BEST FPERIOD OVERRIDE Explained
When it comes to writing formulas for estimates in Bloomberg API there is an important classification
that every estimate formula should have. Writing a formula like =BDP(“IBM US EQUITY”,”BEST EPS”) is
not good enough because we have no idea what this is estimate is “for”; this could be the estimate for
this quarter, next quarter, the year, etc. (the defaults are determined by the FPDF settings but it’s still
good to clarify.)
For this reason, every estimate field needs the override BEST_FPERIOD_OVERRIDE which allows us to
specify the period we want the estimate to be for. There are 6 different inputs you can have for this
override: ##Y, #FY, #GY, #TY, #BF, ##BC (all “y’s” in these overrides can be changed to Q for quarter or S
for semiannual). This sheet is going to breakdown each estimate and show you some key words to look
for so you know when to use each one.
##Y:
Used for a specific year. The two numbers prior to the Y are the last 2 numbers in the year. For example,
BEST_FPERIOD_OVERRIDE =14Y would mean that this estimate is for 2014 and will always be for 2014.
Example ADSK question: I want to see IBM’s 2015 Sales estimate over the past 3 years?

Since the client has specified that they want 2015 specifically, we can use this override
=BDH(“IBM US EQUITY”,”BEST SALES”,”-3CY”,””,”BEST FPERIODOVERRIDE=15Y”)
#FY
This is the first “relative” override we have. What this means is that the estimate period that this
override is specifying is dependent on other attributes of the output, specifically the DATE. When using
relative overrides, using the number 1 prior to the letters in the input is going to mean CURRENT. 2
would mean NEXT. (1FY is the estimate for the current FISCAL year estimate, 2FY the estimate for next
FISCAL year estimate). **UNDERSTAND FISCAL YEARS AND CALENDAR YEARS ARE NOT THE SAME**
*For FY, it is important to understand that 1FY is going to be the estimate for the current fiscal year
relative to TODAYS date. That means that if today is 11/20/2013 and we are in the fiscal year 2013 then
using the 1FY override will give us the estimate for 2013FY.
**THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND FOR BDH FORMULAS** because if you have 1FY in a BDH
formula, no matter what date you specify, the estimate is going to be for the year that TODAY falls in.
In this respect #FY estimates are used in the exact same way ##Y estimates EXCEPT when the year
changes your entire formula and output will change. So if today is 01/02/2014, many clients BDH
formulas will look different than they did last week (assuming the company’s fiscal year falls on the
calendar year).
Example ADSK question: I want the CURRENT QUARTERS estimate for everyday year to date. I want this
to roll over to the next quarter, once this quarter is done.


=BDH(“IBM US EQUITY”,”BEST SALES”,”12/31/2012”,””,”BEST FPERIOD OVERRIDE=1FQ”)
If you do this formula now, every formula in the time series is going to show the estimate for
whatever quarter we are currently in. Once this quarter comes to an end, the entire time series
is going to change to the next quarter estimate once you refresh your sheet.
#GY
This is our second “relative” override. Although the estimate fields default to FY, I’ve always thought
that this was somewhat inefficient as most clients want to see what {GF<GO>} defaults to. #GY
estimates are rolling relative estimates.
In a BDP formula, 1GY and 1FY are going to give the same exact answer, always. However, 1GY comes
into play when using BDH formulas. Using GY estimates will give the estimate for the RESPECTIVE year
that the date falls into.
Example ADSK question: I want to pull BEST EPS data from GE<GO> into excel. OR I want to see the
yearly sales estimate for Apple for the past 4 years.

The important question to ask here is “do you want to see Apple’s estimates for the respective
year going back 4 years?” Most of the time, the answer is yes. This means that in the following
formula, any date in 2010 is going to give you the estimate FOR 2010; once you start seeing
dates for 2011, then those estimates are for 2011, etc.
=BDH(“AAPL US EQUITY”,”BEST SALES”,”-4CY”,””,”BEST FPERIOD OVERRIDE=1GY”)
#TY
Often times at the desk you will get questions for forward looking 12 month estimates. Many of our
reps don’t know whether to use TY here or BF. The following two sections will explain the difference.
TY estimates are pretty simple to understand; basically we are taking 1GQ, 2GQ, 3GQ, and 4GQ and
adding them together to get 1TY. That is, 1TY estimates is the sum of the next 4 quarter estimates. So if
you were to use 1TY P/E estimate on 05/15/2013 for IBM, the TY estimate is going to be the sum of the
estimate for Q2 2013, Q3 2013, Q4 2013, and Q1 2014.
#BF
The BF estimate is also forward looking 1 year. The main difference is in the calculation. Where TY is the
sum of the next 4 quarter estimate, BF is totally different. 1BF will take the estimate for THIS year (or
the relative year if looking historically) and the estimate for the NEXT YEAR and weight them by the
number of days in each relative to the current date.
Let’s break that down: If company XYZ has a regular fiscal year (January to December) and we are
getting the 1BF estimate on October 3rd 2012. Bloomberg is going to take the 2012 estimate and
multiply it by (number of days between Oct 3rd 2012 and Dec 31st 2012/number of days in a full year)
and ADD that to the 2013 estimate multiplied by the (number of days between January 1st 2013 and Oct
3rd 2013/number of days in a full year).
Here it is in a formula:
( 2012 estimate* (number of days between Oct 3rd 2012 and Dec 31st 2012/number of days in a full
year)) + (2013 estimate multiplied by the (number of days between January 1st 2013 and Oct 3rd
2013/number of days in a full year))
In this respect, we are weighting the estimates by the number of days in each year.
There are very simple prove outs to this. Reach out to any API contact.
##BC
If a client ever asks for a CALENDAR YEAR ESTIMATE, this is the override to use. If you go to {EM<GO>}
and look at the table here, the BC estimate is what you see in the CAL YR row. If a company’s fiscal year
falls the same as a calendar year (like IBM), the BC estimates are going to be the same as ##Y or #FY
estimates. But if the company’s fiscal year does NOT fall on the calendar year, these numbers will be
different. In this case, the BC estimate will take the 5 quarters that have even 1 month in the respective
year and weight their quarterly estimates respectively. Let’s take a look at COSTCO’s as an example.
15BC: COSTCO’s Fiscal year ends on 8/30 every year. Therefore, 5 quarters will fall into 2015: the last 2
months of FQ2 2015, all of FQ3 2015, all of FQ4 2015, all of FQ1 2016, and the first month of FQ2 2016.
Therefore the 2015 will be:
.6666*Estimate for FQ2 2015+Estimate for FQ3 2015+Estimate for FQ4 2015+Estimate for FQ1 2016+
.3333* FQ2 2016. As you can tell, this adds up to 4 full quarters. You can do the math yourself using the
following table. The RED OUTLINED numbers are the 5 quarters to use to get the 2015 number.
Another important concept to understand about BC estimates is that if you reference a historical year in
the past, this would be the equivalent of pulling the CALENDAR YEAR FUNDAMENTAL for that statistic.
So =BDP(“COST US EQUITY”,”BEST EPS”,”BEST FPERIOD OVERRIDE=12BC”) will pull the 4.19 number you
see in the Cal Yr line under 2012. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO PULL CALENDAR YEAR FUNDAMENTALS.
Therefore, for HISTORICAL BLENDED CALENDAR estimates you must use BDH formulas.
Example ADSK Question:
I want to see the 2014 Calendar Year EPS estimate for Macy’s.
This is the number you see on the {EM<GO>} matrix in the calendar year for 2014.
=BDP(“M US EQUITY”,”BEST EPS”,”BEST FPERIOD OVERRIDE=14BC”)
INDEX ESTIMATES
The important thing to remember about index estimates is that Indices do not have fiscal years!
Engrave this into your mind. Therefore, any reference of a fiscal periods in BEST FPERIOD OVERRIDE
WILL NOT WORK (that means ##Y, #FY/Q, and ##BC). For that reason, always use GY or GQ with indices
or TY and BF will work. (For BF, 1BF, for some reason, is not read; just do BF without the number in front
of it).