Q. Bloomberg: Fixed Income

There are two basic ways to find corporate bonds:

• Bond Search: Type SRCH , fill in the relevant search boxes and click Search for a customized list of bonds.
• Company Ticker: Enter the company ticker symbol, and   for all bonds issued by the company, then select a specific bond with its ticker on the list to continue the search. For example, enter MSFT  and select the bond, e.g. MSFT 2.95 06/01/14, that you want more information. A bond ticker symbol is made up of three main parts: MSFT=Ticker Symbol of Microsoft Corporation, 2.95=Coupon Rate, 06/01/14=Maturity.

If you know the ticker symbol and command code, you can go directly to the information that you want by typing the ticker symbol followed by the command code, e.g. MSFT 2.95 06/01/14 DES  for the bond description.

To find government bonds, press the  key, type TK and hit  for a list of major government bonds around the world, then select the country and bond type for the bonds in that type, further select the one that you want more information.

Below are some of the commonly used single-security functions.  If you are not sure which code you should use while searching Bloomberg, enter a keyword and wait for the choices given by the Bloomberg system and select the code accordingly.  If none of the choices are relevant, try another keyword or press the  key twice to chat real-time with a Bloomberg Help Desk representative. 

Below are some of the commonly used command codes for market information: