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It stuck me for the very first time when I came upon Bloomberg as a requirement in some if not most of the finance-related job postings. Is Bloomberg a website, Television or what? For those who are still wondering what a Bloomberg terminal is, do not worry, as the old axiom goes, it is never too late to learn. I had my first formal training at the Bloomberg’s office on Church Street, Singapore office. (Thanks to the NUS finance club for organizing and doing justice for your existence and I am kidding of course! These guys have done amazing stuff for the student community).
We had a lady instructor who greeted us with a warmth smile and was very patience with us throughout the session, given that some of us were really using it for the very first time. The office was ‘remarkably’ beautiful and well designed especially with its reception hall, office with an open environment among the cubicles which enhanced interaction among the staff. As I walked in to the training room, I actually thought it’s a place that many would consider working in just by looking at how well the place is organized and run.
To take a step back: You probably know what a Google is, and Bloomberg terminal is something similar in the sense that it brings you whatever financial, market or related information that you need at your finger tips. It is a computer system that enables financial professionals to access the Bloomberg Professional service through which users can monitor and analyze real-time financial market data movements. Some of the most striking physical features of the Bloomberg system are the monitors and the keyboard which is very similar to the normal QWERTY keyboard but with further enhancement that help a user navigate through the system a lot faster.
The graphical user interface is less fancy but to be fair, it is rather user friendly in the sense that you would not take too long a time to find what you need if you have some of the basic understanding of the keys and commands. For example, the yellow keys on top of the keyboards allow you to get to the different asset class or market sector (i.e. Equity, Commodity, Currency etc). Never mind if you couldn’t get to where you want, there is this feature that allows you to get instant support from technical helpdesk through its messaging system. This is really helpful for beginners as you get to learn more about the system. Overall, the training was really helpful for the beginners to get some fundamental ideas about how the system works and some tips on doing basic research on specific security or market data.
Last but not least, I would like to thank the NUS finance club and Bloomberg for holding this session for the NUS MBA students.
-Chia Li
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