Bloomberg Functions for the
FIN 300 Bond Project
Prof. Carissa Phillips
Spring 2012
Features to note on the Bloomberg keyboard
HELP—to search the
system or chat with BB
F3—for general info on
Corporate Securities
GO—same as
Enter on a
regular
keyboard
Connection Default for login
Menu—to
return to the
previous screen
Page Forward
and Page Back—
to scroll through
screens
Click on the Bloomberg icon on the desktop to get this screen. Then, hit the green GO/Enter key
on the board to go to the login screen (next slide).
TO LOG IN TO BLOOMBERG, USE THE LOGIN AND PASSWORD PRINTED ON THE BASE OF ONE OF
YOUR MONITORS.
Click somewhere in an empty area, like here to activate the screen and get the blinking blue box
where you will type.
Finding A Bond
Start with your sheet, or by going to FINRA
(http://cxa.marketwatch.com/finra/MarketData/Default.aspx)
to find two pieces of info: the CUSIP and Issuer Name for the bond
The easiest way to find a bond—which doesn’t work in all cases—is to enter the CUSIP number at
the blinking blue box. Bloomberg should autocomplete to show offer a link to the security. If you
click on the link, you’ll be taken to the Analyze Corp Bonds Menu for the bond.
If searching for the CUSIP doesn’t retrieve the bond, then start typing the Issuer Name.
Bloomberg will autocomplete to give options. You want the option under Securities that has the
issuer’s ticker, and then “Corp.” If you don’t see that on this screen, click “More Securities” at the
bottom. For this example, click on the line that says MCD Corp.
You should get a list of all of the issuer’s outstanding corporate securities. You may need to use
the Page Forward/Back keys or scroll wheel on the mouse to scroll to other screens if the list is
long. Find the bond in the list and click on it to get to the Analyze Corp Bonds Menu.
This is the main menu page for this bond, which you can tell from the path (Analyze MCD 6 3/8
01/08/28 Corp), and from the ticker on the gray bar at the top of the page. If you ever get lost,
you can type CU (the function code associated with this page ) at the blinking blue cursor to get
back here.
Ways to Analyze A Bond
There are several functions on this menu screen that can be useful to your research. A few of
those will be highlighted. Start by clicking on 16) DES Description.
Bond Description
Here you’ll get a basic description about the bond, and also links to other options. These other
options can be identified by the #) in front—whenever you see #), that is something you can click
on to go to another page. You can also find links by hovering the mouse pointer over any
Bloomberg screen; links will have a white border around the text. Click on 36) CF Prospectus.
Bond Prospectus
This is the company filings screen. Click on 2) to get the original document.
The filing, linked through Bloomberg.
You can use CTRL-F to search for certain keywords within the text
If you want to copy any of the text, you can highlight the text, then use CTRL-C to copy,
CTRL-V to paste. When you’re done, you can just close this window. You will get a message
asking if you want to close this “child window”—say yes.
Sending Yourself a Screenshot
If you want to capture an image of this screen, or of most other screens in Bloomberg, you can
use the GRAB function (next slide).
Type GRAB at the blue box in the upper left corner and hit GO/Enter.
This will open up an email form. Enter the email address that you’d like to send the screenshot
to. You can type in a description, too, if you want. When you’re done, hit GO/Enter. MOST
IMPORTANT: make sure that you click on the text that says 1 <GO> SEND, or else it won’t be sent.
Wait for the “Mail Sent” confirmation. NOTE: This will show up in your email account as coming
from the Market Info Lab. If you don’t see the email in your inbox, check your junk mail/spam
filters. Notice that this bond is still “loaded” in the system, according to the gray bar at the top.
At the blue cursor, type CU, then hit GO/Enter, to get back to the Analyze Corp Bonds Menu for
the bond.
Back at the Analyze Corp Bonds Menu for the bond. Click on 15) Descriptive > to get more
descriptive functions for the bond, like historical credit ratings.
Looking at Ratings for A Bond
These are the Descriptive functions for the bond, within the overall analysis functions for the
bond, which you can tell from the path at the top. Click on 15) CRPR Credit Profile.
This bond is rated by several agencies; others may be rated by more or fewer. Note that there is
one page of info here; if there were more, you could use the Page Forward/Page Back keys, or the
scroll wheel on the mouse, to get to them. Click on 2) to see the ratings history for this bond from
Moody’s.
Historical ratings for this bond from Moody’s. To go back to the CRPR page, click “Close”
When you’re done with CRPR, click Descriptive Menu on the gray bar at the top of the page to go
back to the Descriptive menu for the bond.
At the Descriptive menu, click “Analyze MCD…” (which acts like a link in a web browser) to go
back to the Analyze Corp Bond Menu page.
Back at the Analyze Corp Bond Menu page.
Finding Historical Prices
Click on 25) GP Price Graph
The default displays are listed in the yellow boxes, and any of these details can be changed. Click
the red tab for 98) Table to get the numbers that make the chart.
The range of dates was changed to go back to 2008, by typing in the new dates and hitting
GO/Enter. Click Analyze Corp Bond Menu to get back to that page.
Back at the Analyze Corp Bond Menu page.
Valuation, Hedging, and Cashflow
Functions
Click on 4) Analytics > to see other options for analyzing the bond
This is the menu of options under on 4) Analytics. Some of the functions to note are 14) CSHF
Cashflow Analysis and 16) PFC1 Present Value Analysis.
The CSHF—Bond Payment Schedule screen. To see Present Value Analysis, you can click on the
gray tab named 12) Present Values.
The Present Values Screen, which is actually the same thing you would have gotten if you had
clicked on 16) PFC1 Present Value Analysis back on the 4) Analytics page. Click Analytics Menu to
get back to that page.
Back at the Analytics Menu. You’ll need to click Analyze MCD 6 3/8 01/08/28 Corp to get back to
the Analyze Corp Bond Menu.
Back at the Analyze Corp Bond Menu page.
General Functions for Analyzing
Corporate Securities
To view other functions for corporate securities, you can click on Credit (Corp) in the path at the
top of the page.
Another way to get to the functions for corporate securities in general is to hit the yellow F3 key,
then hit the GO/Enter key.
Searching for Similar Bonds
This is the general screen for Corporate securities, as you can see on the path at the top. Click on
1) Find and Create Securities.
This is the Find and Create Securities screen, which you can see on the path at the top. To find
bonds similar to the McDonald’s bond, click on 16) SRCH Bond Search.
This is a sample search for bonds with coupon rates close the rate of the McDonald’s bond
(6.375%) and close to the maturity date of the bond (01/08/28). There are several other options
you can choose from to find similar bonds. After you enter all of the parameters you want, hit the
Search button.
The search results show 8 bonds with coupon rates and maturity dates similar to that for the
McDonald’s bond (plus the McDonald’s bond itself). Click the Edit Columns button to add new
columns to the display.
For example, you could insert a column with credit ratings for the similar bonds. In the window,
click to expand the options under Credit Ratings. Use the scroll bar to see options listed from
other rating agencies.
For example, click on Moody’s so that it is added to the Data Items Selected, then hit the Update
button.
The column for Moody’s ratings has been added on the right. On the column heading, right click
on the mouse to get the option to sort the column by the rating.
The results list, sorted by Moody’s rating. Click Find and Create Securities Menu to go back to
that page.
Back at the Find and Create Securities page. Click Credit (Corp) to get back to the main
Corporates menu.
Finding Ratings
Definitions and Comparisons
At the Credit (Corp) menu, click on 21) New Issues, Corp. Actions, Ratings >
Click on 18) RATD Rating Definition
The first of 2 pages under RATD. Click on 1) MDY Moody’s Investors Service.
Within Moody’s, click on 1) Long-Term and Short-Term…
Click on 1) Long-Term Debt Ratings Definitions
The first page of the LT debt definition. Use the Page Forward key on the keyboard, or the scroll
wheel on the mouse, to get to see the other pages.
The third page of the LT debt definitions. Click on New Issues, etc. on the gray bar to get back to
that menu.
Click on RATD again
This time, use the Page Forward key on the keyboard or the scroll wheel on the mouse to get to
the second screen within RATD. Click on 35) Long-Term Rating Scale Comparison.
This is the first page of the comparison, so you can see how a Moody’s A2 rating compares to
ratings from other agencies. As noted at the bottom, this page (the white text) shows investment
grade ratings; the second page shows yellow text, which is non-investment grade ratings.
When you’re done, you can close Bloomberg by right-clicking anywhere in the page, and selecting
Exit Bloomberg from the menu.
For Assistance
• choller@illinois.edu
• Market Info Lab
– Fellows
– mil@business.illinois.edu