Definition:
Bloomberg is a good source of information and news that drives decision making in the business and investment world.
- What it is: Bloomberg is a source of real-time and historical financial news and information for central banks, investment institutions, commercial banks, government offices and agencies, law firms, corporations and news organizations in over 150 countries.
- What does it do: Provides you with the information about companies and industries that financial analysts (investment bankers, private equity, private wealth managers, etc.) use in making decisions.
Uses:
- How is it used: Bloomberg is a good tool that helps gather and manipulate information—if you know how to use it. Learning to utilize it well will not only help you excel in your classes, but it will also equip you with powerful information for your job search and career. Bloomberg brings together information from many sources including governmental, filings, public releases, and news sources.
- Where: Used by investment bankers, private equity, private wealth managers, stockbrokers, corporate treasury analysts, etc.
- Why: To make good financial decisions you need the company and industry data and news to make informed decisions. “Students with hands-on trading room experience often have a better chance of landing a good job because they can save their employer 6 to 12 months of training time.” John J Siam, Associate Professor of Finance, McMaster University.
Limitations:
- Where it shouldn't be used: When an acquisition is being considered, you should obtain information from the acquisition target about internal information before the deal closes instead of relying solely on public information that is available on Bloomberg.
- Any restrictions: This is a paid service, and while it is available on campus you will need to pay for the service.
- Warnings: You will need a Bloomberg terminal to take full advantage of the Bloomberg service. As students of BYU, we are lucky to have access to several Bloomberg terminals. There are ten Bloomberg terminals in room W247 of the Tanner Building. You are welcome to go and use these terminals. This is the best place for students to access Bloomberg.
There is another terminal located on the first floor of the Harold B. Lee Library next to the Management/Economics reference desk (Social Sciences) which you can also use.
Demonstrations:
Step-by-step process:
- Get training to use the service: The Bloomberg terminals are sophisticated devices and to obtain the full value you should get the necessary training. As part of the Fin 409 Modeling and Valuation class taught by Sudweeks and Ye Ning, there is a Certification Program. We will provide the information below necessary to obtain the certification and utilize the terminals and service
- Get a Bloomberg Login: You can not use the Bloomberg Terminal and Service without a login. Follow the directions below to obtain a login as a student at BYU.
- Each individual is REQUIRED to have their own Bloomberg login in order to participate in the BMC course.
- To log on to the computers in W237, use your BYU Login and log on to the computer. To create a Bloomberg login, hit the red default key and then <Go> (the enter key). Follow the prompts to create a log in. It will bring you to the login screen. Leave the login name blank and hit <Go>. Fill in the information including language, first name, last name, new password, and re-enter the new password. Then type <1> in the upper left corner to continue.
- You will need a validation code that Bloomberg will send you. Generally, use an SMS text message. Type in your cell phone number and type <1> to send the code. Bloomberg will send you a text message to your phone number you typed in. You will receive it on your cell phone and type it into the screen where it says “Validation Code.” It may take up to a few minutes to get the code so be patient (it took me 5 minutes). You will be taken to a registration screen, where you’ll be prompted to fill in additional information. Fill in the required fields (they will be highlighted in amber) and any other fields if you would like to. Hit the <1> complete registration in the upper left corner to continue; you’ve now created your login.
- Log on using your new login and password. It will ask you for our country/region for suggested defaults, and type “US” and hit enter. You will need to add your time zone (Mountain). Type “?” into the box and hit enter to view the choices for the time zone. When done, check to make sure that everything else is correct (default currency, language, etc…) type <1> to store your defaults.
- Sign Up for the Bloomberg Curriculum:
- Once logged into Bloomberg with your individual login, type BMC<Go> and then click on "Sign Up". Fill in your name, email, and set a password that you will remember. Read and Click on that you have read the terms of service. Click on "Sign Up." Enter the activation code received in your email, and then you will be given one year access to all four modules.
Click on "Access Course" to watch online interactive video seminars for each course. There are four different sections to this course: Economic Indicators, Currencies, Fixed Income, and Equities. - To learn the materials, you will need to complete watching the videos for each of the modules, and finish answering all 120 assessment questions through the four modules. Sadly, there is no required score to complete the course.
- Getting Your Certificates: Upon completion of the courses, you will be able to download your "Certificate of Completion". Please print it off and you will be able to show it in interviews and prove your experience with Bloomberg services
- Utilize Bloomberg Templates to do your analysis: One of the best tools on Bloomberg is the Excel-based templates they provide. They provide hundreds of templates that you can import into Excel. Instead of writing your tools from scratch, you can find a template that does something similar to what you want, and then make adjustments to that template to accomplish your task.
Template for capturing data:
Obtain Templates form the Bloomberg Terminal
- Access the templates:
To access the templates, go to the Bloomberg terminal and open Bloomberg. Then log in to Bloomberg. Go open Excel. When you go to Excel, you should see the Bloomberg tab to the right of the Developer tab. If you do not see it, you will need to install this Bloomberg Add-in. - Problem Solving: Installing the Bloomberg Add-in:
To add this, click on File, Options, Add-ins, and Manage Excel Add-ins. Click on [Go]. Make sure the Bloomberg Excel Tools Add-in is checked. If so, click on OK and you are done.
If not, click on Browse, and on my computer (it may be different on other Bloomberg computers), go to the main hard drive, BLP, API, Office Tools, and click on the file BloombergUI.xla. Click on Insert, and you should see it on your list of Excel Add-ins with a check in the box. Click on OK, and it should bring you back to the spreadsheet.
To access the templates, click on the Bloomberg tab, then Template Library. It may take a few seconds to bring up the templates. Note that they have templates in different categories, such as Tutorials, CDS, Commodities, Currencies, Derivatives, Economics, Equity, Fixed Income, and other types. Click on the type of templates you are interested in by left-clicking on the "+" in front of the category.
Output representation and recommendations:
Utilize the template and reporting functions in Bloomberg's to create the report and recommendation outputs
Examples:
Template Example:
For example, suppose you are looking for a template for detailed financial information by each company. Click on Equity, and now notice that they have other categories as well. Let’s look at the Fundamentals and left-click on the “+” in front of this category. Look for the template “Bloomberg Company In-depth Analysis,” put the cursor on this template and click on “Open.” It will import this template into your spreadsheet.
Now, if you type in the Company Ticker in this template in cell E5, it will bring in all the data for your company, compute the ratios, redo the graphs, and help you with the analysis. Notice that there are tabs for Overview, Peers, Indices, Financials, Ratings, Brokers Earnings Estimates, Valuation, and Owners. Not bad for a few minutes work.
Additional resources:
