Unlocking Financial Data

Preface

If you’re opening this book at a bookstore and trying to determine if it’s for you, let me help:

• This book will help you combine your views with financial data from Bloomberg—you don’t need access to Bloomberg, but it is highly recommended—and IHS Markit, analyze the results, and generate professional reports using Microsoft Excel without any programming or assistance from your IT department.

• This book will show you, step by step, how to quickly produce professional reports that enhance your views with market data including historical financials, comparative analysis, and relative value.

• For portfolio managers, this book demonstrates how to generate a professional portfolio summary report that contains a high-level view of a portfolio’s performance, growth, risk-adjusted return, and composition.

• If you are a programmer, or potential programmer, this book contains a parallel path that covers the same topics using C#.

• I am not an academic, and there is a reason “Practical” is in the subtitle of the book. All you need is a basic understanding of finance and Excel. You don’t need to know any programing, VBA, or advanced math.

To understand why I am writing this book, it helps to understand my background. I’ve always loved computer science, and it was no surprise that my first job was programming for Wachovia (now Wells Fargo). However, very early in my career, I realized something important that would lead me down a very different career path. I realized that my ability ...