Bloomberg open sources its securities identification system
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Cate Long
Nov 3, 2009, 3:19:53 PM11/3/09
to open finance hackers
ZeroHedge reports:
One of the key unique premium features of Bloomberg, its universe of
proprietary ID codes for securities in the stock, bond, options and
other financial verticals, is going freeware. The entire data set can
be now used by anybody at the following website:
http://bsym.bloomberg.com.
While unique pricing data will not be available (at least not yet, but
give it a few weeks before some enterprising entrepreneur plugs this
into some free pricing data feed), and even though CDS data still
seems to be missing, this is a curious step by Bloomberg which
heretofore has guarded its security universe dataset with religious
zeal.
The site allows users to look up descriptive information on an issuer
or industry sector, and will provide information including feed
sources and unqiue Bloomberg unique ID codes.
Yet reading between the lines of this action indicates it is not the
act of altruism it may initially seem to be. As Securities Industry
News points out:
“Bloomberg’s free access to ID codes could give it a competitive edge
over other data vendors and make it an industry standard,” says Ed
Ventura, president of Ventura Management Associates, a Princeton, N.J.
consultancy specializing in data management issues. Thomson Reuters,
for one, does charge for the use and distribution of its proprietary
Reuters Identification Codes (RICs) through licensing fees to their
data feeds.
On its bsym.bloomberg.com website Bloomberg touted the merits of its
free strategy over those of its competitors. “Other organizations
assert proprietary rights over their identifiers, impose significant
limitations on their use and either charge users license fees or
include their symbology licenses with the purchase of related
products,” said Bloomberg. By contrast, Bloomberg “users would be able
to use the identifiers for a variety of uses including trading,
research, and mapping.” Bloomberg went on to say that an effective
symbology for any class of instrument must have broad coverage, be
widely available at a low cost, flexible enough for use in multiple
functions, allow mapping to alternative symbologies used in related
functions, and be dynamic enough to immediately account for the many
instruments that arise, expire, and change on a daily basis,” wrote
Bloomberg on the bsym.bloomberg website. “Bloomberg believes that its
BSYM will satisfy all of these requirements.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bloomberg-open-sources-previously-proprietary-security-identifier-universe
One of the key unique premium features of Bloomberg, its universe of
proprietary ID codes for securities in the stock, bond, options and
other financial verticals, is going freeware. The entire data set can
be now used by anybody at the following website:
http://bsym.bloomberg.com.
While unique pricing data will not be available (at least not yet, but
give it a few weeks before some enterprising entrepreneur plugs this
into some free pricing data feed), and even though CDS data still
seems to be missing, this is a curious step by Bloomberg which
heretofore has guarded its security universe dataset with religious
zeal.
The site allows users to look up descriptive information on an issuer
or industry sector, and will provide information including feed
sources and unqiue Bloomberg unique ID codes.
Yet reading between the lines of this action indicates it is not the
act of altruism it may initially seem to be. As Securities Industry
News points out:
“Bloomberg’s free access to ID codes could give it a competitive edge
over other data vendors and make it an industry standard,” says Ed
Ventura, president of Ventura Management Associates, a Princeton, N.J.
consultancy specializing in data management issues. Thomson Reuters,
for one, does charge for the use and distribution of its proprietary
Reuters Identification Codes (RICs) through licensing fees to their
data feeds.
On its bsym.bloomberg.com website Bloomberg touted the merits of its
free strategy over those of its competitors. “Other organizations
assert proprietary rights over their identifiers, impose significant
limitations on their use and either charge users license fees or
include their symbology licenses with the purchase of related
products,” said Bloomberg. By contrast, Bloomberg “users would be able
to use the identifiers for a variety of uses including trading,
research, and mapping.” Bloomberg went on to say that an effective
symbology for any class of instrument must have broad coverage, be
widely available at a low cost, flexible enough for use in multiple
functions, allow mapping to alternative symbologies used in related
functions, and be dynamic enough to immediately account for the many
instruments that arise, expire, and change on a daily basis,” wrote
Bloomberg on the bsym.bloomberg website. “Bloomberg believes that its
BSYM will satisfy all of these requirements.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bloomberg-open-sources-previously-proprietary-security-identifier-universe
Peter Smith
Nov 4, 2009, 10:24:06 AM11/4/09
to open-finan...@googlegroups.com
Hi Cate,
Very cool and thanks for the heads up re: B/Berg. I actually have a
terminal so if you ever need a price etc let me know and I might be
able dig it up.
On CDS pricing; B/Berg will not have pricing in CDS, credit or
convertible bonds. There might be a trading/order managment system
hosted on B/Berg but live pricing is for the most part all over the
counter, thus quotes are sent around via B/Berg messaging (an
antiquated dos like message platform). The only way you get prices is
by having relationships with brokers etc who broadcast them out. I
know it is ridiculous, but like all things financial opportunity is
borne from lack of information.
--
Peter W Smith
City Financial Investment Company Limited
peter...@cityfinancial.co.uk
www.cityfinancial.co.uk
+44 (0)20 7726 9865
21 Ironmonger Lane
First Floor
London UK
EC2V 8EY
Very cool and thanks for the heads up re: B/Berg. I actually have a
terminal so if you ever need a price etc let me know and I might be
able dig it up.
On CDS pricing; B/Berg will not have pricing in CDS, credit or
convertible bonds. There might be a trading/order managment system
hosted on B/Berg but live pricing is for the most part all over the
counter, thus quotes are sent around via B/Berg messaging (an
antiquated dos like message platform). The only way you get prices is
by having relationships with brokers etc who broadcast them out. I
know it is ridiculous, but like all things financial opportunity is
borne from lack of information.
Peter W Smith
City Financial Investment Company Limited
peter...@cityfinancial.co.uk
www.cityfinancial.co.uk
+44 (0)20 7726 9865
21 Ironmonger Lane
First Floor
London UK
EC2V 8EY
Toby Segaran
Nov 4, 2009, 12:49:18 PM11/4/09
to open-finan...@googlegroups.com
This is great stuff... the licensing terms of CUSIP was always a pain
for me, now we have a public-domain alternative. Plus they make it
really easy to do bulk downloads, which is great.
I'm working on getting all the keys into freebase.com, so it'll be
easy to query across tickers, CIK codes, and Bloomberg keys.
--
Toby Segaran
http://kiwitobes.com
twitter / aol / fb: kiwitobes
Author, "Programming Collective Intelligence", "Programming the
Semantic Web", "Beautiful Data"
Founder, freerisk.org
Data Magnate, Metaweb Technologies
for me, now we have a public-domain alternative. Plus they make it
really easy to do bulk downloads, which is great.
I'm working on getting all the keys into freebase.com, so it'll be
easy to query across tickers, CIK codes, and Bloomberg keys.
Toby Segaran
http://kiwitobes.com
twitter / aol / fb: kiwitobes
Author, "Programming Collective Intelligence", "Programming the
Semantic Web", "Beautiful Data"
Founder, freerisk.org
Data Magnate, Metaweb Technologies
Cate Long
Nov 4, 2009, 1:43:11 PM11/4/09
to open-finan...@googlegroups.com
Thank you Peter for the CDS pricing offerinfo... wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole... dealer rigged market...
Toby -- fantastico... this is exactly the kind of transparency and information velocity that Bloomberg's decision will create... let us know when freebase.com is cross coded...
thanks all and especially thanks to Bloomberg...
Cate Long
Nov 23, 2009, 12:38:02 PM11/23/09
to open finance hackers
Peter and all...
Another good story on Bloomberg open symbology...
http://www.securitiesindustry.com/issues/21_21/-24264-1.html
An important quote from the article:
"In a fashion, Bloomberg is stepping up to possibly become the online
financial world's equivalent of the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers. That's the outfit that maintains and updates unique
identifying codes that allow any computer to find another computer."
best, Cate
> >http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bloomberg-open-sources-previously-pr...
Another good story on Bloomberg open symbology...
http://www.securitiesindustry.com/issues/21_21/-24264-1.html
An important quote from the article:
"In a fashion, Bloomberg is stepping up to possibly become the online
financial world's equivalent of the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers. That's the outfit that maintains and updates unique
identifying codes that allow any computer to find another computer."
best, Cate
>
> > > --
> > > Peter W Smith
> > > City Financial Investment Company Limited
>
> > > peter.sm...@cityfinancial.co.uk
> > > --
> > > Peter W Smith
> > > City Financial Investment Company Limited
>
Andy
Dec 10, 2009, 9:56:57 AM12/10/09
to open finance hackers
This looks great. Does anyone one know how these codes boil down into
one firm level id? For example, the CIK identifies a firm's SEC
filings.
Best,
Andy
one firm level id? For example, the CIK identifies a firm's SEC
filings.
Best,
Andy
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