Hi,I am new to Bloomberg....I am trying to get out historical data for a large list of securities (1000 - 2000) and save the data to a file for further analysis. The data we are looking to get includes a variety of fields (both technical and fundamental), with periodicity 1 month (maybe quarterly), going back as far as possible (like 30-40 years if possible). What is the best way to get this data? I know how to use Excel to request a list of fields for a group of securities. I just don't want to have to repeat this hundreds of times.....Therefore I am hoping to write a basic program that can automated this process by writing a small app that uses the Bloomberg API (I am working on a machine with Bloomberg). My Java/C skills are much stronger than my Windows programming (VB/.NET) skills, but it seems the VB/.NET API's are easier to use...at least there is more documentation/examples out there. Any advice on which path to take?Cheers,Jack

The API is excellent the problem is Bloomberg. If you pull too much data they will shut off your terminal permanently.

Well there must be official limits by which they consider "too much" .... And as long as we are not redistributing it I don't see how they can limit our consumption.

if you are only looking for price information, then write a simple script that pull data from finance.google.com or yahoo.com website. There is no limit.

The request was for getting data for a variety of fields, both technical and fundamental, so obviously not the type of data yahoo finance can provide.By the way, why write a simple script when you get use a great pre-made tool for downloading yahoo data. http://www.download.com/Yahoo-Google-Hi ... =lst-1Jack

.NET or even VBA is easier to use as in most cases this eleminates the need to care about data types and data conversion. The documentation is incomplete as for any Bloomberg features but the examples are quite extensive.With the amount of data you need there is little chance of hitting the data download limits unless the application is tested by repeatedly downloading the full data set hundreds of times.There are 2 factors to be aware of.1) There is a limit on the size of data that can be returned in a single request. For this reason (unless download speed is of particular importance) it's better to download each fieled for each name in a separate request.2) Sometimes Bloomberg may never send back the requested data. So, unless the timeout is set the application may lock up.Given very few (if any) parts of the API are documented so that it's crystally clear what the API does under any unusual circumstances (such as misformatted inputs) it's always better to start with a working example from the documentation and gradually improve it.

Thanks for the comments.Yes, I found a VB example and have used that as a base to write my program. I'm never really used VB before (I'm a C/Java guy) but I'm finding it relatively easy to use so far.About the data limit -- do you know the limit? And is there any way to know that you've reached the limit, or will the results just be cut off abnormally?Cheers,Jack

I've used the API for a couple of months now, and have not reached any data limits yet. I can get data for 1000 securities and 10 fields at one time with no problem, though sometimes it is a little slow. As for grouping data together, I wouldn't request each field one at a time, since that would take forever. Play around with it and see how much Bloomberg can return at one time. Also, depending on the data requested, Bloomberg returns data in different formats, so be careful about assuming the form of the returned data.

What type of data are you downloading? Depending on what you're looking for, there will be ways to speed the process up. I've requested all the daily trade records for 600 stocks, and didn't reach a limit. I've never heard of data limits, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

The types of data fields I am interested in are stuff like PE ratio, EPS, EPS estimates, dividends, cash flow, etc. In total I will have about 25 fields or so, and around 1000 stocks. And I'll be using monthly periocity, sometimes quarterly.In preliminary testing using the Excel historical data downloader, I have noticed a significant amount of missing data for the fundamental data I just described. Is this normal? I thought Bloomberg was supposed to be the best for quality of data, but so far it's not looking that good.Jack.

If you're looking at stuff like that, then you can definitely download it at one time. Also, I don't think you'll reach any data limit issues. I download more than that with no problem.I have to filter all the data I get from Bloomberg. Sometimes there is just bad data that no one has caught. Other times there is a difference in the quality of data you get from the Bloomberg terminal vs Excel. And a good portion of the time they just don't have it, nor do they care.Besides Bloomberg, my company also uses Capital IQ. It seems to have better quality fundamental data (and the ability to download it to Excel) than Bloomberg, but not as much quantity.

QuoteOriginally posted by: jcambecethe problem is Bloomberg. If you pull too much data they will shut off your terminal permanently.So just open a new account in a new name. They don't require any business history to pay for and turn on a terminal.

QuoteOriginally posted by: jcambeceThe API is excellent the problem is Bloomberg. If you pull too much data they will shut off your terminal permanently.I don't think it is normally the case. However, Bloomberg have daily and monthly API data limits (which are huge) and if you hit monthly limit, they disconnect you from data till the end of the month.Note the limits are very generous. You need to be downloading historical tick data (up to 100,000 ticks per day for some stocks) for thousands of securities in order to hit the limits.If you want to know what the limits are, ask support <HELP><HELP> or Bloomberg representatives. I don't think anyone makes secret of them.