How to create a user account at Bloomberg

Bloomberg Sign-Up Instructions

1.) Click on the Bloomberg icon located on the desktop once. It may take some time to open.



2.) When the page opens, Bloomberg will ask you to log in with your Bloomberg account informations. If you do not have a pre-existing account, click on the 'Create a new login' to create one.



3.) Select the proper options and click "Next"



4.) Fill in the required information. Use your Bilkent email address as the email address. Click "Next"
   


5.) Select the channel through which Bloomberg will send the verification code.






6.)  Activate your account using the verification code.



7.) Create your password.



8.) Enter the required information.



9.) After this step, you can start using Bloomberg with your username and password.

Download Limits

Bloomberg has a data download limit, and the download allowance is renewed monthly. However, Bloomberg does not disclose the exact limits, nor is there a way to programmatically track how much of the limit has been used.

Users will encounter an error message when attempting to download additional data if the download limit is reached. Bloomberg does not extend data limits for educational subscriptions. Once the monthly limit has been reached, users must wait until the beginning of the next month for the limit to reset.

When the monthly download limit is exceeded, Bloomberg Excel will no longer allow data retrieval, and an error message will appear. These limits are automatically reset at the start of each month. Bloomberg does not offer early resets or limit extensions.

 

Monthly limit - # N/A Review

The monthly limit comes from a proprietary model based on unique securities and depends on the downloaded data type. Some data has more value and will use up the quota more rapidly. When the terminal is at its monthly limit, users will see an error message with #N/A LIMIT in Excel. The data limit will automatically reset on the first of the month.



Daily limit - #N/A Daily Capacity

The Daily API limit is 500,000 hits/per day and is reset at midnight. A "hit" is defined as one request for a single security/field pairing.

Open fields - "N/A Limit"

You can have no more than 3500 real-time fields open simultaneously. If you see "NA Limit" as an error message, delete some securities/ fields so the error message disappears and the values are seen. To test if the limit has been reached, open the Bloomberg terminal, log in, then open a new Excel workbook and paste in the following formula: =BDP("AAPL US Equity", "PX_LAST"). If you get one of the above error messages, you've reached a limit.

What You Can Do to Help Yourself and Others

• Please download only the amount of data you need.
• Run analysis using Bloomberg Query Language - BQL. You can run a query on a large quantity of data and get the answer without saving all the data. Refer to the BQL guide on Bloomberg for guidance – type BQLX
• Don't use the Excel Add-In. Instead, download data from a regular Bloomberg function page. For example, use the function for stock price data, then right-click on the graph, and you can copy and paste the data into Excel.
• Disable automatic updates/refreshes – look out for background sheets.
• Build API queries offline before downloading them to ensure that you are downloading only the securities and fields you absolutely need. The Equity Screener command (EQS) is handy for this task.

1. Type EQS
2. Add criteria under section Screening Criteria; select More Categories to view all screening criteria
3. Click "Results," which is located in the right corner of the screen.
4. Click "Output" to save to Excel, PDF or print.

• Limit your downloads to 1 session; each time you open/close Excel, you pull, even replicate, more data.
• Use the Worksheet (W) function in the Bloomberg terminal; this is like a spreadsheet but without download limits.
• Once you have the data you need, copy it, then paste-as-values or save it as CSV so you do not need to download the same thing more than once.
• Build API queries offline before downloading them to ensure that you are downloading only the securities and fields you absolutely need. The Equity Screener command (EQS) is particularly useful for this task.
• Use the DAPI command to access all API support documents, including the Excel API cheat sheet, for more efficient query downloads.
• Consider using alternative financial data platforms for running securities Excel queries, such as LSEG EIKON, FactSet, and WRDS.

Keyboard / Shortcuts

The Bloomberg keyboard is color-coded to provide users with quick access to data and functions.

Yellow Keys - Market Sector Keys   

Green Keys  - Action Keys      

Red Keys - Cancel & Log Off Keys

Keys to know:

Esc/Cancel - It functions like a standard Escape key. Pressing it will interrupt the current action.

Enter/GO - It functions like a standard Enter key. You will use it after entering each command.

Print - Press 'Print' once to print the current page, or enter the number of pages you wish to print followed by 'Print' (e.g., 5 Print).

Menu - Press 'Menu' to return from any function to a menu of related functions, and eventually back to the main menu.

End/Back - Takes you back to the previously viewed screen.

Help - If you need help with the current function you are working on, you can press the 'Help' once. If you want to email Bloomberg's 24-hour support desk, press the 'Help' twice.

Market Sectors (The Yellow Keys)

Use Bloomberg's function keys (in yellow) on the top row of the Bloomberg terminal keyboard for quick access to market sector data. If you are familiar with Bloomberg's syntax, you can use the yellow keys to enter commands, specifying an equity or market sector type.

Bloomberg Terminal: Getting Started Guide