Bloomberg master is key to becoming a financial analyst

Bloomberg functions

To be more productive, faster, and more efficient when performing financial analysis or research it’s important to be proficient at using the Bloomberg Terminal.
Whether you work in investment banking, equity research, or other areas of the capital markets you’ll have to learn how to use the Bloomberg Terminal for grabbing historical financial information about a company, share prices, transactions, bonds / fixed income information and much more.
Here we have complied a list of what we believe are the most common and important functions, keystrokes and shortcuts to know on the Bloomberg Terminal inside out.  Bloomberg master is key to becoming a financial analyst.

List of Bloomberg functions

News

Shortcut: N <Go>
TOP & TOPCA  Top News Stories
NI  Single News Item Search
NI CNS & NI USS  Canadian & U.S. Stock Markets
NI MNA  Mergers/Acquisitions
TNI  Two News  Item Search
TNI US OPN  Opening Market Commentary
TNI US INSIGHT  Economic Insight
TNI US COS  Corporate News
BBEA  Earnings Up & Downgrades

Broad market screens

Shortcut: WEI <Go>
Economic  Landscape
WEI & WPE  World Equity Indices & World PIE ECO CA  Canadian (& U.S.) Economic Releases
ECST  Economic Statistics by country
IMOV  Index & Industry Group Movers
MA  Merger /Acquisition Database
WFX & FXC  Cross Currency Rate Monitors RATC  Rating Revisions Monitor
Interest Rates & the Bond Market BTMM&USSW  Treasury I Swaps Monitor pages
BBT  U.S. Treasury Pricing (Executable)
AGCY  Active  Agency Monitor
WB & WS  World  Bond I Swaps Monitors
MMR  Money  Market/Libor  Rates
SRCH  Corp/Govt/Conve rt. Bond Search YCRV  All  Yield  Curves –  Treas/Muni/Corp PICK  Muni  Bond Offerings
Market Performance/Screening Tools
IBQ  Industry Research
MOST  Most active, up, down stocks Equity Search/Filter
FPC  Mutual  Fund  Ranked Returns
ECDR  IPO Calendar
PDF  Default  settings:  graphs, news, messages

Company screens

Shortcut: DES <Go>
Descriptive data & news
DES  Corporate Description
MGMT  Executives & Board Directors
CN  Company News
ISSD  Financial Overview
CNAV  News stories you can listen to
RELS  Related Securities
Fundamentals & Earnings
FA   Company Fundamentals
DVD  Dividends, Stock splits
ERN  Earnings Summary
EE  Earnings Estimates
GE  Historical PIE Graph
EM  Estimates  Matrix
ANR  Analyst Recommendations
PHDC  Institutional & Insider Holders
CRPR  Credit Ratings
CACS  Corporate Action Calendar
CF  Corp Filings – SEDAR/EDGAR
Today’s Markets
GIP  Intraday Price Graph – up to 20 days
QR  Time/Sales  (Quote Recap)
BQ  Customizable  Company  Overview
BAS  Broker Activity Summary
AQR  Average Quote Recap
YAP  Volume At Price
TSM  Trade Summary Matrix
OMON  Customizable Option Monitor
Comparative & Historical Analysis
RV  Competitor  Relative Value
COMP  Comparative Total Return
TRA  Total  Return  for 1 Security
GP, GPO, HP  Historical Graphs/Table
SI  Short Interest
G   Custom Technical Charts
HMSM  Historical 4 in 1 graph
Index Analysis (S&P 500 example)
SPX <Index> TRAY  Total Return
SPX <Index> MOY  Index Movers
SPX <Index> MRR  Member Returns
SPX <Index> MBRS  Member Weights


Here are a few powerful public functions Wall Streeters told us they couldn't live without.

• BMAP (Bloomberg Map) — This is a function like Google Earth but faster, easier to use, and more clear. It's especially useful for anyone that deals with energy and commodities because you can get alerts on weather events (like earthquakes) and then see, for example, what mines or (say) nuclear plants are in the area.
• MLUX (Luxury Shopping) — Takes you to a page where you can check out some really expensive, awesome stuff to buy. Great for a busy banker who can't leave his desk, and just wants to get taken to luxury.
• FA (Financial Analysis) partnered with a function like GEO (Geography) or PROD (Product) — Instead of pouring through pages and pages of SEC filings, this makes it possible for a user to find exactly what they want from a company's data. For example, say you want to find out how much of Apple's sales are in Austria, you'd hit APPL, FA, GEO. If you want to look at say, a new Caterpillar product, you could look it up using FA, PROD.
•  MVP (Most Valuable Player) — This function lets you know who the everyone that has a Bloomberg Terminal is reading/talking about daily. This is a must if you want to be plugged into gossip.
• PEOP (People) — Consider this like a Wall Street LinkedIn showing who's worked where and when.
• GP (Graph Price), RSI (Relative Strength) — Functions like these are very valuable for anyone doing technical analysis because you can instantly look at these charts. More importantly, you can customize them as you wish and look at say, price over a 20-year period in monthly intervals or price over a 6 month period with daily intervals.
• Bloomberg Messaging — This isn't necessarily a function but it's incredibly valuable. This allows you to instant message anyone that has a Bloomberg Terminal. Period. For some people, it's the sole reason why a terminal is a must-have product.
• HDSM(Holder Group Mode) — Shows who holds a stock but also allows you to filter for certain accounts. This is especially valuable in sales. You can build a list of your clients and then type in, say, IBM — all your clients that hold that stock will come up. If you drop the M (HDS) you see the non-customizable version of this, which is just the top holders of any given stock.
• RRG (Relative Rotation Graph) —This function analyzes shifts in market sector leadership (one of our favorite blogger/traders explains its power at length here). It breaks down your universe of stocks into Improving, Leading, Weakening and Lagging and you can watch how the sectors move over a given period of time.
• POSH (Classifieds) — Think of this like a Bloomberg Craigslist that allows users to list anything they're selling from cars to apartments. How awesome is that function name?
• SPLC (Supply Chain) — Lets you track who a company's customers are and what percentage of a company's revenue they make up.
• ADL (Advanced/Decline Line) — This shows you the advance/decline line of any index in the world over a given time.
• TDH (Trade History Function) — Because bonds aren't traded on a central exchange, it can be hard to get accurate prices. However, dealers are required to report their sales using a reporting system called TRACE. Bloomberg takes these reports and gives users the price history of a given bond so they know what price they should be paying.
• BI (Bloomberg Industries) — Get research on any industry under the sun from airlines to minerals.
• OVDV (Currency Volatility) — This gives users the foreign exchange bet on any given currency pair around the world.
• DINE (Restaurants) — This is basically Wall Street's Yelp. Get reviews on loads of restaurants, especially high end spots.

So while this "spying" scandal looks bad, there aren't many people willing to disconnect from all of this stuff.


Economic indicator related functions

ESNP
ECST S
ECOW
WECO
ECOS
ECFC
ECSU
GDP CYOY index


Leading economic indicators: PMI, Housing, Nonfarm payroll
Real GDP is an indicator of economic health.
You can also compare different indexes on charts.