Kristina Zucchi is an investment analyst and financial writer with 15+ years of experience managing portfolios and conducting equity research.
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Bloomberg is synonymous with investment information in many corners of the finance world. According to the company, "The Bloomberg Terminal revolutionized an industry by bringing transparency to financial markets. More than four decades on, it remains at the cutting edge of innovation and information delivery — with fast access to news, data, unique insight and trading tools helping leading decision makers turn knowledge into action." So not only does it have a news and media outlet, it also has a software/hardware system that most, if not all, professional money managers use.
The Bloomberg terminal is both a hardware and software system. It includes the Bloomberg Keyboard which has special color-coded keys. The color coding is as follows:
The market sectors toggled to using the yellow keys include:
In the EQUITY function (F8), a command can be entered to locate a description of the company, its price or trade data (current and historical), news, graphs, corporate structure, valuation, credit ratings, capital structure, comparison companies, and regulatory filings. You can also review analyst recommendations, earnings estimates, and bond information.
For example, to look up a company's earnings estimates, click the ticker symbol, EQUITY, then hit GO.
Deal data and specifics can be found using the MA function. If you're looking for a specific company, type the company name in the "Company Search" box at the top. The output provides all the terms of the deals.
To build a list of securities that meet specified criteria, type EQS then hit GO. From here, you can select a list of criteria with specified parameters. Available criteria are listed under categories related to exchanges, sectors, indices, domicile, descriptions, geography, and fundamental characteristics. An output of results will be generated, and these results can be changed by selecting Edit Criteria. This output, like many outputs in Bloomberg, can also be exported to Excel.
To analyze industries from a top-down perspective, type BI and hit GO. Everything from high-level news, industry primers, earnings, and valuations, to more specific data can be found here.
The Bloomberg terminal is a costly system and primarily available to professional investors. Most individual investors don't have access to it. But you may be able to find a terminal at a public or university library. If you can't get your hands on one, though, there are publicly available substitutes that provide similar data. Keep in mind that the depth and breadth of the information these alternative sources offer may be lacking. That means you may have to put together your own mosaic of information.
The year the first Bloomberg Terminal was released that ran on a customer-provided PC.
For example, you can easily find financial news on many financial websites. Company information can be located via the SEC Edgar system for regulatory filings or company websites. Investment screening can be accomplished using websites like finviz.com or msn.com. M&A information, on the other hand, is a bit more complex to locate. Some deal data can be found online, but most require a subscription fee. Similarly, industry data can be compiled from different sources including independent analysts for a fee.
For a standard license, a Bloomberg terminal is around $2,000 per month or $2,400 per year.
The Bloomberg Terminal was at one point an actual standalone device. But nowadays, subscribers can download and run the software on PC or Mac.
Bloomberg's software is available to anyone who wants to use it. However, due to its expensive cost, it is mostly used by professional traders.
Bloomberg is an invaluable tool for investors primarily because it provides data in one place and allows users to configure the data in various ways to analyze and review trends, compare to other companies and industries and most importantly to follow a historical path so that analysis of an investment can be detailed and all-encompassing.
