Written by Søren Madsen
If your students can document knowledge of Bloomberg, Eikon, Datatstream, or MorningStar, they may be in a better position when applying for a job.
Many of the financial data providers whose platforms are available from CBS Library offer a certification programme for students. Upon the successful completion of a test, students will receive a certificate as proof for inclusion in job applications etc.
Bloomberg
The most famous of the programmes is the Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC).
The BMC is a 12-hour, self-paced e-learning course that provides an interactive introduction to the financial markets. BMC consists of three sections — Core Concepts (includes four modules – Economic Indicators, Currencies, Fixed Income, Equities), Getting Started on the Terminal, as well as Portfolio Management. All sections are woven together from Bloomberg data, news, analytics, and television.
The BMC course is available through the Bloomberg Terminal at BMC <GO>. Each module takes between one and two hours to complete and comprises 160 questions and case studies to reinforce learning.
As an instructor, you can integrate state-of-the-market Bloomberg data, news, and analytics into your coursework with BMC. To this effect, the BMC provides a professor account where you can set up class codes, invite learners, track learner progress, and receive detailed score reports.
It is also possible for CBS students to sign up individually by using the BMC service.
On top of the intrinsic value of the BMC, students may find themselves with a recruiting edge by including a certificate of completion to their resumes, and by using BMC contents in their preparations for interviews.
Eikon / Datastream
The Eikon programme consists of seven modules and comprises 32 short training videos.
The Datastream programme consists of six modules and comprises 26 short training videos.
Find Learning resources and product certification details for Eikon /Datastream from Thomson Reuters
Again, a final test will help students document database proficiency to relevant stakeholders.
MorningStar Direct
MorningStar offers two different programmes: Morningstar Direct Academy and the Morningstar Office Academy
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Morningstar Direct Academy |
Morningstar Office Academy |
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Certification I - Getting Started |
Certification I - Getting Started |
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Certification II - Morningstar Global Risk Model |
Certification II - Administration |
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Certification III - Advanced Topics |
Certification III - Morningstar Methodology |
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Certification IV - Morningstar Methodology |
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If you have questions, please contact Søren Madsen
By Cecilia Lohse, Thomas Basbøl og Søren Madsen
“#N/A Review”
This has become an all too familiar error message for our users. Both our Bloomberg and Workspace/Datastream terminals are being used to access financial data at an accelerating rate, and our monthly data limits are being reached alarmingly early. In March, for example, it took only a few days before it was no longer possible to download data through our terminals.
At present, we have no effective way to police the use of our terminals and are relying on our students’ judgment and restraint in accessing data to ensure that other students are not left empty-handed.
We are asking for your help in educating the students about the importance of sustainable data practices.
Some Possible Misunderstandings
We suspect that the problem arises from a number of misunderstandings:
Students may set up spreadsheets with functions that query the terminal for fresh data every time they open their project.
They may think that they need data on every company in an industry, where a random sample would be sufficient.
They may think that they need daily prices where monthly ones would do.
Also, they may believe that the better research project is the one that uses the most recent data available, so they will redo their entire analysis with fresh data immediately before submitting.
Better Living Through Data Management
To remedy this, we have a few suggestions:
The first is that, wherever possible, we ask you not to encourage the students to use “big data” approaches to research. We simply cannot offer all your students the amount of data they would need to do this kind of work.
Second, we ask you to explain that, for the purposes of any given assignment, they do not need 100 % current data.
Finally, unless your teaching objective is specifically related to the use of Bloomberg or Workspace, we ask you to suggest alternative sources of data, like the Orbis company database, which can often provide the same data.
More generally, if you are assigning or supervising research projects that make use of financial data, please contact our DataLab team, so that we can work together to find the best possible way to support your learning objectives while staying within the objective limits set by our data suppliers.
Contact: datalab.lib@cbs.dk