Querying Bloomberg for fields depending on asset type of security

Question

We have started developing an application to request data from Bloomberg for different symbols received from the client for their processing. All is good we are able to query for different fields.

But a major problem is we are not able to identify what asset the security belongs to. Eg. if we have some fixed income securities then we only need to query for fields specific to fixed income OR if it is an option then only we need to query for expiration etc. How can we identify the asset of the security in Bloomberg.

Answer 1

I would start by looking at fields in FLDS that provide information on the type of security. For example, SEC_TYPE and SEC_TYPE_2. You can use FLDS to see what response will be sent to your application when you query the field for the loaded security.

Also, I don't know what type of identifier you're using to query the fields but if you're using the classic identifier which has the Bloomberg yellow-key at then end - you already have an indication of the type of the security. BTW, I don't recommend using this type of identifier for querying.

Answer 2

We have finally used a combination of SEC_TYPE and SEC_TYPE_2 along with yellowkey for fixed income. We have mapped the possible values for above with our own assets.