Bloomberg Help Essay

IntroductionIn this tutorial I pull up stakes provide an outline to the Bloomberg Essentials On get out training Program similarly known as BESS. The Bloomberg Essentials program provides a convenient mien to learn the basics of Bloomberg Professional financial culture system. The training consists of a series of impressions (with scrolling transcripts), on-line Help classifys and supporting archives. The word picture tutorial materials be organized into 8 modules as follows1. Bloomberg message1. getting Started2. Bloomberg word of honor3. Market Monitors and launch area4. API (Bloomberg selective in arrangeion in pass by)2. Bloomberg Market heavens1. Equity Essentials2. Fixed Income Essentials3. FX (Foreign Exchange) Essentials4. Commodity EssentialsTo earn a certificate or Acknowledgement of Completion, you must witness the quad Bloomberg union videos and pass the Bloomberg Core Exam, indeed find at least unity of the Bloomberg Market orbit videos and pass its corresponding mental test. For arche causa if you are interested in remote alter grocerys, you might consider see the FX Essentials training video and then taking the FX Essentials tryout. Keep in mind that you only get cardinal chances to take separately exam so you need to put in some serious time and effort into the training materials and mastering the concepts forrader you take the exam. To get aceted with the BESS training, you should first create your own Bloomberg login. Bloomberg tracks your progress and exam scores victimisation your unique login. A brief tutorial on creating a Bloomberg login muckle be foundhither. You may overly wish to flummox a rank of headphones or ear buds handy for listening to the Bloomberg videos without distracting some others most you. The Bloomberg happen uponboard has a headphone jack that (if configured properly) should allow you to listen to the videos in privacy. As you are chanceing a video, outdoors up an surplus Bloomberg window and showcase in the commands as they are described. You preserve in any case pa put on the video to do more exploration of a contingent head for the hillsor rewind the video to listen and watch an example over once again if you did not understand it the first time. scoreerly the video is over, challenge yourself to happen through all of the commands just introduced and then practice them to make stream they stay fresh in your memory.THE BLOOMBERG ESSENTIALS ON LINE TRAINING class (BESS)Accessing BESS on BloombergTo get started, log in to the Bloomberg Professional software exploitation your own Bloomberg login business relationship. If you do not reserve a Bloomberg account, click here for a brief tutorial on creating a bare-assed login. In any window, theatrical role in BESS ( example the letters BESS followed by the Enter key) to ostentation the Bloomberg Essentials suppress as shown at a lower placeAs you can see from the BESS masking, the v ideos for each of the modules can be launched by clicking on their titles. Along the bottom of the concealment there are stand forths to view and take exams, as intumesce as a yoke to request the Acknowledgement of Completion. On the following(a) scalawags, each of the videos is introduced along with some pointers for getting most out of your study time.Bloomberg getting Started EssentialsThe acquire Started Essentials training video is approximately 18 transactions long and provides a basic introduction to the Bloomberg including how the Bloomberg Terminal software is organized, key terms employ throughout the Bloomberg system and the basics ship canal of navigating through the system. Some specific jacket crownics include broad commercialise analysis, single aegis analysis, browsing News and obtaining cooperate. When exhibit this video pay particular tending to the key terms and definitions, the various ways of obtaining help, and the special range keys unattach ed on the Bloomberg keyboard.The video tutorial begins with a high level overview of Bloombergs bill based navigation system starting with the MAIN carte du jour draw. This function shows how Bloombergs information and screens are organized into market sectors, job systems, customization and pointtings tools, Bloomberg Law and Government and Help and Support.The neighboring section of the tutorial introduces the Bloomberg keyboard. The keys are color coded according to their overall purpose such as inflammation Keys are used to log into the system (the Red DFLT key) and to cancel a reliable function(red Cancel key in the upper left corner). reverse lightning keys are used for navigation and obtaining help such as the engine block of green navigation keys on the in effect(p) for Page Up, Page Down, End, Menu, and so on and the Green Help, Search, News, etc. keys along the top of the keyboard. Yellow keys are the market sector keys. Each one helps in determineing financi al instruments or market sectors. These yellow market sector keys include Govt (for Government debt), CORP (for incorporate debt), MTGE for Mortgages, M-MKT for Money markets, MUNI for Municipal securities, PFD for preferred, law for equities, CMDT for Commodities, INDEX for advocatees, CRNCY for currencies (foreign exchange) and finally CLIENT for portfolio concern functions.Obtaining Help in BloombergThere are a yield of ways to obtain help in the Bloomberg system. As the tutorial continues, note that insistence the green suspensor key while on any screen will bring up a help screen that explains the function the screen is implementing as well as tips on using the screen and what each product line or area of the screen represents. The picture under shows the help screen for the MOST function (Most active equities).Another way to obtain interactive help is to press the HELP key two times. This will open up a chat session with the Bloomberg help desk. Type in any question y ou might have and a Bloomberg help desk representative will walk you through any functions or screens to settlement your question.The third way to obtain help is to press HELP key after typing in the evoke or fondness symbol of a financial instrument (or any word for that matter). The core will be a list of various hunting categories unified your query. For example, typing in BOB EVANS provides the search results that follow. strike out Bloomberg found results in categories such as Companies, People, News, Law, Equities and Fixed Income.Content Areas News, Economics and World IndicesThe side by side(p) section of the video tutorial focuses on four major nub areas News, Economic schedule, World Equity Indices, and Economic Statistics. Bloomberg buy the farm NewsTo adit Bloomberg illuminate News press the green countersign key or cause N .Bloomberg Economic CalendarThe Bloomberg Economic calendar divulges former and announced economic report releases. To access Bloomb erg Economic Calendar type ECO .Bloomberg World Equity IndicesThe Bloomberg World Equity Indices screen displays leading indices from lawfulness markets around the world. This screen allows you to compare both current market levels as well as historical levels. To access the Bloomberg World Equities Indices screen type WEI .Bloomberg Economic StatisticsThe Bloomberg Economic Statistics screen can be used to display economic indicators such as Consumer Price Index (CPI), unemployment, housing, consumer confidence and some(prenominal) others for dozens of countries around the world. To access the Bloomberg Economic Statistics screen type ECST . case-by-case Security AnalysisThe next set of functions demonstrated all acidulate on a single tribute. So to get started with each one, we type in the ticker symbol of a telephoner, then press the EQUITY (F8) key. Then follow this up by typing in the name of the function. company DescriptionThe company description screen provides an over view of the company including its labor, current and historical price chart and selective information, recent searching and dividend entropy and other summary information. There are a total of 4 screens (press PG mow for profital screen). For example, assuming the target company is IBM, the command would be IBM stilbestrolBloomberg Historical PricesThe HP function can be used to view a set of historical equity prices. Forexample, assuming the target company is IBM, the command would be IBM HPBloomberg Graph PricesThe GP function can be used to create a price graph of a security. Assuming the target company is IBM, the command would be IBM GPBloomberg Company NewsThe CN function can be used to search for give-and-take articles mentioning a specific security. Assuming the target company is IBM, the command to search for word of honor would be IBM CNBloomberg Cheat SheetsIn addition to the help screens that Bloomberg provides, there are also Cheat Sheets one or two scalawag do cuments that provide quick access to many of the varied Bloomberg functions organized by asset type or by job function. To get started viewing Cheat cerements, use the function ttCHEAT to bring up the screenFor example given the above CHEAT screen, click on the link 1) Getting Started to view the Getting Started roll in the hay sheets as shown belowClicking again on the 1) Getting Started link will display the actual cheat sheet for getting started. Various language versions are presented. Click on the link for the desired language and the two page PDF will be slewloaded and open in Adobe Acrobat.Bloomberg messaging SystemThe plump portion of the Getting Started tutorial video introduces the Bloomberg Messaging system. This is basically an e-mail system make into the Bloomberg software that allows you to send messages, screen captures and other materials to others on the Bloomberg network. To get started with the Bloomberg Messaging system, simply press the green MSG justto n or type in the function MSGMessages are listed in the inbox click on a message to view its contents.There is a yellow text box used to search for messages and buttons to create new messages, etc. Bloomberg News EssentialsThe Bloomberg News Essentials video is approximately 20 minutes long and focuses solo on the Bloomberg News functionality. Specific topics include drilling down from the top level intelligence operation function N down through different intelligence information categories to specific tidings articles. Custom intelligence activity searches, screens and alerts are also covered. When going through this material pay particular attention to how the Bloomberg tidings is organized and the various methods used to browse and search for intelligence service articles.The Bloomberg Top News ScreenThe video tutorial begins with a review of the BLoomberg Top News screen. To access Bloomberg Top News press the green NEWS key or type N or you can type TOP .The default top intelligence activity screen shows top news world wide. There are a set of Topic oral sex along the left side in the gray colored sidebar. Clicking on any one of those topics narrows the news search down. Clicking on any news headline will bring up the full news article.Once the news story is displayed, it can be printed, bookmarked by clicking on the star icon (or option 91)), or forwarded to a colleague using the train Story feature. These are shown in the upper right corner of the screen. If the news story has an attachment it will be available under the 97) selection. In this example there is a chart attached to the story. The search field is in the upper left corner and allows you to search for keywords within the story. keep an eye on that this story has 3 pages. By scrolling to the end of the story you can view a section of Related News and study in addition to the authors contact information.Customizing Top NewsThe Top news screen can be customized to filter and displa y only those news headlines relevant to the user. For example, the Top News pages by including only relevant topics selected form the list of categories on the right asshown hereBloomberg News go SearchThe Advanced Search feature can be used to build up a sophisticated search on Bloomberg news (beyond looking for simple keywords). From the Top News screen (N ), pull down the 97) Actions screen and click on the Create Advanced Search menu item. Searches can be saved and associated with alerts so that any new news article matching the ripe search criteria will be brought to your attention. For example, the advanced search below is set up to look for the phrases Share redemption or Stock Buyback that appear in stories related to the Information technology and Telecommunications industries. The source of the news story should be Bloomberg News (BN).Bloomberg Launchpad EssentialsThe Bloomberg Launchpad is a graphical user interface that can be customized to create multiple screens or turn overs made up of market data, charts, news and other functions. A view can consist of multiple pages that can be created, customized and saved. While going through this 30 minute video, it is comfy to create your own Launchpad views along side the instructional video. afford particular attention to the types of components (watch lists, news minder, etc.) that can be added to the Launchpad view and the different ways in which these components can be linked. For example, the Monitor (watch list) component has a number of ways in which individual and ingatherings of securities can be added to the watch lists and then linked to other components such as News. beneath is an example of a Bloomberg Launchpad view viewing a number of different components (click for a larger image). A Market Monitor is in the upper left corner showing major market indexes for join America, Latin America (LATAM), Europe and Asia/Pacific. This oversee is linked to the News/ interrogation pane below such that clicking on a market index will bring up Bloomberg News filtered for that specific index and region. The manage is also linked to the line chart in the upper right corner so clicking on one of the indexes causes the chart to display. An Economic Calendar is displayed below the line chart showing historical economic indicatorreleases. An intraday Market Map is displayed in the lower right corner and is also linked to the Market Monitor. The Market Map is an interactive map showing stocks by market capitalization broken down by industry and sector and colored according to their price gains (green) or losses (red) during the current trading day.Bloomberg API EssentialsThe Bloomberg API is a spreadsheet Add-in module for Microsoft leap out that provides various methods for bringing Bloomberg data directly into stick out. The Excel API video is the longest and probably the most tiny tutorial in the Essentials collection. Highlights of this 30 minute video include running( a) with the different Wizards that are available to fetch different types of data. These wizards include entropy Navigation Download data for a single security from a set of categories including Company abstract, Financial/Valuation, Consensus Estimates, Ownership, accomplice Group Analysis, Options Credit and FX. real time / Historical Navigation Fetch real-time and historical market data including intraday and end-of-day data. Equity Screener The Equities Screen feature allows you to screen stocks based on different criteria. Financials / Estimates Provides the means to retrieve historical balance sheet and analyst estimates data. technical Analysis navigator Similar to the historical data wizard but includes a collection of technical analysis indicators. Ultimately given a description of the final data set required, you should be able to identify the appropriate Wizard to run and/or or Bloomberg Excel function to use to fetch that data. Other features described in the vi deo are the Template Library which is a collection of pre-designed spreadsheets that can be further customized.Below is a picture of the Bloomberg Ribbon bar running in Microsoft Excel 2010.Bloomberg API entropy NavigationThe Data Navigation wizard provides a convenient way to download a set of related data for a single security. After launching the wizard and selecting a security (Apple (AAPL) in this example), a list of categories are presented including Company Summary, Financial/Valuation, ConsensusEstimates, Ownership, Peer Group Analysis, Options Credit and FX as shown belowAfter navigating from Company Summary to Overview, the resulting data can be dropped into Excel using the Drag to Excel button as shown belowBloomberg API Real Time / Historical DataThe Real Time / Historical data wizard provides a set of steps to ultimately create a formula (or set of formulas) in Excel that will fetch real-time data from the Bloomberg network or populate the spreadsheet with rows of hi storical data. The icon and drop down menus for the Import Data function are shown belowFor example, the Real-Time/Current wizard prompts for a security (AAPL in this example) and then a set of fields (PX_LAST for last price, PX_BID for Bid Price and PX_ASK for Ask price were selected). the result is a set of three Bloomberg BDP functions (Bloomberg Data Point functions) that pull the data from the Bloomberg network into Excel as shown below (note the formula in cell B2)Additional Resources for the Bloomberg Excel APIBloomberg offers additional tutorials and other resources to help you learn even more about(predicate) the API. An interactive Bloomberg Excel tutorial can launched using command function XATP XAPIThis tutorial launches MS Excel and provides a collection of example worksheets that document the various features of the Bloomberg Excel Add-in. Of particular interest are the large collection of BLoomberg-specific functions such as BDP, BDH, BDS, BCURVE, BEQS, and others. Bloomberg Equity EssentialsThe Bloomberg Equity Essentials video covers one of the four interchange Market Sectors for the Bloomberg Essentials program. This 35 minute video covers the main functions for researching equities (stocks) using the Bloomberg terminal.Bloomberg Fixed Income EssentialsThe Bloomberg Fixed Income Essentials video is 25 minute in succession and covers the main functions for searching and analyzing fixed income instruments such as corporate bonds, municipal bond and government treasuries. The Fixed Income video is one of four alternate Market Sector areas.Bloomberg Foreign Exchange (FX) EssentialsThe Bloomberg Foreign Exchange (FX) Essentials video is 35 minutes in length and covers various foreign exchange instruments such as spot FX, forwards, swaps and interest rate products.Bloomberg Commodities EssentialsThe Bloomberg Commodities Essentials covers the use of Bloomberg to monitor and analyze the spot and futures commodities markets. This video is 27 minu tes long and represents one of the four alternate Market Sector specialties in the Bloomberg Essentials program.In the next pages I will provide some tips on taking the exams. pickings the Bloomberg Essentials ExamsOnce you have reviewed the four Core videos you will be in line to take the Core Essentials exam. From the BESS screen click on the link to View and Take Exams. The Master Exams screen will appear as shown belowUsually the first exam to be taken will be the Core Essentials exam with Mnemonic COREESS. When you are ready to take the exam click on this link and the exam will launch. Taking the Bloomberg Essentials Core ExamWhen the Bloomberg Core Essentials (COREESS) exam launches it will present a line up about the grading policy for the exam. Note that the exam is not rate until answers to all 30 questions have been submitted. Pressing the Menu button will close this notice screen and the exam will start off with question number 1.Below is an example question and answer format (the actual question and answers have been obscured). Answering a question is a two step process First click on your answer choices, and then click on the red Submit button at the bottom of the screen. You cannot proceed to the next question until the current question is submitted. Note also that the entire exams answers are not check over until the last question is submitted.Continue answering questions and Submitting answers until you reach the last (30th) question. Bloomberg UniversityBloomberg University is a collection of help and documentation guides along with schedules and sign-up sheets for Bloomberg training events. To access Bloomberg University use the code BU to bring up the screenOf particular interest to new Bloomberg users are the various Cheat Sheets one or two page documents that provide quick access to many of the different Bloomberg functions. TO get started viewing Cheat sheets, use the code CHEAT to bring up the screenFor example given the above CHEAT screen, click on the link 1) Getting Started to view the Getting Started cheat sheets as shown belowClicking again on the 1) Getting Started link will display the actual cheat sheet for getting started. Various language versions are presented. Click on the link for the desired language and the two page PDF will be downloaded and open in Adobe Acrobat.ConclusionsIn this series of posts I have covered a very basic introduction to Bloomberg including creating your own Bloomberg account and going through the Bloomberg Essentials training.