Pardee Management Library

Bloomberg Tutorial:

     Technical Frequently Asked Questions

What is Bloomberg?

Bloomberg is a premier financial services industry data integrator proving real-time news and analytics covering the Government, Equity, Corporate, Mortgage, Money Market, Municipal, Preferred Equity, Commodities, Indices, Currencies and Derivatives markets from over 129 countries and 250 exchange.

How do I access Bloomberg?

Access to Bloomberg is only available from one dedicated terminal in the Pardee Management Library. Use is limited to 30 minute sessions per student. Login information is taped to the keyboard.

What do all the colored keys on the keyboard mean?

RED keys are stop keys: they abort a function or log you off the system.
GREEN keys are your actions keys (i.e. the return or <GO> key, printing, page back, etc.
YELLOW or FUNCTION KEYS are your market sector keys:

How do I maneuver around the system?

Use the mouse to highlight and click
Type the line # and press the green <GO> key
Type the highlighted shortcut code preceding your choice, press the green <GO> key

 

How can I print, download or export data from Bloomberg?

Bloomberg does not allow academic subscribers to download or export raw data (i.e. financial's, stock prices, etc). It does allow various screen captures and downloading of articles and SEC filings.

Downloading SEC files and articles:
Open the article or filing, then right mouse click and choose Save As. Name the file something you will remember and save the file to MY DOCUMENTS. You can e-mail the file to yourself via SILKYMAIL, Hotmail, etc.

Screen Capture:
To capture a screen/chart and e-mail it as an attachment type GRAB <GO>. Enter the e-mail recipient’s e-mail address then hit <GO>. Enter subject for the e-mail then hit <GO>. Type 1 <GO> to send your e-mail. To get back to the screen you just e-mailed type LAST <GO> and choose 2 <GO>.

To PRINT to hardcopy:
For a single page/screen you are currently viewing hit the green print button.

For multiple pages type in the number of pages you need to print (you can find this in the upper right hand corner of the screen) then press the green print key.
For example:

To print 7 pages type in 7 and press the green print key.
To print an entire news article type in the number 9 and then hit the green <GO> key.

 

How can I send Bloomberg's HELP desk a questions?

Hit the green HELP key twice. This will initiate an online chat window which will allow you to type in you question and communicate with Bloomberg's Help desk.

How to send and review Bloomberg’s e-mail?

To send a message type MSG <GO>. This brings you to Bloomberg’s main Message system.
To send an e-mail chose SPDL <GO>. Enter the recipient’s e-mail address and hit the green <GO> key. Type your message then hit the green <GO> key. Then hit 1 <GO> to send the message.

To review incoming messages type MSG1 <GO>. Type the corresponding number of the e-mail you want to review then hit the green <GO> key.

How do I the exit e-mail system?

Type LAST <GO>, then type in the number corresponding to the page you were last on, then hit the green <GO> key.

 

Is there Bloomberg user manual?

Bloomberg does not provide print copies of user’s manuals. You can get help with sectors, phrases, functions etc. in two ways.

1) Type BU <GO> Learn <GO> to access Bloomberg online manuals.
2) Type your phrase, shortcut code etc. (i.e. FA, CN, Beta, enterprise value) etc. and hit the green <GO> key once. The Bloomberg Online Help system will retrieve information pertaining to your word or phrase or shortcut.

Need more help with Bloomberg?

Contact Pardee Reference (617) 353-4303

Farha Hasan (fhasan@bu.edu)