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Bloomberg

The Bloomberg interface

Bloomberg has a unique interface that is designed to help users quickly find and use information. The Bloomberg Getting Started Guide for Students is available in Business Library Moodle 2024-2025. Non Business students should email businesslibrary@city.ac.uk for a copy of the guide.

The guide illustrates the basic principles of navigating Bloomberg and the Bloomberg Excel add-in using relevant and accessible information for new users.

How can I download data?

If you need to download data from Bloomberg, please consider first if it can be downloaded or copied through the Bloomberg software, as downloads from the software are not counted in the download limit.

  • The functions FA and GP allow you do to this by right-clicking on the chart and selecting Copy/Export Options. 
  • You can always contact Bloomberg if you have questions about downloading different types of data using the F1 key.
  • Bloomberg Query Language (BQL) allows you to perform calculations within the Bloomberg Excel add-in.
Download limits: Bloomberg has strict limits on the amount of data you can download. If you see the error message #N/A Limit or #N/A Review, you may have exceeded one of these limits. Once the limit of downloads has been hit, no more downloading can take place by anybody on the terminal for the rest of that calendar month. 

Excel add-in

Bloomberg has a useful Excel add-in that allows you to export data from the terminal easily.

You will need to set it up in your profile on one of our Bloomberg terminals. You can do this by going to the desktop of any Bloomberg PC and double-clicking the Install office add-ins icon. Click Install when prompted. Once you have installed the add-in, it will work when you log into any of our Bloomberg terminals.

The add-in will allow you to export data from Bloomberg to Excel and to use various pre-set templates and a formula builder to import data into Excel. You can also use Bloomberg Query Language (BQL) which is an SQL-like language that will allow you to perform your own calculations in the Bloomberg cloud.