Terminal Bloomberg EN

Performing analysis

 

Navigating functions

Bloomberg functions use common screen elements that work in similar ways. Once you learn about these elements, you can use any function.

Menu bar

The red bar at the top of each function includes the function’s title at the right and provides drop-down menus and buttons to help you perform key tasks. It may also contain a page number indicator.

 

Amber-colored fields

Amber fields indicate areas on the screen that you can change. Amber-colored fields represent editable-form elements, text and data input areas and drop-down lists.

 

Clickable areas

Moving your cursor over a clickable area of the screen shows one of three types of indicators:

• White outline box — Indicates most clickable items, including entries in lists, menus and tables.
• Numbered information — Numbers indicate a topical link, enabling quick access to a related page by either clicking the line or entering the number and clicking <GO>.
• Highlighting — Indicates clickable buttons and tabs.

 

Keyboard navigation

Typing in the number next to an option allows you to quickly navigate within the function using only your keyboard. Many clickable onscreen options are labeled with a Number <GO>.

 

 

Stock/Company screening

The Equity Screening (EQS) function enables you to perform sophisticated searches for equity securities. The following is a quick-start overview for using EQS.

 

STEP 1

• Enter EQS <GO>. The Equity Screening screen appears.

STEP 2

Use the Screening Criteria section to define preliminary search criteria.

• Click a category. A window appears with options for the selected category.
• Drag and drop the appropriate criterion from the window so that it appears in the Included Options or Excluded Options section of the window.
• Click the Update button. 

The criterion for the category is saved and the window closes. The Selected Screening Criteria section at the bottom of the tab updates with your selected criterion and count of company matches.

 

STEP 3

Use the Add Criteria section to refine the search with more data-driven criteria, e.g., industry classifications, fundamentals and ratios.

• Click the Fields button. The Browse Fields window appears with a list of all of the available search criteria fields.
• Use the category tree or Search field at the left of the window to identify the specific criteria fields for which you want to set conditions, then click the Select button. The Add Criteria section of the Build/Edit Screen tab updates with the name of the selected criterion field and additional fields that allow you to set a condition(s) for the selected criterion.
• Enter the appropriate condition(s), then press <GO>. The Selected Screening Criteria section of the screen updates with your selected criterion.

 

STEP 4

Once you have selected all the criteria for the search, click the Results button. 

The list of companies (equities) matching your search criteria appears.

Optional — To explore further options such as saving the search or exporting the results to Excel, click the red Output and Actions toolbar buttons on the Results Page.

Note — To access a complete guide to using EQS, press the green <HELP> key once from within the EQS function.

 

 

Analyzing a company

In Functions & securities and Navigation, we described the overall logic and navigation of the Bloomberg Terminal. With that information, the complete breadth and depth of information on Bloomberg are intuitively and completely discoverable.

This section highlights some of the key company analysis functions available on Bloomberg.

Note — Once you load a security, you can run any number of functions to analyze that security without having to reenter the security.

 

STEP 1

Load the company you want to analyze.

Example — Enter F US <EQUITY> <GO>.

The company appears in the panel’s toolbar as the loaded security.

 

STEP 2

Run the analysis function on the loaded security in one of the following ways:

• Click on a category or function from the menu window — or type the mnemonic in the command field — to explore the full range of analysis options.
• Enter the mnemonic for the specific function you want to run, then press <GO>.

The analysis function runs on the loaded security.

Example — Enter DES <GO>.

Note — To access a function’s Help Page (a comprehensive user guide), press the <HELP> key once.

For cheatsheets that provide lists of popular analysis functions for specific security types, enter BU <GO>, then click the Access Training Documents link.

 

 

Analyzing an index, bond or currency

The Functions & securities and Navigation sections of this guide describe the overall logic and navigation of the Bloomberg Terminal. With them, the total breadth and depth of information on Bloomberg are completely discoverable. This section highlights the process behind loading different types of securities and indices and running analysis functions.

Load the security or index you want to analyze using the Autocomplete feature or by entering a ticker and pressing the yellow key.

Run the analysis function on the loaded security in one of the following ways:

• Click on a category or function from the menu to explore the full range of analysis options.
• Enter the mnemonic for the function you want to run, then press <GO>.

For cheatsheets that provide lists of popular analysis functions for specific security types, enter BPS <GO>, then click through to your chosen subject.

 

Note — In some cases, a function that works for one type of security does not work for a different type of security. For example, the Yield Analysis (YA) function allows you to value a bond. If you load an index and try to run the YA function, an error message appears because the analysis and security type are incompatible.