ISD Library

l
Bloomberg

CONTENTS
 INTRODUCTION
COVERAGE AND AVAILABILTY
KEYBOARD
HELP
SEARCH STRATEGIES
CONTENT FUNCTION KEYS
USEFUL GENERIC COMMANDS
CAPTURING DATA: DOWNLOADING AND PRINTING
 EQUITIES
EXAMPLE
SINGLE EQUITY FUNCTIONS
COMPARISON FUNCTIONS
EQUITY SCREENING
 INDICES
 GOVERNMENT BONDS
 CORPORATE BONDS
 COMMODITIES
 ECONOMICS
 EXCHANGE RATES
 FUNDS
 INTEREST RATES
 MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
 NEWS
 DERIVATIVES, OPTIONS AND SWAPS
 MISCELLANEOUS

INTRODUCTION

COVERAGE AND AVAILABILITY

Bloomberg covers five million bonds, equities, commodities, currencies and funds. The
electronic library also comprises data on almost every publicly traded company, news and
biographies of more than one million people.
Bloomberg may only be used by current students, faculty and staff. Please ask at the Library
desk to be logged on to one of the two terminals in the Library Finance Zone.

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KEYBOARD

<GO> to start a process

Yellow <Function keys> to open particular Bloomberg content
<Page FWD> and <Page Back> to move through data screens
<Menu> to move back to the level of the previous menu
<Panel> to switch the live panel
Double click to open another screen

HELP

 Press the green <HELP> key to access context-specific help and data descriptions
 Type a word or phrase then hit the green <HELP> key to bring up a screen of category
choices. As you type, suggested ‘predictive’ search results appear
 Pressing the green <HELP> key twice opens a live interactive chat with Bloomberg Help
Desk consultants. If you need to leave the terminal before they respond, they will post
their reply under HDSK
 For a definition of a word, type FWRD <GO> followed by the word
 For accounting variables click on the <Definitions> tab available in some accounts pages

SEARCH STRATEGIES

 Type in your key word and see if the predictive help delivers what you want
 Use the <HELP> key as above
 Find the ticker for the entity you wish to research, and then use the menu structure to drill
down to the required function screen
 Type a command with the ticker, content key and function
(e.g TSCO LN <EQUITY> WACC <GO> where TSCO LN is the ticker for Tesco,
<EQUITY> is the content, and WACC the function for Weighted Average Cost of Capital

CONTENT FUNCTION KEYS

F1 PEOPLE
F2 GOVT Government securities, bonds and statistics
F3 CORP Corporate bonds
F4 MTGE Mortgages
F5 M-MKT Money markets
F6 MUNI Municipal bonds
F7 PFD Preferred shares
F8 EQUITY Equities (Ordinary shares)
F9 CMDTY Commodity prices and markets
F10 INDEX Market indices
F11 CRNCY Exchange rates

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USEFUL GENERIC COMMANDS

DES Description of the entity being viewed

GP Price graph
GIP Intraday price graph
G<GO> Then 1<GO> to create a new graph. Follow instructions to set up the graph
HP Historic price table
HMS Graph of four item comparison, can mix equities with bonds etc

CAPTURING DATA: DOWNLOADING AND PRINTING

DOWNLOADING TO EXCEL

Exporting Static tabular data into Excel-

for example, in the HP equity function
 use the mouse to ‘highlight’ the data required
 this also automatically copies the data
 paste into Excel this data will not update or refresh ‘live’
NB This pastes into ONE COLUMN ONLY - NOT INTO CELLS!

Exporting tickers into Excel using the ‘pushpin’ drag-and-drop function

 seen for example in the function: MEMB (lists of index members) and NW worksheets
 a pushpin image appears when hovering above one row of the table, enabling drag and
drop of the ticker within that row into Excel
 to drag and drop all tickers on the page into a spreadsheet drag and drop the pushpin
image at the top right of the screen.
NB Leave cell A1 blank in order to import data for the list

Full Excel download;

 shown as an item under Export in a results table’s header menu
 data opens as spreadsheet within Bloomberg; drag and drop into Excel.
 NB if a spreadsheet containing ‘live’ Bloomberg data is opened on a Bloomberg-API
terminal, the data will immediately begin to update (overwriting the earlier data) unless the
Live/Static toggle button is set to Static.

For more details on how to download, see: Using Bloomberg in Excel handout.

PRINTING

 <PRINT> to print the current screen

 To print several screens, type [number of screens] <PRINT>
 To set up the number of screens per page, right click anywhere on the screen, select
PRINT SETUP from the drop down, select an option, and click <OK>
Note: if the number of screens does not divide by the number of screens per page
exactly, then the remainder of pages will not print until the setup is changed.
The lines on comparative graphs print as dots or dashes so they can be told apart .

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EQUITIES
Example of an Equity search

Type TESCO <HELP>

From CATEGORY MATCHES select COMPANIES
From the list of EQUITIES select TESCO PLC
From RELATED SECURITIES (RELS) screen, select a selection from
amongst EQUITIES
The main stock ticker is now displayed at the top of the screen and all
subsequent selections will relate to that ticker. Make a note of the ticker so
you can enter it again without having to go back through the ticker search
screens.
SINGLE EQUITY FUNCTIONS
DES Current snapshot and description of company
RELS For related securities: bonds options CDs etc
BQ Bloomberg Quote: selection of equity data and news
HP Customisable share price table
GP Graph of share prices
HE Price earnings table
BETA Beta calculation
WACC Weighted average cost of capital
EQRP Equity risk premium calculation
DVD Dividend information by date
DDM Dividend discount model
FA Detailed historical financials and ratios
ANR List of analysts covering a stock and their latest recommendations
EE Earnings estimates
CACS Corporate activities
TRA Total return analysis
CN Company news

EQUITY COMPARISON FUNCTIONS

To compare two equities type
Ticker for First Company <EQUITY> Ticker for Second Company <EQUITY> <GO>
RG Graph of relative returns
HMS Graph of four item comparison, can mix equities with bonds etc
COMP Price appreciation and total return for equities, bonds and indices in any
combination
RV Table of ‘peer group’ companies, with an industry average in the green
band. The data items and the market can be customised.

EQUITY SCREENING
EQS Use this to filter companies/equities using a wide range of criteria: country,
industry, financial and risk measures.
Look up your search term by entering the keyword in the large orange box,
or alternatively click on the 2) Fileds term on the right hand side in order to
browse possible search fields.
Remember to press <GO> to ensure the search parameters stick.
The output screen can be customised: click on the 92 Fields tab to save to
alter the display fields.

INDICES
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EMTK Table of world stock indices
WEI Major world indices
MEMB Members of an index
IMOV Equity index movers
WPE World equity index ratios

GOVERNMENT BONDS

TK Country selection
CRP Country risk premium
GGR Benchmark bonds
PX List of Government Bonds
YCRV Comparative yield curves
IYC International yield curves
WB World bond market
WBF World bond futures
BYFC Bond yield forecasts

CORPORATE BONDS
To identify a company’s bonds, use the <HELP> procedure to choose the required company
and go to the RELS screen. Select DEBT SECURITIES to obtain a list of bonds.
Or <CORP><GO> to use the ticker look-up.

CRPR Bond ratings from Moody’s and S&P

RATD Rating definitions
ALLQ Prices of trades
HP Price and yield
HS Horizontal spread
YA Yield analysis
CSHF Coupon
FCMI Yields for types of bonds by country
SRCH Screen for bonds

COMMODITIES

CCRV Commodity price curves

CEM Contract exchange menu
CMDX Global commodities prices and data
CRB Futures price index
CRR Commodities futures ranked returns
CTM Contract table menu
ENST International energy statistics
GCSD Global commodities supply and demand
NRG Energy markets

ECONOMICS
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BBSE Survey of economists’ forecasts
ECO Calendar of statistical release dates (includes a survey)
ECST World economic statistics by country
LEIN Leading economic indicators
WECO World economic calendar
ESNP Economic statistics snapshots

EXCHANGE RATES
TKC Look up exchange rate tickers by region
WCR World currency rates
WCV World currency values
FRD Spot and forward rates
BBC Global currency market monitor

FUNDS

FUND Fund home page

EQS Screen for funds
HFND Hedge fund menu

INTEREST RATES

MMR Money rate monitor for global interest rates including LIBOR
WIR Interest rate futures

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

MA Enables combinations of criteria relating to mergers and acquisitions

NEWS

<EQUITY>CN<GO> Company news

<EQUITY>BBNI<GO> Industry news
<EQUITY>TNI<GO> News on a topic
N Range of categorised news stories
NEWS News search options
TOP Top stories
TOPSTK Stock market news
TOPBON Bond market news

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DERIVATIVES, OPTIONS AND SWAPS
<EQUITY>OMON<GO> Current and future calls and puts for an equity
SYWC Swap curves
IRSB Interest rate swap rates
FH Futures hedge ratios
FRR Futures ranked returns
GMON Option monitor with graph
MOSO Most active options by exchange
OMST Most active options by security
OSA Option scenario analysis
ODT Option description
OV Option/warrant valuation
OVX Exotic option valuation

MISCELLANEOUS
BU Bloomberg University for training and cheat sheets
ISLM Islamic capital markets home page
RE Real estate
RMEN Real estate index menu
ECDR Screen for IPO data
IBQ Industry analysis
LEAG League tables
JOBS Jobs, not just in finance
NW This feature enables the creation of a worksheet, the contents of which can
then be dragged and dropped to other windows.
For example:
Type NW and create a new worksheet by following the instructions.
Add the securities list for the FTSE100 and save.
Double click on a black area of the screen to open a second window.
Open the DES screen for any equity.
You can then drag and drop the ticker for any member of the FTSE100
from your worksheet over to the DES window and it will open the DES
screen for that ticker

Any questions? email libresearch@london.edu

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