Bloomberg is a platform (Terminal) which provides access to live financial, currencies, and commodities data, along with a wide range of news articles, reports, and background information. The service can only be accessed through the Bloomberg Terminals on campus.
To use the Bloomberg Terminals you will need to create a Bloomberg account. You can only do this on the Bloomberg Terminals, remote access is not available.
Bloomberg also overlays Excel so you can use Excel to export data from Bloomberg to analyse. Please see the guidance document below on how to install the Bloomberg Excel plugin if it is not already available.
The Bloomberg Terminals are located in PC Lab 1 in the Computer Centre at the Egham Campus.
Bloomberg provide a short guide for getting started on the Bloomberg Terminals. You can also access the online Bloomberg Help Centre through the Bloomberg website, or by pressing F1 on the keyboard when logged into a Bloomberg Terminal.
The library also runs introductory training sessions on how to use the Terminals for relevant subject areas. We will directly contact you to advertise when these are running. You can also contact your subject Teaching and Engagement Librarian if you have any questions about using Bloomberg.
Main Menus & Security Specific Functions
When you want to go back to the 'home' screen (start over) type: HOME. This is the page that appeared when you logged in.
If you type MENU, this takes you back to the main menu of your current search.
Security Specific example
To go to Microsoft's Historical Line Chart (stock prices), you could type:
MSFT US <Equity> <GO> You would see a menu, from there select item 17, for Historical Line Chart, with the mnenomic 'GP' OR type: MSFT US <Equity> GP <GO> This by-passed 2 additional steps: 4 <GO> 1 <GO>
MSFT US <Equity> GP W <GO> This by-passed 2 additional steps & set graph to weekly using W for Weekly
Type the company name at the cursor prompt and select the company from the list of suggested companies that appears below the name you typed
OR
If you do not see your company name in the list of suggested companies, hit the <HELP> key and then click onCompanies or Equities
Enter:
For Exchange Rates by region enter:
<CRNCY> TKC <GO>
For World Currency Rates enter:
Ticker Symbol <EQUITY> HP <GO> for Historical Prices
Enter: WB <GO> for a listing of benchmark government bonds around the world
The Bloomberg Market Concepts course is an industry recognised qualification in using the Bloomberg Terminals. Please use your Royal Holloway email address to sign up to the course. The course is free for Royal Holloway Library users. Once you leave Royal Holloway you may be charged to complete the course.
You can access the course through a web browser, you do not need to be on a Bloomberg Terminal to complete it. The course can take between 8-12 hours to finish but it will save your progress as you complete different sections. Bloomberg do occasionally add new modules, so it is worth checking to see if there is any new content.