Bloomberg basics

Accessible in MIRC from 12 dedicated terminals, Bloomberg provides access to the real world of finance through the same platform as used by the world’s leading banks, corporations and government agencies. Bloomberg provides real-time and historical pricing information from the world’s stock exchanges, as well as detailed information, news and financial data on global companies. The content includes information on equities, commodities, currencies, economic data and statistics, government bonds, hedge funds, credit default swaps, business news and analytics.

There are three ways of finding your way around:

• Using the dedicated ‘function’ keys on the Bloomberg keyboard
• Using the predictive text function – type in what you’re looking for and Bloomberg will pull up a list of possible matches. The more you type, the more targeted Bloomberg’s suggestions will be.
• Using Bloomberg’s function codes (or short-cuts) to access specific areas of data. The more you use Bloomberg, the more familiar you will become with some of the commonly used function codes.

The data you find can be exported and saved in a variety of formats – pdf and Excel being the two most common. Charts are also very easy to produce and export.

There are a number of ways to enhance your knowledge:

• Bloomberg University is an online resource centre providing access to seminars and events to help you develop your knowledge and skills.
• The Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC), an e-learning certification course which provides a visual introduction to financial markets.

Do you want to find out more? Please ask a member of the MIRC team for a demonstration or attend one of our drop-in sessions.