Beginner’s Guide to the Bloomberg Terminal

The Bloomberg terminal is one of the industry’s most widely used sources for real-time financial information. This guide is aimed at new Bloomberg users and will provide an overview of how to use a Bloomberg terminal. If you want to go into more detail on Bloomberg’s capabilities, please be on the lookout for the Advanced Guide to Bloomberg.

Here we’ll examine how to sign up for, install, and access Bloomberg. We’ll then cover basic navigation on the Bloomberg system. Navigating Bloomberg is somewhat unique in that the system uses a special keyboard with some keys that are different from those found on a “normal” keyboard.

We’ll discuss some of the market and news monitor functions available on Bloomberg after gaining a working knowledge of these basics.

Installation and Access

You can begin using Bloomberg in two ways. The first is to subscribe to the Bloomberg service. You can do so by contacting them. The general contact number for the Americas is (212) 318-2000, but other locations have different numbers.

The representative you speak with can take down details of what you’re looking for and have someone from the sales team contact you. Pricing and terms of the contract are unique to each user and will be discussed when the sales team contacts you.

The software can be installed on most PCs or Macs, but the company will give you a special keyboard for navigating the system.

The second method of accessing Bloomberg is to find a public facility with a Bloomberg terminal. Many larger libraries and universities have one, so that’s a good place to start looking.

The downside of this approach is that you won’t be able to customize the system, and you’ll have to share it with other users. These drawbacks may be outweighed by the cost savings of subscribing to the system as an individual for many users, however.

The next trick is to figure out how to navigate the system. A good starting point would be to schedule a visit from a Bloomberg customer service representative or call customer service for help. Bloomberg is usually quite good at providing technical support and assistance.

The screenshot above shows the Bloomberg log-in page. Each user has a username and password that will allow them to access the system, although you might have to share this with other users at public facilities. You’re ready to begin using the Bloomberg system after you’ve logged in.

Basic Navigation

The Bloomberg terminal 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 industry. Bloomberg also offers users access to the application online and through mobile devices via its Bloomberg Anywhere service.

Accessing real-time market information from almost anywhere in the world is an incredibly convenient and important advantage of a Bloomberg subscription for portfolio managers and brokers.

The first thing most people notice when they sit down in front of a Bloomberg terminal is the keyboard. It’s similar to a standard desktop keyboard, but Bloomberg terminals substitute the function keys on a standard keyboard (i.e., F4) with market sector keys.

Bloomberg keyboards also incorporate color coding to make them more intuitive. The function keys along the top of the keyboard are mostly color-coded yellow, and they allow a user to navigate by asset class: government bonds, corporate bonds, municipals, commodities, equities, and currencies.

If a user is interested in examining a stock, they’ll generally access it through the key. If they want to look at trading the U.S. dollar versus the euro, most functions would be accessed with the key.

There are also special function keys for preferred stocks and funds. The Bloomberg keyboard has a special key for communicating with other users via email or instant message, as well as a key that can be used when you require assistance.

Bloomberg Tickers

Bloomberg uses abbreviations and tickers for most of its functions. Someone looking for a quote on Microsoft stock would type in the symbol for Microsoft (MSFT), followed by the key, and then hit enter.

This would bring up a menu of options relating to Microsoft stock. Very few users know more than a small fraction of the almost limitless number of available Bloomberg options, so these menus present an excellent way to see what sort of analytics are available for a given security or market.

You might begin to memorize some of the shortcuts after you’re familiar with Bloomberg, saving a step for familiar functions rather than going through the menu.

If you want to see the basic description page for Microsoft’s stock, you could type this in and then hit enter instead of accessing it through the menu. The “des” is the abbreviation for description pages on Bloomberg, and this common function will provide a good general overview of most securities.

There are an almost unlimited number of functions in Bloomberg, so the best way to begin navigating the system is probably to use menus and then select your favorite functions from there. You can begin to memorize the shortcuts for your most commonly used functions over time while continuing to use the menus for less frequent choices.

Help

You’ll notice that there’s a green key on the Bloomberg keyboard. This can be your best friend, especially when you’re new to the system. You can get information about the screen that you’re currently viewing by hitting the help key once.

Hitting it twice will send an instant message to the Bloomberg help desk. You can then ask your question via live chat with a Bloomberg specialist who can guide you on using the terminal as well as whatever particular function you’re trying to access.

Messaging

One of the nice features of Bloomberg is that it has a fairly robust messaging system. This system allows users to stay in contact with other users and is one of the reasons that Bloomberg is so ubiquitous in the financial industry.

You can look up other users of the system to send them a message, and you can set them up on speed dial as well if you contact someone regularly.

You have two choices when messaging. The first is to send a traditional message, which is basically like an email. The second is to open up an instant message window with the other user, which is similar to traditional instant messaging. Both methods work great, so which one you choose is largely a matter of personal preference.

News and Market Monitors

A common use of the Bloomberg terminal in addition to analyzing individual securities is to monitor news updates and financial market movements. Here, too, there’s an endless array of possibilities. Which one users prefer is often a matter of personal choice.

There are a couple of common screens that can serve as a starting point for new users. When in doubt, the menu functions can also help here. The general menu that you see for most asset classes, including equities, currencies, and commodities, will usually contain listings for market monitors that provide a good starting place for analysis.

News

The best place to begin looking for news on Bloomberg is by typing in its name and then hitting “enter” to search. These functions bring up a page of the top news stories of the day, which are updated on an ongoing basis. Selecting any of these headlines will bring up the full story. There are additional sub-menus within the function that will allow you to view news stories that are filtered by asset class, geographic region, or topic.

You can choose to see the top worldwide stories, the top U.S. stories, or the top stories for stocks, bonds, or almost any other category you choose.

You can also choose to set the default for top news to whichever category you prefer if you’re using your own personal Bloomberg. The news category that’s most important to you is what you’ll see when you type in. The screenshot below shows an example of the screen for the top worldwide news headlines.

News can also be customized in a wide variety of other ways. If you’re primarily interested in the stock market, you can access top news for stocks.

The stock news screen is further broken down into sections: first for worldwide headlines, then by continent, with North America, followed by Europe, and, finally, Asia. Users seeking even 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, or Eastern Europe.

Market Monitor

There are several market monitor pages that cover a variety of asset classes, as well as some that cover a single asset class or market sector. The monitor below is accessed by typing the request into your Bloomberg. The PX1 screen is a little bit more focused on the U.S. Treasury bond market while also giving updates on the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P, as well as the gold and oil markets.

The screenshot below is another example of a market monitor that’s primarily focused on the bond market. This is another bond market screen, but you’ll notice that it covers a broader array of securities than the PX1 function. The BTMM screen shows markets for a wide variety of money market instruments, as well as mortgage-backed bonds and currencies, in addition to U.S. Treasuries. The BTMM screen also includes quotes on the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P, as well as oil.

Finally, the screen contains a listing of the day’s major economic releases, making it easy to keep track of this as well. There are a multitude of additional market monitor screens in addition to PX1 and BTMM that primarily focus on movements in the bond markets. As you can imagine, no one screen is “best,” and which one users prefer is ultimately a matter of personal choice. 

There’s also a wide variety of monitors that focus on equity markets. You can pull up the monitor below by typing the request on your keyboard.

This monitor displays equity index movements from around the globe. You can get more details on additional markets in a given region by drilling down into the menu. By clicking on the “Asia/Pacific” heading, you can access updates on the markets in that region that were unable to fit on the front page due to space constraints.

Any of the headers in a white font with numbers in front of them indicate an additional sub-menu that can be accessed on most of these monitor pages, as well as many other screens. On the screen below, there are “1) Americas”, “2) EMEA,” and “3) Asia/Pacific,” which can all be accessed by either clicking on them or by typing in the appropriate number and hitting enter. There are also choices at the top marked by “95) Settings” and “96) News” that represent sub-menus as well.

Economics

The Bloomberg terminal can also be used to monitor economic forecasts and releases. This page gives a listing of all upcoming economic data releases, as well as consensus forecasts of what economists at major banks and brokerages are predicting those numbers will be. The ECO screen also shows the actual number upon release, as well as any revisions to the previous month’s report. There’s an ECO page for most major economies for those interested in overseas markets.

You can access economic forecasts and data from Europe, China, and elsewhere by using the dropdown menus for “Region” and “Country.” The screenshot below displays a basic ECO screen with data for the United States.

Analyzing Securities and Currencies

Bloomberg can also be used to analyze individual securities. The analytics available in Bloomberg are quite robust, and they cover several major asset classes, including equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities, mutual funds, and ETFs.

This guide will attempt to cover some of the available basic functions. Contact a Bloomberg representative for training to learn more, read Investopedia’s Advanced Bloomberg Guide, or explore additional functions in a hands-on manner.

You can find the ticker by hitting the key for the asset class you’re looking at if you’re uncertain what the ticker symbol is for a security you want to look at. You could type in Microsoft and hit enter, and the ticker would appear if you wanted to analyze Microsoft stock but didn’t know the ticker.

Using this function will pull up a list of all the tickers for that company. All of them will appear if a stock is listed on multiple exchanges, so it’s important to make sure you select the correct security from the list when using this function. Most users would be looking for the ticker for Microsoft stock listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in this example.

The basic screen for beginning security analysis is the description page, Bloomberg abbreviation, after you have the correct ticker. The screenshot below shows page one of the Bloomberg description for Microsoft stock. Similar screens are also 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, as well as basic information such as a price quote, 52-week high and low, market capitalization, earnings per share, P/E Ratio, and dividend yield. The page below is only the first page of 10 pages of security description information.

You can access additional information by scrolling forward, including contact details for the company and a breakdown of the company’s revenue and earnings by geographic region and market segment. You can also find detailed financial data such as an income statement, cash flow statement, and balance sheet.

The financial data can sometimes be a bit dated, so you might want to double-check the date listed next to the financial statements if seeing the most recent data is important to you. 

Bloomberg can also be used to analyze a security’s price history and trading patterns. Users can access a price history for whatever security they’re looking at by typing this request into the system.

Bloomberg offers an advanced suite of charting capabilities for users interested in more advanced technical analysis.

A complete description of available charts is beyond the scope of this article, but some of the tools available include relative strength indicators (RSI), Bollinger Bands®, intraday price and volume charts, candlestick charts, and comparison charts displaying multiple securities. An example of a simple price and volume chart for Microsoft stock is displayed below.

Bloomberg also provides easy access to company updates. It offers company-specific news in addition to the top news stories discussed.

You can type into Bloomberg, and a scrolling list of the most recent news stories concerning that security will come up after you’ve pulled up a security, such as Microsoft stock. You can then click on any of those headlines to read the full story.

Additional security-specific information that can be found on Bloomberg includes earnings estimates (Bloomberg ticker EE), analyst recommendations (Bloomberg ticker ANR), and credit ratings (Bloomberg ticker CRPR).

Equities

Bloomberg allows users to search by name, exchange, country, and other such topics when they’re searching for publicly traded equity shares.

The equity menu also allows users to view historical pricing on a stock, read a description of the business, view any outstanding corporate debt the company may have, and view analyst reports and estimates for the stock, along with dozens of other features. This menu also allows users to search for indices such as the S&P 500 or Russell 2000.

Bloomberg allows clients to compare and contrast equities side by side, offering a comparative analysis of any two. Comparison fields include fundamental analysis, historical ratios, and technical charting. Bloomberg also includes screeners, allowing clients to screen for stocks using a multitude of metrics.

Users can also filter results and create custom equity sets after running a screen, which allows for a quick reference of real-time results for a portfolio of equities. This can be very handy for traders, brokers, and other such financial professionals.

Fixed Income

Much like with equities, Bloomberg allows users to search for real-time data on fixed-income securities. This includes corporate debt, municipal bonds, and government bonds.

Similar to the historical price screen for equities, we can view historical day-over-day changes in security values, along with implied yield-to-maturities, for any given day. Additionally, credit ratings and cost of capital information are available for fixed-income securities.

Derivatives

One of Bloomberg’s best features is its derivatives capabilities. Not only can clients find real-time values for securities, such as exchange-traded options and futures contracts, but Bloomberg also allows users to value hard-to-price derivatives.

A user can decide to value an OTC option on the S&P 500 using the continuous Black-Scholes model, using historical volatility. Users can view the values of the Greeks associated with the option in question when priced to verify that their price estimate is in line with those expectations.

SWAPS

SWAPS are a type of derivative used by large banks and institutional investors. The Bloomberg Terminal has a SWAP manager tool that’s a highly customizable swap pricing utility. It allows users to input the parameters of a swap agreement and come up with an estimate for the value of that swap at any given date in time.

Clients can also view underlying swap curves to determine that the underlying inputs match expected values.

Foreign Exchange

Bloomberg is the ideal tool for FX participants because the FX market is a 24-hour marketplace. Users can view real-time rates for dozens of currencies along with basis curves for most pairs, and rate information for a given currency.

Its FX capabilities are also a very powerful tool for those trading in the foreign exchange market, with Bloomberg’s ability to capture real-time news and economic updates.

Tips and Tricks

Bloomberg has such a robust suite of analytics and market capabilities that getting the system to do what you want it to do can be a challenge, at least until you become familiar with it. Fortunately, some tricks can speed up your learning curve. 

• Make use of the function: Bloomberg provides excellent customer support. Make use of it by hitting the key when you need assistance. Hitting once describes the function you’re using. Hitting it twice will connect you to customer support via instant message.
• Schedule a visit from a Bloomberg representative: Take advantage of a visit from a Bloomberg representative 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, particularly if you have your own system.
• Get Bloomberg “cheat sheets”: Bloomberg puts out “cheat sheets” that list common functions and their Bloomberg tickers. These sheets are broken down by asset class, so get a sheet with the most common equity functions if you intend to analyze equities. Get a fixed income guide if you like fixed income. These “cheat sheets” should give you a good starting point for navigating common Bloomberg functions.
• Visit Bloomberg University: By typing into the system, you will be taken to a screen that offers a wide variety of training videos, informational papers, and live seminars. The seminars are broken down by region, so you might be interested in attending one in your area. There’s a fee for some of the seminars, but the majority are offered free 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 automatically updates your data each time you open it, saving you the trouble of doing so by hand.

Best of all, Bloomberg offers sample spreadsheets for common types of analysis, such as tracking stock price movements or analyzing company balance sheets. This saves you the trouble of building your own spreadsheet. You can further customize these generic spreadsheets that Bloomberg offers to fit your specific needs.

Type to access the Excel main menu on Bloomberg if you’re interested in incorporating Excel spreadsheets.

The Bottom Line

This basic guide to Bloomberg has provided an introduction to one of the most practical tools participants in the financial markets can use. Unfortunately, Bloomberg can be expensive, so having a home system may not be practical for many readers.

On the positive side, it’s often possible to access a Bloomberg terminal through a public site such as a library or university. There are so many functions available in Bloomberg that this guide has been able to provide no more than a simple introduction to the system, along with an overview of some common tools that users might find useful. You’ll undoubtedly find a great many more tools that fit your particular investment and trading style after you begin using Bloomberg.

Readers interested in a more in-depth examination of Bloomberg may want to keep an eye out for the Advanced Guide to Bloomberg on the Investopedia website. The Advanced Guide will provide more detailed instructions on how Bloomberg can be used to analyze, monitor, and trade some of the major asset classes, including stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities.

Several other tutorials are also available to those interested in learning more, including those offered directly from Bloomberg. Many colleges and universities offer Bloomberg courses to help students gain early exposure to the most widely used tool for real-time financial data in the world of finance. It’s just a matter of sitting down with the system and familiarizing yourself with it after you’re equipped with some training.

As with many systems, the best way to learn Bloomberg is through hands-on trial and error.