Professional

Bloomberg Terminal Review for Developers

Item: Bloomberg Terminal
Author: CodeForFinance

The Bloomberg Terminal is the gold standard of financial data platforms. Used by virtually every institutional investor, hedge fund, and investment bank, it provides real-time market data, news, analytics, and a messaging network. For developers, the key draw is the Bloomberg API (BLPAPI) and Bloomberg Query Language (BQL), which let you pull data directly into Python, Excel, and other tools.

Pricing

Bloomberg Terminal$24,000/year

✓ Full terminal access
✓ BLPAPI included
✓ Bloomberg Anywhere
✓ BQL access
✓ Excel add-in

Bloomberg Data LicenseCustom pricing

✓ Enterprise data feeds
✓ Bulk historical data
✓ Reference data
✓ No terminal needed

Bloomberg B-PIPECustom pricing

✓ Real-time streaming
✓ Low latency
✓ Consolidated feed
✓ For trading systems

Pros

+ Most comprehensive financial data in existence
+ BLPAPI is well-documented and supports Python, Java, C++
+ BQL is powerful for complex queries
+ Bloomberg Anywhere for remote access
+ The messaging network is invaluable for deal flow

Cons

- Extremely expensive at $24k/year per user
- Steep learning curve for the terminal
- Cannot easily export large datasets
- Vendor lock-in risk
- Overkill for individual developers

Who Is It For?

Bloomberg is for professional quants, portfolio managers, and institutional developers who need the most comprehensive and reliable data. If your employer pays for it, learn the API. If you are an individual developer, look at cheaper alternatives below.

Code Example

# Bloomberg API (BLPAPI) - Python example
# Requires blpapi package and active terminal

import blpapi

session_options = blpapi.SessionOptions()
session_options.setServerHost("localhost")
session_options.setServerPort(8194)

session = blpapi.Session(session_options)
session.start()
session.openService("//blp/refdata")

service = session.getService("//blp/refdata")
request = service.createRequest("ReferenceDataRequest")
request.append("securities", "AAPL US Equity")
request.append("fields", "PX_LAST")
request.append("fields", "PE_RATIO")
request.append("fields", "DVD_YLD")

session.sendRequest(request)

# Process response
while True:
    event = session.nextEvent(500)
    for msg in event:
        print(msg)
    if event.eventType() == blpapi.Event.RESPONSE:
        break

session.stop()

Alternatives

Refinitiv EikonFactSetS&P Capital IQ