Cameron Pfiffer, studying MSc Corporate Finance at the ICMA Centre, blogs about his first weeks at the ICMA Centre and using the Bloomberg Terminals for good and evil.
One of the reasons I chose to come to the ICMA Centre was the facilities – the building and the neighboring Henley Business School (which the ICMA Centre is a part of) are both architectural marvels. The ICMA Centre building in particular is simultaneously businesslike and warm, thanks to the bustling coffee bar and walls of windows looking out onto old trees. As an American coffee lover, it’s one of the few places in England that makes actual good coffee for an insanely reasonable price.
Of the great things about the ICMA Centre, the Bloomberg Terminals are perhaps one of my favourite after my first week of studying. There are twenty or so of them in the centre.
What’s a Bloomberg Terminal?
If you don’t know what a Bloomberg Terminal is and you love all kinds of data, you are in for the treat of a century. The terminal is chock full of any data you could ever want about anything.
Want to see a map of wind farms in Germany? Here you go. Here’s a map.
Want to see all cargo ships and oil tankers in real time? Better yet, here’s all the ships waiting to pass through the Panama Canal.
In the market for a luxury yacht? Type POSH and maybe you’ll find one for sale.
Want to send an email to John Cryan (CEO of the embattled Deutsche Bank) and ask him if he wants a hug? He’s right there on the terminal. You can instant message him or email him on his own terminal. Obviously, I would highly recommend you don’t do this. But all I’m saying is it is possible.
Bloomberg hires a boatload of people full time to scour the world over for databases, write real-time news, and perform analysis. It’s all available for anyone with a terminal with a few swift key presses. You might have heard of Bloomberg the news agency, but not the terminal. You might not also know that 75% of Bloomberg’s revenue comes from the rental income from Bloomberg terminals. The news portion of the company is heavily subsidised by the terminals, and they produce some excellent articles.
I’m loving the experience with the terminals so far. I’m currently rooting around a database that lists municipal bond issues in my home state of Oregon (it’s the one above California, but it’s better) by underwriter. Maybe I can find a research project in the data by November, when our research proposals are due. Even if I don’t find anything worth writing about, I’m still having a blast!