Here's why Wall Streeters can't live without their Bloomberg Professional Terminals

The media frenzy surrounding the news that Bloomberg reporters were using their terminals to access important information about bankers, government officials, and more serves to remind us of one thing — the Bloomberg terminal is one of the most powerful machines in the world.

If you've never used one before, it's impossible to understand the kind of information users can access. For the most part this is public info (you could find it in a company's filings, fo example), but Bloomberg just makes it customizable and easy to find. We're talking about taking big data, and squeezing it into easy-to-manage charts and lists right at your fingertips.

Here are a few powerful public functions Wall Streeters told us they couldn't live without.

BMAP (Bloomberg Map) — This is a function like Google Earth but faster, easier to use, and more clear. It's especially useful for anyone that deals with energy and commodities because you can get alerts on weather events (like earthquakes) and then see, for example, what mines or (say) nuclear plants are in the area.

MLUX (Luxury Shopping) — Takes you to a page where you can check out some really expensive, awesome stuff to buy. Great for a busy banker who can't leave his desk, and just wants to get taken to luxury.
FA (Financial Analysis) partnered with a function like GEO (Geography) or PROD (Product) — Instead of pouring through pages and pages of SEC filings, this makes it possible for a user to find exactly what they want from a company's data. For example, say you want to find out how much of Apple's sales are in Austria, you'd hit APPL, FA, GEO. If you want to look at say, a new Caterpillar product, you could look it up using FA, PROD.

MVP (Most Valuable Player) — This function lets you know who the everyone that has a Bloomberg Terminal is reading/talking about daily. This is a must if you want to be plugged into gossip.

SPLC (Supply Chain) — Lets you track who a company's customers are and what percentage of a company's revenue they make up.

BI (Bloomberg Industries) — Get research on any industry under the sun from airlines to minerals.

OVDV (Currency Volatility) — This gives users the foreign exchange bet on any given currency pair around the world.

Source: Business Insider

Jr Trader Alexander Kumanov

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