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>kevine sheen wrote:
>
> I'm planning on subscribing either on Reuter Money 3000 or Bloomberg
> system....
Kevin:
I am sending this on my sister's computer- my own email address is
[wayner@xxxxxxxxx]. My name is Wayne.
I am not familiar with Reuter 3000, but have used Bloomberg extensively.
Of all the high-end financial data services going, I think Bloomberg is
the Cadillac. It is obviously not cheap (A$1800/month for one terminal,
A$1100/month for more than one), but the huge amount of functions and
the vaunted Bloomberg tick data bank are exceptional. Reuters probably
has a comparable information base, but my impression has always been
that they are a bit of a dinosaur of a company. At one point I used
Reuters- an older version- and was not impressed. Format was old,
functions were limited.
Bloomberg on the other hand is a comparatively young, aggressive company
with a strong technical focus. They were the first to modernize their
program for PC use (Open Bloomberg), which allowed the whole Bloomberg
system to be used in a PC. This means the data can also be conveniently
transferred and manipulated in programs such as Excel. So suddenly their
data was not limited to just their hard-terminal programs. The cost by
the way is the same as the Classic Bloomberg terminal, so everyone who
uses Bloomberg gets the Open. This is advantageous to Bloomberg, who
just install it in YOUR computer and reduce their own hard terminal
expenses.
They are also constantly upgrading the system, and several new features-
news, technical, new markets- are added EVERY MONTH. Very aggressive. I
was always impressed with this. Most high-end data services are geared
toward fund managers (stocks), but Bloomberg offers an extremely
well-packed and sophisticated derivatives technical repetoire.
24-hour world-wide technical support, monthly quality publications that
explain new features, multiple-language terminals, thousands of news
headings, extensive email, weather, plane schedules, instantaneous
on-line trading with dozens of brokerages, free local user seminars to
go over the functions in detail etc. etc. etc.
DRAWBACKS: New York-based company; very pushy, very picky about
payments, occasionally system will go off-line for repairs or local
telephone trouble. I do not believe they will take responsibility if you
were in the middle of a trade. Call-backs often late or forgotten. Also,
my Japanese employer used to gripe about errors or gaps in the tick
data, but I think those were miniscule things in the flow that I am
pretty sure came from the exchange, and can't be avoided in a raw feed.
There is no such thing as "perfect" data. Bloomberg does have a whole
department dedicated to correcting and validating data world-wide. You
get what you pay for.
But, considering the number of terminals and customers, (50,000 I
believe), they were pretty good over all.
I just felt they were much younger, more aggressive, and forward-moving
than Reuters, which is like a hundred years old and feels it.
I'm not affiliated with either company any way.
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