Freshman Seminar Fall 17 CRA

Bloomberg Workship

I didn’t really plan on going, but thought might as well get it over with. Greeted by the professor, I felt welcomed, regardless of the fact I had no idea what the words and numbers on the screens meant. He quickly explained how this $2000 product was so useful. However walking into the room he had to disclosed only some of the computers could run the program. Some proprietary colored keyboards that took advantage of the software with useful shortcuts at arms reach. A quick search for Vista Card a history of the companies earnings and the companies projected income for the years to come, made from highly calculated guesses from financial analysis. I just sat there thinking “Is this what businesses majors entail?” I was in awe of how bored I felt, I realized in all the talk of marginal revenue and extensive company research at my disposal, I didn’t want to work in this type of career. Something so monotonous, lacking basic interest, day in and day out sitting behind a computer to look at these arbitrary numbers for some larger financial vendetta. During the workshop I felt a bit more certain about what I wanted to do.

Of course working at Bloomberg would be an amazing opportunity, but knowing which opportunities are for you, and which rabbit holes are worth going down is a part of growing up. I had looked at many internship opportunities in the past, a few of which was offered by Bloomberg, and I remember Bloomberg always mentioned how they are looking for someone who can handle large amounts of work at a time. That they would be working a lot with data and things of that nature. I watched the professor run through the maze that was the Bloomberg software, no doubt something I’d become rather accustom to if I wanted a job involving  number crunching.

Bloomberg Trading System, The Bang That’s Worth Your Buck.

The stockroom, displaying the Bloomberg Trading System, as well as a much larger display of the specific keyboard affiliated with it

I don’t even know where to start, I like many of my peers was distraught on what to do for my next blog post, since I checked off student life, and was saving academics for my last blog post in the light of an upcoming class trip to the MoMa. With career being my last workshop left, I decided to turn to the trusted Baruch email, where the weekly newsletter highlights the week’s key events and workshops. I immediately saw “Bloomberg” on many dates, uncertain of what it was I decided to pursue it anyways, due to it being flexible with my schedule. I am so happy I decided to go! Being, undecided in my major (in terms of whether I want move forward in Economics or Finance) the workshop opened my eyes, and just made my decision even harder. The Bloomberg Trading System, was founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, and the system comes with a rather hefty price tag at 24,000 a year. However, Baruch in the stock floor offers 11 of these computers, meaning they have 11 subscriptions. At first, I was like how could such a little colored keyboard cost so much, when there are alternatives like Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, and even one provided by CNN. But then as the workshop I quickly began to understand, why thousand of subscribers use the system. One of the things that I found most interesting was, the little question mark symbol that appears on each of the Bloomberg screens, and once you click on the question mark it explains whatever you are looking at. The system also has a help and search button, however it isn’t like any other. That is because, When you press that green search button (familiar to the Bloomberg keyboard), it opens the search engine,and you  can put in any trending queries or what you’re looking for, when you type what you’re looking for, press enter or go. What comes up is a help menu, that will try to figure out what you’re looking for, whereas, the left hand side gives categories, narrows it down to what you’ll most likely be looking for. This can be used if you’re unsure what bloomberg has. A little tip is, by pressing F1 key, does all of this with skipping the steps. The workshop also taught me, the function of: Ticker F8 and DES, Ticker F8 RV, Ticker F8 ANR, Ticker F8 GP, where ticker is the company’s abbreviation (e.g Visa, its ticker is V).  The blogpost is to limited to explain it all, but if you are interested, Bloomberg University events, classes, and web events that you can sign up for. You Can even make your own sign up, build your own portfolio, and watch your own information, but  must sign up at the terminal(Stock Room).