Bloomberg Terminal is a paid subscription service with a range of add-ons for asset management, finance, and investment. For more convenience and security features, the Bloomberg subscription can be used in conjunction with exclusive matching gear. Learn more about how Bloomberg Terminal functions and why so many investors use it by reading on.
Main points
- Although it started out as hardware, Bloomberg Terminal is now a subscription service aimed at professional investors.
- Bloomberg Terminal offers early access to Bloomberg news stories as well as basic financial data about businesses.
- Despite the emergence of numerous rivals, Bloomberg Terminal is the most established service with the greatest customer base, which has a positive network effect.
Bloomberg Terminal Examples and Definition
For professional investors looking for an all-in-one solution for research and analysis, Bloomberg Terminal is a tool. Additionally, it provides communication services, trading analytics, charting tools, and market data and news items. 1The Bloomberg Machine is an alternative name
Investors can access, examine, and preserve historical data on their preferred companies using a Bloomberg Terminal membership. They can do this while participating in a teleconference with a colleague and keeping an eye on the exchange rate between the US dollar and the Japanese Yen. The user has access to a company's balance sheet and income statement that was acquired through a merger, can examine a dividend history, or can screen for investments that meet particular requirements or financial ratios. There are further advantages. Stories from Bloomberg News are frequently made available on the Bloomberg Terminal before being made available to the wider public, giving subscribers the opportunity to read and act on the information beforehand. The business that provides the Bloomberg Professional Service is under the management of billionaire former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. His significant wealth comes from it.The Functions of the Bloomberg Terminal
In 1981, Bloomberg Terminal made its debut. Market participants savored Terminal's extraordinary level of access to information and other market participants in the pre-internet era. Bloomberg Terminal is now a software service, albeit it used to come with its own hardware. The Bloomberg Anywhere companion program enables access to Terminal accounts on Macs and mobile devices in addition to the PCs for which the main software is intended. 3 Bloomberg Terminal is seen as crucial by many professionals who work for mutual funds, hedge funds, private partnerships, insurance firms, bank trust departments, and other financial institutions. Some people think it's just as essential to doing business today as typewriters and telephones were in the 1960s. According to Bloomberg, the terminal is used by "325,000 of the world's most important decision-makers." 1 The exact price for your case will depend on what you acquire from Bloomberg, but general estimates place the annual cost of Bloomberg Terminal at roughly $24,000.Bloomberg Terminal Alternatives
By providing comparable services at significantly reduced prices, a number of rivals have tried to steal market share from Bloomberg. The so-called network effect is a huge obstacle for these Bloomberg rivals. The use of Bloomberg terminals has been widespread since their introduction in the 1980s. The Bloomberg user network would be unavailable to anyone who wanted to abandon their device and switch to a competitor. It's comparable to someone closing their Facebook account and leaving their Facebook friends without any other way to get in touch with them.A handful of Bloomberg's rivals are listed below:
- Thompson: Eikon This competitive choice is provided by Reuters and Refinitiv. It provides a variety of add-ons and services, such as news from Reuters and analysis from Refinitiv. 6
- This Bloomberg Terminal substitute, backed by Goldman Sachs and other top financial institutions, enables companies to sign up for 10 accounts per year for just $4,800.78.
- Money.net: Former employees of Morgan Stanley, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, and other organizations founded Money.net. Any device—Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, and Android—can use this program, which offers a free 14-day trial. 9
- IHS Markit: This S & P Global affiliate provides a variety of services, such as sector analysis, portfolio modeling, and third-party risk evaluation.
- FactSet: Another specialized competitor of Bloomberg, FactSet focuses on workflow solutions, analysis of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments, and financial information on organizations.
