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Help Accessing Resources: Bloomberg

What is Bloomberg?

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.

Where can I access the Bloomberg Terminals?

The Bloomberg Terminals are located in PC Lab 1 in the Computer Centre at the Egham Campus.

Where can I get help using the Bloomberg terminals?

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.

Basic Commands

Main Menus & Security Specific Functions

  • When first introduced to the Bloomberg system it is advisable to use the main menus. This helps the user get a feel for the broad scope of Bloomberg and to clearly see a list of the analytics (and associated function codes) that are available.
  • Once a Bloomberg user is more familiar with the various function codes they may simply type those codes directly onto the screen and access the function instantly (thus saving time and bypassing the broad menus).

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

Top 5 Bloomberg Questions

1. How do I search for a company by name?

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

2. How do I use the graphing function?

Enter:

G <GO> then choose 1 <GO> to create a new graph. Follow instructions to set-up a graph.
 
3. How do I find Exchange Rate information?

For Exchange Rates by region enter:

<CRNCY> TKC <GO>

For World Currency Rates enter:

<CRNCY> WCR <GO>
 
4. Historical Pricing
You can click on the historical pricing option in the company’s menu.
Alternatively if you know the ticker symbol  you can search this way:
Enter:

Ticker Symbol <EQUITY> HP <GO> for Historical Prices

Ticker Symbol <EQUITY> GP <GO> for a Historical Price Graph with Volume
 
For example if you were searching for British Airways you would search:
BAY <EQUITY> HP <GO>
Top tip – you can export all the Historical Pricing information from the GP menu by right clicking on the graph and selecting export data to excel.
 
5. How do I find a list of bonds from around the world?

Enter:  WB <GO> for a listing of benchmark government bonds around the world

Adding the Bloomberg Excel Add-On to Royal Holloway computers

What is Bloomberg Market Concepts?

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.

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Royal Holloway Library LibGuide by Royal Holloway Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.