The top 8 search topics on Bloomberg’s AI-powered Research Analytics Platform: What analysts are looking into

This article was written by Louis Bellamacina, Product Manager for Company Research & Analysis at Bloomberg. 

Financial professionals, specifically analysts, need quality data and information on emerging trends to keep their competitive edge. Bloomberg helps analysts work productively and efficiently by offering a suite of fully integrated research solutions within the Bloomberg Terminal (all with a comprehensive breadth of content and state-of-the-art data processing capabilities.)

Search functionality within the Bloomberg Terminal is particularly essential to many analysts.

There are three key ways analysts tend to utilize search tools within the Bloomberg Terminal. The first is to research companies for the first time and get up-to-speed quickly with who their competitors are, what their main products are, what they talk about in guidance, and so on. The second is to stay on top of all the new content related to companies the analysts already have a relationship with — such as any new filings or comments about the companies by banks or in investment research notes.

The third workflow happens when analysts are thinking more thematically. They’re using search to look into things like aging populations, the metaverse, or other specific topics or trends. In doing so, they are often trying to identify which companies are talking about a certain theme — and what those companies are saying — so they can find a way to buy into that theme or respond to it.

Eight particular themes have been top-of-mind for analysts of late. Here are the leading search topics trending on the Bloomberg Terminal.

1-2. Russia & Ukraine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to heavy sanctions on Russia and major business withdrawals from the country.

Investors are trying to determine how much exposure they have to Russia and Ukraine, and what effect sanctions, closures, disrupted supply chains, and fast-changing commodity prices will have on companies.

3. Inflation

With U.S. inflation recently reaching a 40-year high (at 7.9% in February), investors are very concerned about the impact that inflation will have on companies’ costs — in part because companies are passing cost increases on to their customers.

Not only is inflation a massive headwind that analysts have to keep an eye on, they also need to parse through what that headwind means for each of their target or portfolio companies. There are many more mentions of inflation now than there were in the past, so analysts are trying to determine how companies are responding to inflationary pressures.

4. ESG

The significance of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors to the investment landscape has been growing for years. For investors, it is increasingly hard to make a decision to invest in a company without looking at ESG credentials.

Investors continue to use search to look at ESG discussions and whether companies are positioning themselves for a more sustainable future. For example, many energy companies are talking a lot about an ‘energy transition’ away from oil and gas into less-carbon intensive businesses.

5. Cloud

Cloud technology has been a trending topic throughout the pandemic, during which many companies have used cloud solutions to scale their businesses. Following enormous growth in use of AWS (Amazon Web Services) and other big cloud leaders, analysts want to understand how companies are transforming their businesses and setting themselves up to scale using cloud solutions.

6. Supply chain

Companies have grappled with production delays, port closures, and staffing shortages since the start of the pandemic. The chip shortage also continues, and there have been a number of recent factory shutdowns in China as a result of COVID rules. These and other supply chain challenges have compounded existing pressures on companies.

7. Metaverse

Augmented reality, virtual reality, and the metaverse have been growing areas of conversation among companies. (The metaverse, according to proponents, will be a network of interconnected 3D digital environments and a successor to the internet.)

The upward trend for metaverse searches is reminiscent of similar levels of interest in autonomous vehicles last year. (The global metaverse revenue opportunity could approach $800 billion in 2024, according to Bloomberg analysis, and the total metaverse market size may reach 2.7x that of just gaming software, services and advertising revenue.)

8. Pricing

Pricing is very much linked to inflation, which continues eating at the profitability of many companies.

Analysts are searching for mentions of “pricing” in part to determine what factors — such as salary increases, or changes in the costs of goods — are influencing companies’ pricing changes.

Best-in-class search functionality & unprecedented breadth of content

Bloomberg has been acquiring research content for decades and continually invests in expanding the breadth of resources available to analysts — including investing in Bloomberg Intelligence, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and other premium content you can only get on Bloomberg.

Bloomberg’s note-taking and collaboration tools also make it easy for analysts to capture and manage their findings wherever they are (with integrations into Microsoft Office, Google, OneNote, and the Bloomberg mobile app).

Bloomberg’s top-tier engineering talent — including team members who worked at Google Labs, IBM Watson, and other top-tier organizations — are continually taking its products to new levels.

AI investments, for example, are elevating Bloomberg’s search functionality. Recently deployed AI models in the Bloomberg Terminal are able identify new topics using our AI text classification.  This data powers our analytics enabling analysts to see what companies are talking the most about as well as shifts those discussions.

Bloomberg also continually invests into the ease of use of search tools within the Bloomberg Terminal, making sure that the platform is really simple and really fast.

In conclusion

Ultimately, the more simple and fast the tools, the more effective the analysts. Analysts today are not  rewarded for how many documents they read or how long they spend acquiring content; they’re rewarded for how quickly and effectively they can derive and act on insights.

Acquiring those insights requires analysts to cut through an incredible amount of noise, new filings, investment research reports, internal chats, press statements, court documents, company earnings calls and investor days. Bloomberg’s role is to save analysts time getting to the most relevant documents, spotting emerging themes, and sharing their findings with the rest of their teams so they provide the best possible returns for their investors.

The Bloomberg Terminal has powerful tools that empower analysts to be successful with search. Get started by running the function DS <GO>, or request a demo.