Bloomberg

[Expert]

I trade from home and i'm trying to work out which online trading system is the best to use. Bloomberg charge around £10,000 per annum, where as Sharescope and esignal charge around £1,000 per annum. If I trade only on the London Stock Exchange, what would the advantages be (if any) of spending so much more on Bloomberg? (your replies are much appreciated)undefined

 

[LION63]

Simple answer to your question - NONE. £10,000 per annum is a lot to spend on a trading system before one makes any money. The type of system you use will be dictated by the method of trading that you use ie. CFDs, spreadbetting etc. You will find that some companies offer systems, data etc when you open accounts with them.

 

[mikeyuk]

bloomberg trading platform

I trade from home and i'm trying to work out which online trading system is the best to use. Bloomberg charge around £10,000 per annum, where as Sharescope and esignal charge around £1,000 per annum. If I trade only on the London Stock Exchange, what would the advantages be (if any) of spending so much more on Bloomberg? (your replies are much appreciated)undefined

only if your net 50-70k + per year from trading....sharescope is a good trading platform .....but the bloomberg television is very good ,, ps no i dont work for them

 

[mikeyuk]

lion63,, what time frame do you trade in ...intro.day ,, or daily,,works better for you?

 

[LION63]

Mikeyuk,

I trade daily, weekly etc. However, I have found that the trades that are put on with a view of being closed after more than one trading session tend to be the most profitable. Day trading tends to be too much hit and miss. As an example, I opened a short position in Schering Plough on Wednesday and closed it just before the end of the day losing the spread (not too bad, I can live with that). To my horror, the stock dropped 60 points within the first 30 minutes on Thursday. That is the downside of daytrading.

 

[mikeyuk]

Mikeyuk,

I trade daily, weekly etc. However, I have found that the trades that are put on with a view of being closed after more than one trading session tend to be the most profitable. Day trading tends to be too much hit and miss. As an example, I opened a short position in Schering Plough on Wednesday and closed it just before the end of the day losing the spread (not too bad, I can live with that). To my horror, the stock dropped 60 points within the first 30 minutes on Thursday. That is the downside of daytrading.

i have found the same ,, the seems to breakout ,,,then came back to get your stop.. then it carrys on with breakout....i was thinking about daily ..weekly time frames ..thank you lion63

 

[LION63]

Now one can see why at least 75% of daytraders lose money, it is not that they do not know what they are doing, it is simply because there is not enough time for things to move in the right direction. That does not mean that I do not make money daytrading it simply means that it is much harder. Forex seems to be a happy hunting ground for the daytrader.

 

[Racer]

Disadvantages... you need at least £12 to £15K min to break even on costs.

In the good ole days, I used to day trade via delayed feeds on teletext and make money. Now I swing trade with live data LOL.
If you are into daytrading then that is what you want, but the more relaxed swing trading is more profitable, for me anyway

And yes I have used Bloomberg terminal as a data feed.

 

[LION63]

How I miss those days..... less information but more money. Now it is a jungle and only the strong survive. The rip off brokers have been replaced by highway robbers charging ridiculous prices for data, charts etc.

As Mikeyuk and Racer rightly point out, the higher your costs, the more capital you require and the more difficult it becomes to make profits. For the individual trader, a Bloomberg terminal is a non starter. For most traders, ADVFN or Money.AM meet their requirements and they are more cost effective. The next level is probably ESignal, Sharescope and Synergy.

 

[wiseass]

i realise this is a very old thread however perhaps someone could add something new.

i currently watch bloomberg onine @ http://www.mmdfactory.com/internet_tv/United_States/Bloomberg_tv.html

Now i'm not sure how delayed this server is but i was wondering if anyone has a better (quicker) feed ??

 

[green11]

for an individual day trader bloomberg is not cost effective really.

Only when you start to deal with larger amounts of cash do you really need it - the biggest funds in the city use stuff like bloomberg, so an individual trader could probably make do with something a little bit cheaper, as long as it isnt giving a delayed feed.

having said that. bloomberg is brilliant if you have the cash.

 

[cycleidentifier]

Wow! Thats really expensive. Sounds like only the big boys can afford that.

Cycleidentifer

 

[RichieE]

The reason Bloomberg isn't suitable for the home trader isn't entirely about cost. It's also because what you are paying for is an absolute ton of analytics and functionality that most of the pros don't even use, let alone a retail trader. I'm not talking about a few charts here - I'm talking bond portfolio valuation models etc etc.

I previously worked at Bloomberg, here is my tuppence worth. Bloomberg has a completely different business model to competitors like Reuters. Bloomberg will charge you a large monthly fee (highest cost is approx $1700 USD per month for an individual user) but gives you everything with no additional cost. This includes functionality for fund managers, salesman, investment bankers, corporate finance department etc. However, Reuters will charge you only about $500 USD for the basic package but you will find that lots of things will be extras, I've heard reports that clients even being charged extra for news and graphing (however I'm never seen this personally so take that with a pinch of salt unless someone confirms it).

So far beyond the scope of what the vast majority of people posting here will ever need that it isn't even worth listing the types of thing I'm talking about.

That is very true. Bloomberg is actually marketed as a professional tool. The reason is simple, servicing the professional market is a lot more profitable than the retail market.

I would much rather have a Reuters terminal than my Bloomberg one personally, but that's an issue I won't be able to address until the new year unfortunately. Might end up with both, but then I'll need 2 more screens and a bigger desk ;-)

Everyone has their favourite system. It's a lot to do with what your personal needs, each system has it's strengths and weaknesses. In my experience, many clients do actually have both...

 

[RichieE]

I'm an old school FX trader...

That would explain a lot With FX there isn't much you can add to a system apart from faster news feeds.

Bloomberg has made in-roads into this market in recent years but I still prefer the look and feel of Reuters.

Bloomberg's traditional method of getting over the 'look and feel' objections is to throw some programming at it to replicate a screen and have some 21 yr old grads customise it for you.

Plus I'm heartily sick of the political issues that affect time and sales data delivery Bloomberg's (not so) hidden agendas I can do without. .

I can't comment on a public forum without inviting problems...

If I hear one more account rep ten years my jounior trying to extol the virtues of a price feed when I already know far more than him about where it comes from and what's wrong with it I'll scweam and scweam and scweam

That's the Bloomberg 'nag' sales technique... it does wear your down...

Plus the helpdesk aren't my fave people either. But then again they're not much better at Reuters. Problem is I only ever need to use them when I have something complex or arcane that I need, so I guess I'm hoping for too much when the issues rarely get sorted to my satisfaction.

Again... helpdesks at Bloomberg are usually staffed by 21 year old grads straight out of university. So you can't expect too much....

Rant over

Don't worry.... heard it all before!!!

 

[RichieE]

And of course it helps that it's not aimed at you, and you're not stuck on the end of a phone line / IB chat session with a miserable git like me

No offence taken!

I'm sure there are fantastic things you can do with a Bloomberg in FX space, probably more than Reuters, if you only have the time to do them, but I'm a trader, and I pay a lot of dough for this system and in return it's supposed to help me and make things easier during my day, not take up lots of time with programming etc.

I hear what you're saying... from what I saw of FX guys you just need a news feed, some spreads and the tickers and away you go!

Simple is good where FX is concerned, as we're simple souls at heart (most of us).

Hmmm... I would say that trading FX is simple to learn... but difficult to master... a bit like backgammon or Poker!