What is Bloomberg?

Bloomberg Terminal

Bloomberg is a powerful platform that brings together real-time data over 129 countries and 250 exchanges. Bloomberg provides financial market news, economic data, research, analytics, company financial as well as data on more than 5 million bonds, equities, commodities currencies, and funds. It covers almost every publicly traded company in the world and has profiles on more than a million people. 

    Explore:
  • Coverage of markets and securities.
  • Information asset classes - fixed incomes, equities, foreign exchange, commodities, and more.
  • Up-to-the-minute access to news that moves and shakes markets.
  • Professionals in the business community and make connections.

To use the Bloomberg database, you must create an account. It's easy and takes less than five minutes.

1. Double-click the Bloomberg icon on the desktop to get started.

2. Hit <GO> or <Enter>.

3. Click "Create A New Login"

4. Answer the registration questions using Valdosta State University for the employer information and your VSU email address (Gmail, Hotmail, etc. will not work). "Student" is not a valid job title, so type in whatever you want.

The Bloomberg Terminal's primary location is the Finacial Trading Room, HSBA 3021. However, it is portable and can be moved to any classroom by one of the faculty.

Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC), also known as Bloomberg Certification, is a self-paced e-learning course that provides a visual introduction to financial markets and the core functionality of the Bloomberg terminal. It takes 8 hours to complete and progress is saved automatically. After finishing BMC, Bloomberg provides a "Certificate of Completion". 

BMC MODULES REQUIRED FOR CERTIFICATE:

  1. Economic Indicators (1 hour): The primacy of GDP; monitoring GDP; forecasting GDP.
  2. Currencies (1 hour): Currency market mechanics; currency valuation; central banks and currencies; currency risk.
  3. Fixed Income (3 hours): The roots of the bond market, bond valuation drivers; central bankers and interest rates; the yield curve and why it matters; movements in the yield curve.
  4. Equities (3 hours): Introducing the stock market; the nature of equities; equity research; absolute valuation; relative valuation. 

Watch a video introduction to Bloomberg Market Concepts; Learn more about the content and format of the course and each of the modules, and frequently asked questions by Students.

Bloomberg Market Concepts (Bloomberg for Education)

The Keyboard

  • Navigating

    Red keys are stop keys.

    <CONN DFLT> Press once to log into the system; press once to log off of the system.

    <CANCEL> Equivalent to the traditional escape button.

    Green keys are action keys.

    <GO> The <GO> key is the equivalent of the enter key on a traditional keyboard.

    <MENU> The <MENU> key is the equivalent of the "back" key to return to the previous screen.

    <PAGE FWD/BACK> Press <PAGE FWD/BACK> to access the next/previous screen.

    <PRINT> Press <PRINT> to print a one-page screen. To print more than one page, enter the number of pages and then <PRINT>. 

    <HELP> Keyword search: enter a keyword and press <HELP> to search our entire database of information.

    Blue keys are used to move from panel to panel.

    <PANEL> When you log in to Bloomberg, up to four panels appear. The <PANEL> key is used to move from one to the next.

  • The Bloomberg Keyboard

    The Bloomberg keyboard is non-standard. As a general rule, green keys correspond to actions, like <GO> and <HELP>. Red keys are for logging in or out of the system. Yellow keys correspond to the main market sectors.

  • Market Sector Keys

    F2 or <GOVT> Worldwide sovereign and agency securities.

    F3 or <CORP> Corporate debt, bond prices and yields by company

    F4 or <MTGE> Mortgage markets

    F5 or <M-MKT> Money markets

    F6 or <MUNI> U.S. municipality issued debt

    F7 or <PFD> Preferred. Private and public securities offered by countries

    F8 or <EQUITY> ADRs, mutual funds, stocks, options, warrants

    F9 or <CMDTY> Commodities, futures, options, spot rates

    F10 or <INDEX> Global equity indices, economic indices

    F11 or <CRNCY> Spots, futures, options, forex on over 100 currencies

  • TYPES OF FUNCTIONS

    There are two types of functions

    - Non-security functions provide information or analysis on a entire market sector and do not require the user to load a security as a separate function.

    Example: WEI is a non-security function because it provides information for dozens of equity indices on one screen. You can run WEI without loading a security. WEI<GO>

    - Security-specific functions analyze a security that is loaded by the user.

    Example: GP (Graph Price) is a security-specific function because you must specify a security before graphing its price. You must load a security to run the GP function: IBM US <EQUITY> GP <GO>

  • SECURITIES

    Securities are financial instruments - like stocks and bonds - that you can analyze with Bloomberg functions.

    Loading Securities

    If you know the ticker symbol for the security you want to load:

    -Enter the ticker symbol in the command line.

    -Press the yellow market sector key corresponding to the security type (<CORP>, <MUNI>, <EQUITY>, etc.)

    -Press <GO>

    Example: For Facebook, enter FB<EQUITY><GO>

    If you don't know the ticker or any other identification number for the security you want to load: 

    -In the command line, start typing a keyword for the financial instrument you want to analyze.

    -Autocomplete will provide a list of suggested securities.

  • BLOOMBERG CHEAT SHEETS

    Charts and Technical Indicators
    Commodities Overview
    Emerging Markets
    Equity Portfolio Manager and Analyst Cheat Sheet
    Equity Research And Analysis

  • NON-SECURITY MEMNOMICS FOR BROAD MARKET PERPECTIVES

    If you know the function mnemonic:

    -Enter the function mnemonic in the command line. Press <GO>

    If you don't know the function mnemonic:

    -Type a keyword for the informatio, you want. Autocomplete will provide a list of suggested functions.

    ACDR<GO> Display an earnings announcement

    CBQ<GO> Country overview: choose from more than 46 countries

    ECO<GO> Display a calendar of economic releases

    IBQ<GO> Industry overview: choose from more than 68 industries

    IM<GO> Display a menu of treasury/money market and international bond monitors

    MAIN<GO> Menus for market sectors, customer support and more

    MOST<GO> Monitor the most active securities by volume, up, down and value

    N<GO> The main news menu

    QSRC<GO> Scan the Bloomberg Equity universe to find companies that match your selected criteria

    READ<GO> Most popular news stories

    TOP<GO> Display today's top business and general news headlines

    WB<GO> World Government bond monitor

    WEI<GO> Monitor worldwide returns for Equity indices

  •  MEMNONICS FOR ANALYZING A LOADED SECURITY

    If you are already familiar with the ticker of the security:

    Ticker<YELLOW KEY>Function<GO>

    An equity example: FB<EQUITY>DES<GO>

    BQ<GO> Price, trade, earnings, relative value data

    CH1<GO> Financial summary

    CH2<GO> Income statements

    CH3<GO> Balance sheets

    CN<GO> Company news

    COMP<GO> Comparative returns

    CPRP<GO> Current and historical credit ratings

    DES<GO> Fundamental data and management information

    DVD<GO> Dividend information

    EE<GO> Earnings estimates

    GIP<GO> Intraday price chart

    GP<GO> Historical price graph and volume

    GPO<GO> Graph historical prices and moving averages

    HE<GO> Price/earnings ration table

    HP<GO> Historical prices

    ISSD<GO> Capital structure and cash flow breakdown

    MA<GO> Mergers and acquisitions

    PPC<GO> Peer product comparison

    RELS<GO> Brands, people, subsidiaries

    RV<GO> Relative value, customized peer group analysis