock news program screen is further broken down into sections : inaugural for global headlines, then by continent with North America, followed by Europe and last Asia. Users seeking flush greater detail can click on the regions in white to access stock news headlines specific to a region or country, such as the United States, Canada, Eastern Europe, etc .

News by Geography .

marketplace Monitor

There are a number of marketplace proctor pages that cover a assortment of asset classes, deoxyadenosine monophosphate well as some that cover a single asset classify or market sector. The monitor under is accessed by typing into your Bloomberg. The PX1 screen is a little bit more focus on the U.S. Treasury bond market, while besides giving updates on the Dow, Nasdaq, S & P, a good as the gold and anoint markets .

commercialize Monitor .
The screenshot below is another case of a market monitor that is chiefly focused on the bail market. This shield can be viewed by typing. Although this is another adhesiveness grocery store riddle, you will notice that it covers a broader range of securities than the PX1 affair discussed above. In accession to U.S. Treasuries, the BTMM screen shows markets for a wide kind of money marketplace instruments, arsenic well as mortgage-backed bonds and currencies. The BTMM riddle besides includes quotes on the Dow, Nasdaq, and S & P, deoxyadenosine monophosphate well as anoint .

last, the screen contains a listing of the day ‘s major economic releases, making it easily to keep track of this a well. In summation to PX1 and BTMM, there are a battalion of extra market monitor screens that chiefly focus on movements in the bond markets. As you can imagine, there is no one screen that is “ best, ” and which one users prefer is ultimately a count of personal choice .

market Monitor .
In summation to monitors that primarily track bond markets, there are besides a wide assortment of monitors that focus on equity markets. As a commodity starting place, you can pull up the proctor below by typing into your keyboard. As you can see, this monitor displays equity index movements from around the globe. You can get more contingent on extra markets in a given region by drilling down into the menu. For example, by clicking on the “ Asia/Pacific ” head, you can access updates on the markets in that region that were unable to fit on the front page ascribable to space constraints .

note : On most of these proctor pages, american samoa well as many other screens, any of the headers in a flannel font with a number in front of it indicate an extra sub-menu that can be accessed. For case, on the filmdom below there is a “ 1 ) Americas ”, a “ 2 ) EMEA ” and a “ 3 ) Asia/Pacific ” that can all be accessed either by clicking on them or by typing in the appropriate act and hit. There are besides choices at the top marked by “ 95 ) Settings ” and “ 96 ) newsworthiness ” that represent sub-menus a well .

market Monitor .

Economics

In addition to monitoring market indices and news program headlines, the Bloomberg terminal can besides be used to monitor economic forecasts and releases. By typing you can access the main economics page. This page gives a list of all approaching economic datum releases, deoxyadenosine monophosphate good as consensus forecasts of what economists at major banks and brokerages are predicting those numbers will be. Upon release, the ECO sieve besides shows the actual issue, deoxyadenosine monophosphate well as any revision to the previous month ‘s report. For those interested in abroad markets, there is an ECO page for most major economies .

By using the dropdown menu for “ Region ” and “ Country ” you can access economic forecasts and data from Europe, China, and elsewhere, in summation to the United States. The screenshot under displays a basic ECO blind with data for the United States.

Economics .

Analyzing Securities and Currencies

In addition to monitoring news program and markets, Bloomberg can besides be used to analyze individual securities. In fact, the analytics available in Bloomberg are quite robust, and they cover a number of major asset classes including equities, fasten income, currencies, commodities, reciprocal funds and ETFs. This guidebook will attempt to cover some of the basic functions that are available. To learn more, contact a Bloomberg representative for trail, read Investopedia ‘s Advanced Bloomberg Guide, or explore extra functions in a hands-on manner .

If you are uncertain what the ticker symbol is for a security you want to look at, you can find the ticker by hitting the key for the asset class you are looking at followed by. For example, if you wanted to analyze Microsoft stock but did n’t know the ticker, you could hit and then type in Microsoft and the ticker would appear. bill : using this function will pull up a list of all the tickers for that ship’s company. For exemplify, if a stock is listed on multiple exchanges, all of them will appear. therefore, it is authoritative to make certain you select the chastise security from the list when using this function ( for example, in this case most users would be seeking the watch for Microsoft store listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange ) .

once you have the chastise watch, the basic sieve for beginning security analysis is the description page, Bloomberg abbreviation. The screenshot below shows page one of the Bloomberg description for Microsoft stock ( similar screens are besides available for many types of bonds and other asset classes ). As you can see, the description page provides a brief overview of what the company does, equally well as basic data such as a price quote, 52-week high and abject, market capitalization, earnings per share, P/E Ratio, dividend yield, and more. The page below is only the beginning page of ten pages of security description information .

By scrolling forward, you can access extra information, including touch details for the ship’s company, and a breakdown of the company ‘s gross and earnings by geographic area and grocery store segment. You can besides find detail fiscal data such as an income statement, cash flow argument, and balance sail. ( note : the fiscal data can sometimes be a bite go steady, so you might want to double check the go steady listed following to the fiscal statements if seeing the most recent datum is authoritative to you. )

analysis .
In addition to looking at descriptive information or fiscal fundamentals, Bloomberg can besides be used to analyze a security system ‘s price history and trade patterns. By typing into the system, users can access a price history for whatever security they are looking at, while typing will bring up a simpleton graph of that price history .

For users matter to in more advance technical analysis, Bloomberg offers an promote suite of charting capabilities. While a complete description of available charts is beyond the scope of this article, some of the tools available include proportional lastingness indicators ( RSI ), Bollinger Bands®, intraday monetary value and bulk charts, candlestick charts, and comparison charts displaying multiple securities. An example of a bare price and volume chart for Microsoft stock is displayed below .

analysis .
Bloomberg besides provides easy access to company updates. For case, in addition to the lead news stories discussed, Bloomberg besides offers company-specific news. For example, once you have pulled up a security system ( such as Microsoft lineage ) you can type into the Bloomberg and a scroll tilt of the most holocene news stories concerning that security will come up. You can then click on any of those headlines in order to read the full story. Additional security system specific information that can be found on Bloomberg includes earnings estimates ( Bloomberg ticker EE ), analyst recommendations ( Bloomberg ticker ANR ), and accredit ratings ( Bloomberg ticker CRPR ) .

More on analyzing specific asset classes is below .

Equities

When searching for publicly traded equity shares, Bloomberg allows users to search by name, change, country, and other such topics. additionally, the fairness menu allows users to view historical pricing on a stock ( see effigy below ), read a description of the commercial enterprise, view any great bodied debt the party may have, and view analyst reports and estimates for the stock, along with dozens of early features. This menu besides allows users to search for indexes such as the S & P 500 or Russell 2000 .

Equities .
Bloomberg besides allows clients to compare and contrast equities side by side, offering a comparative psychoanalysis of any two equities. Comparison fields include fundamental psychoanalysis, historical ratios, and technical foul chart. In accession to comparative functionality, Bloomberg besides includes screeners, allowing clients to screen for stocks using a multitude of metrics. After running a screen, users can besides filter results and create custom equity sets, which allow for a quick reference of real-time results for a portfolio of equities ( very handy for traders, brokers and other such fiscal professionals ) .

Fixed Income

much like with equities, Bloomberg allows users to search for real-time data on fix income securities. This includes corporate debt, municipal bonds, and government bonds. like to the historical monetary value screen for equities, we are able to view historic day-over-day changes in security values, along with imply yield-to-maturities, for any given day. additionally, credit ratings and price of capital information is available for cook income securities .

Derivatives

One of Bloomberg ‘s best features is its derivatives capabilities. not alone can clients find real-time values for securities, such as exchange traded options, and futures contracts, such as the active agent contract for WTI, but Bloomberg besides allows users to value hard-to-price derivatives. For OTC options, for case, Bloomberg lets users customize their option evaluation models, to come up with an estimated measure. A exploiter can decide to value an OTC option on the S & P 500 using the continuous Black-Scholes exemplar, using historical excitability ( see trope below ), for exemplar. once priced, users can view the values of the Greeks associated with the option in question, to verify that their price estimate is in line with those expectations .

Derivatives .
barter

SWAPS are a type of derivative used by big banks and institutional investors. The Bloomberg Terminal has a SWAP coach creature that is a highly customizable swap price utility. It allows users to input the parameters of a swap agreement and come up with an estimate for the value of that barter, at any given date in time. additionally, clients can view fundamental trade curves to determine that the underlying inputs equal expected values. As the trade grocery store continues to grow, the Swap Manager tool will no doubt gain more and more popularity with analysts .

Foreign Exchange

With the FX marketplace being a 24-hour marketplace, Bloomberg is the ideal creature for FX participants. Users can view real-time rates for dozens of currencies, along with basis curves for most pairs, and pace information for a given currency. additionally, with Bloomberg ‘s ability to capture real-time newsworthiness and economic updates, its FX capabilities are a very potent cock for those trade in the extraneous exchange market .

Tips and Tricks

Because Bloomberg has such a full-bodied suite of analytics and marketplace capabilities, getting the system to do what you want it to can be a challenge, at least until you become conversant with it. fortunately, there are some tricks that can speed up your learning curve .

Make use of the function: Bloomberg provides excellent customer support ; make function of it by hitting the key when you need aid. Remember, hitting once describes the function you are using ; hitting it twice will connect you to customer patronize via clamant message .

Schedule a visit from a Bloomberg representative:  particularly if you have your own system, you should take advantage of a sojourn from a Bloomberg spokesperson who can walk you through the system and show you how to use some of the functions that might be helpful for what you intend to do .

Get Bloomberg “cheat sheets”: Bloomberg puts out “ cheat sheets ” that list common functions and their Bloomberg tickers. These sheets are broken down by assets class, so if you intend to analyze equities, get a plane with the most common fairness functions, if you like fixed income, get a fixed income guide, etc. These “ cheat sheets ” should give you a good begin point for navigating common Bloomberg functions .

Visit Bloomberg University: By typing or into the organization, you will be taken to a screen that offers a broad variety of training videos, informational papers and populate seminars. The seminars are broken down by region, so you might be concerned in attending one in your area ( there is a fee for some of the seminars, but the majority are offered spare to Bloomberg users ) .

Incorporate Excel into Bloomberg: Bloomberg connects rather seamlessly with Excel, so you can use spreadsheets to analyze data downloaded from Bloomberg. even better, you can build a spreadsheet that mechanically updates your data each prison term you open it, saving you the fuss of doing so by handwriting. Best of all, Bloomberg offers sample distribution spreadsheets for common types of psychoanalysis ( i.e. tracking stock price movements or analyzing company libra sheets ), thereby saving you the trouble oneself of building your own spreadsheet. You can besides foster customize these generic spreadsheets that Bloomberg offers in order to fit your specific needs. If you are concerned in incorporating Excel spreadsheets into Bloomberg, type to access the Excel chief menu on Bloomberg .

How Much Does the Bloomberg Terminal Cost?

For a standard license, a Bloomberg Terminal costs around $ 2,000 per calendar month, or $ 24,000 per year .

Can You Place Trades from the Bloomberg Terminal?

Yes. You can place holy order in respective markets using sophisticate order rout and complex order tools .

How Many Bloomberg Terminal Users Are There?

According to the company, there are more than 325,000 paid subscribers to the Bloomberg Terminal .

The Bottom Line

This basic template to Bloomberg has provided an introduction to one of the most hardheaded tools participants in the fiscal markets can use. unfortunately, Bloomberg can be expensive, which means that having a home system may not be practical for many readers. On the plus side though, it is often possible to access a Bloomberg terminal through a public site such as a library or university. Because there are so many functions available in Bloomberg, this scout has been able to provide no more than a elementary presentation to the system, along with an overview of some coarse tools that users might find utilitarian. Once you begin using Bloomberg, you will undoubtedly find a bang-up many more tools that fit your particular investment and trade style .

Readers interested in a more in-depth interrogation of Bloomberg may besides want to keep an eye out for the Advanced Guide to Bloomberg on the Investopedia web site. The Advanced Guide will provide more detail instructions on how Bloomberg can be used to analyze, monitor, and trade some of the major asset classes, including stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities. beyond that there are besides respective other tutorials available to those interested in learning more, including those offered directly from Bloomberg itself. furthermore, many Colleges and Universities are offering Bloomberg courses, to help students gain early photograph to the most widely use tool for real-time fiscal data in the global of finance. Once you are equipped with some aim, it is fair a matter of sitting down with the system and familiarizing yourself with it. As with many systems, in the end the best direction to learn Bloomberg is through hands-on test and error .

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