Mixing valuable data with meaningful visuals

Most investors spend significant amounts of time separating good ideas from less viable ones.

Achieving this with speed and efficiency requires tools that can find patterns in assets with varying characteristics. This is only half the battle, though. It is just as important to visualize data in a meaningful and digestible format.

Fortunately, many of these features already exist on the Bloomberg Terminal. The powerful financial platform puts users' everyday needs — from accessing high-quality data to displaying valuable insights — in a central location, saving them time and money in various market environments.

What’s more, the charting functionalities can communicate relationships and trends in what is typically noisy data. What stands out is the ability to graph individual index characteristics while also comparing returns across sectors and asset classes.

Separate short-term noise from long-term opportunities

The proliferation of data has changed how many financial firms do business — whether it means finding new ways to analyze securities or having the computing power to sift through volumes of unstructured data.

But one often overlooked aspect of the data revolution is the importance of data visualization. A useful chart conveys trends and relationships within massive amounts of information quicker than a spreadsheet. If a user sees a pattern as it develops, they stand to make fewer mistakes over time.

With the tools available on the Terminal, users can access not only the fastest and highest quality data but also a visualization library that puts valuable insights a few keystrokes away.

Take, for example, the chart (below) of BBB-rated securities as a percentage of the Bloomberg US Investment Grade Index. BBBs grew from 35% to 51% of the Corporate index between 2006 and 2018 — after the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates in response to the global financial crisis. This graph shows how charts can be used to track and analyze significant market trends.

 

Compare performance over various time frames

Investors often compare multiple assets or indicators over different time frames to gain insights into a bond or index’s performance. The charting capabilities on the Terminal allow users to visualize market trends and perform comparative analysis to generate new investment ideas. In a single view, users can compare the performance of various industries, regions, asset types, etc.

The example (below) shows the option - adjusted spread of the US Investment Grade Industrials Index vs. the option - adjusted spread of the US Corporate Investment Grade Index, providing investors with insights into the performance of the industrials sector as compared with the overall investment-grade corporate bond market.

OAS of the US Investment Grade industrials index (I00277 US Index) vs. the OAS of the US Corporate Investment Grade Index (LUACTRUU Index)

 

In addition to comparing index vs. index users can compare the performance of a bond to that of an index. The chart (above) compares the yield to worst of a bond with the yield to worst of the Industrials sector.

'This chart displays the BClass Level 2 Industrials, Utilities and Financials subsectors of the credit index and their monthly performance over the last year.

With the charting features available on the Terminal, there have never been more options to discover new trends and relationships.