Bloomberg for iPad review: The best casual stock app for the iPad

By Allyson Kazmucha
last updated

Bloomberg for iPad is a great way for casual traders and investors to interact with their stocks and stay up to date with the news they care about the most.

The App Store is chock full of applications to help investors and traders manage their portfolios directly from their iPad. While some applications provide a wealth of information and are geared towards brokers and users with extensive portfolios, most users just don't need a $100 application to check in on their stocks. I've found Bloomberg for iPad to be a good compromise between usability and information overload.

Whether you need to casually monitor stocks on your iPad or just find the urge to check out financial news, Bloomberg provides the best of both worlds combined with an easy to use interface. I've found that some of the applications in the App Store are quite hard to navigate and may be confusing for many users to figure out. Sometimes too many charts and graphs can be overwhelming. Bloomberg gives you what you want to know right up front.

Bloomgberg for iPad main page

Upon first launching Bloomberg for iPad, you'll be presented with a home page that shows top news stories, some stock information, and a menu along the bottom that allows you to delve deeper into different categories of information.

This is where you can go to customize your experience. Say you don't have bonds but own stocks. You can choose the stocks section and add stocks you own to the app. You'll then see that information populate in the home screen. The real time tickers will continuously update for you on the home page as long as you've got an active internet connection.

Stock info

View general stock and company information

You can tap into any news story or stock directly from the main page. Tapping into a stock will present you with a large well laid-out graph showing a 1 year overview of that stock's position. You'll also be given some general summary information along the bottom about that particular stock and the company itself. On the right hand side you'll see some broken down time period graphs. You can tap these to enlarge them further.

Supported exchanges

Bloomberg supports many exchanges on the iPad

Bloomberg provides information for all major stock exchanges and several smaller exchanges. Some of the most popular ones supported are -

  • Dow Jones
  • NASDAQ
  • S&P 500
  • BE 500
  • FTSE 100
  • TSX

There are many more supported exchanges too. You can also view futures for all exchanges as well. Tapping into any exchange will provide you the same history information that tapping into an individual stock would provide.

Stocks

View a summary of your stocks with Bloomberg for iPad

Bloomberg allows you to customize your own stocks within the application. Just tap the My Stocks icon from the main page. Tapping the edit button in the upper right hand corner brings up a list of stocks you've added. You can add stocks as well as put in your position and price.

The term position in this instance means the quantity of securities you own. For example, if you own 200 shares of Apple stock, 200 would be your postion. Then you would input the price you paid per share. For in depth investors who trade regularly, they may need a more powerful tool that breaks out information better.

On the main My Stocks page you can tap the bottom My Stock Summary tab to bring up a summary of your current position given the information you input. It will break it out by exchange and give you an overall position. It will show you an overview of how many securities you own, the net change, overall change, what your securities are currently valued at, and your total profit and loss.

Currency Exchange

Keep up with currency exchanges with Bloomberg for iPad

Bloomberg supports and updates live currency values within the app as well. You can set your default currency and it will then show you how your native dollar compares to monetary amounts around the rest of the world. To do so, just drag your home currency to the top of the list when in edit mode. This information will also populate within the main page as well for a quick view.

Just like stocks and other sections of the app, you can edit the currency order. Just move them up and down with the vertical stacked bars.

News

Read world and financial news with Bloomberg for iPad

While the main page shows top news, you can also tap into the news category and view a breakdown of news by section. This is also customizable. Tapping the edit button in the top right will let you move the sections you care about most towards the top and the ones you don't really have an interest in towards the bottom. This makes it a bit easier to find stories you want to read.

The Good

  • For a free app, Bloomberg provides enough information for most users
  • Provides lots of customization options so you can make the app your own
  • Stock summary is a nice way to quickly view overall position if you hold securities
  • Graphs are easy to read and follow
  • Summarized information provides a nice overview that may help potential investors make an informed decision about what direction a company is heading and whether it's a good time to invest

The Bad

  • Users with extensive portfolios will probably need more information than what Bloomberg provides
  • The ability to hide news sections you don't care for would be a nice addition instead of just having to move them to the bottom of the feed

The bottom line

Bloomberg for iPad is a great way for casual traders and investors to interact with their stocks and stay up to date with the news they care about the most. While it may not be perfect for everyone, it provides a wealth of information that will suit mainstream users just fine.

If you're more interested in world and financial news than you are stocks, Bloomberg doubles up as a great resource for such information. It ties news and the stock market together in a fluid way that users will appreciate.

Free - Download Now (opens in new tab)

Allyson Kazmucha
Allyson Kazmucha

iMore senior editor from 2011 to 2015.

9 Comments
  • Watch Bloomberg West on Bloomberg TV. Mon-Fri at 6pm eastern; replay at 11pm. Best show on TV for tech new, interviews. Start DVR-ing it!!!
  • Still odd to me that Apple decides not to include a "stock" Stocks app on the iPad. I would think that they could easily make creative use of the screen real estate. Still, Bloomberg is my choice as well, but as you mentioned, it's mostly casual. 9 times out of 10, for what I need, I have to get on the laptop.
  • I love the Bloomberg app, been using ever since it got released.
    btw if anyone is looking to jailbreak their iDevice check out www.iphonejbguide.com a great site to have in ur bookmarks :)
  • This app does not provide real time stock prices, which is a deal breaker for any serious trader. A 15 minute delay can cost thousands of dollars sometimes.
    For me the only app that has been able to satisfy my needs so far is CNBC RT. Google finance provides live quotes as well, but is only available as a safari web app.
  • Completely agree. I couldn't believe the title of this article. The Bloomberg app is seriously deficient. CNBC RT is best for monitoring stocks in real time. The Fidelity app is pretty good for advanced charting on an iPad–and doesn't require a Fidelity account to use.
  • Similar to this App I also like these three Apps from the algoryt.hm series, Commodities Today, Financial Markets News and Today in Private Equity.
    These Appsare a great one-stop destination for real-time news and analysis on financial markets and deal activity. Each is top rated on the AppStore.
    The Apps pulls breaking news, industry reports, deal news and longer articles from publications, journalists, analysts, and banks who publish across the Web. The Apps continuously monitor and adjusts online source lists to include new analysts and publications as well as opinion leaders of note.The common user interface is beautiful and makes it easy to read articles and research on the iPad, simple and efficient.These are great Apps for collecting and reading all this content into one place and bring along on the road. Here are the links on the iTunes Store.
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/financial-markets-hand-picked/id473971548...
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/today-in-private-equity-your/id467832924?...
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/today-in-commodities-your/id467719511?mt=8
    The series and all their Apps are on http://www.algoryt.hm
  • Strongly prefer the Heat Map app for iPad for useful tools to make trading decisions. It is one of the best ways in my opinion to get a big picture view of price and volume trends. If you are a visual person and are looking for trading ideas, I highly recommend this app.
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/heat-map/id446869371?ls=1&mt=8
  • If you want professional stock charting - candlestick charts, I strongly recommend Trendline Charts app for iOS. It is the only stock charting app to automatically display Support and Resistance lines (also known as Trendlines) on a Candlestick chart, powered by Screenulator.com chart pattern recognition engine. It also has a filter or stock screener based on Trendline patterns, such as Resistance breakout and Support penetration. For example, you can see all the stocks that have broke out resistance levels at a glance.
    App link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trendline-charts-free/id629280518?mt=8&a...
  • Overall a good app, but weak! While it provides a lot dazzle, substance is very weak or non-existent. Analysis never gets beyond buzz and already well known information of little relevance. This "app" is for entertainment and seems to satisfy the attention span of four year olds.