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Database Guide - Bloomberg: Navigation

Navigating and locating information in the Bloomberg Terminal at the Tozzi Center

Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

Bloomberg is a menu driven system consisting of hundreds of analysis functions identified by unique mnemonics.  Popular mnemonics include N for news, DES for company descriptions, and ERN for earning summary.

Review the suggested training materials on this page and sign up for the Tozzi training sessions to understand how to get results from Bloomberg.

Bloomberg Terminal Keyboard

Photo: Bloomberg.com

Keyboard structure

Keys: Red = stop; Green  = action; Yellow  = market sectors 

For more information about Bloomberg's keyboard features, review Getting Started on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Lost and need help?

 

Bloomberg Help Key

Type required word or phrase and select <HELP>

i.e. Bonds  <HELP>

System will provide series of menus listing the content offerings for bonds

 

BloombergEnterGoKey

  Executes a typed command

 

Bloomberg EndMenuKey

 Back to the previous menu

Bloomberg Esc Key

  Exit current function and cancel current activity on screen

 

Main <go>

 Access Bloomberg's Main menu

 

Tozzi Center Training

Tozzi Electronic Business and Finance Center

Inquire with Kai Petainen (kpetaine@umich.edu ) about training & workshops

Training from Bloomberg

  • BMC - Bloomberg Market Concepts: BBXL <go>
  • Bloomberg Professional Resource Center: BPS <go>
  • Bloomberg University:  BU <go>
  • Bloomberg Certification:  BMC <go>
  • Help!:  Type phrase and select <HELP>  i.e. Bonds <HELP>

Downloading from Bloomberg

Some pages in Bloomberg have an option to download data into Excel.  Some don’t

Getting Bloomberg data into Excel

  • Load Excel at the Terminal
  • In Excel, click Bloomberg  -> Import Data -> Real-Time/Historical -> Historical End of Day
  • Type in the ticker under Security Identifier. Drop-down list selection available when starting to type the name of an equity, currency, index, etc.
  • Click Next after finishing typing in the tickers
  • Look under Market Activity -> Last -> Last Price [PX_LAST].  Add it
  • Select other items if desired.  Click Next
  • Choose the time horizon, the periodicity and the start and end dates.  Click Next and Finish

 If you have a lot of tickers and you want the data from Bloomberg’s Excel, then the data needs to be in the format Ticker symbol US Equity, i.e.   AAPL US Equity.  If you have a list that is in that format, then you can drag and drop the list into ticker section that was listed in the example above.  To get the tickers into this format, use this notation in Excel (assuming the ticker is in cell A2):  =A2 & “ US Equity”