Bloomberg Data API: Extract Structured JSON in 2026
Tutorials

Bloomberg Data API: Extract Structured JSON in 2026

Learn how to extract structured Bloomberg data via API using AlterLab's Extract API to get typed JSON for tickers, prices, and more—no parsing needed. Step-by-step guide with schema definition, Python and cURL examples, and best practices for scaling your finance data pipeline.

4 min read
7 views

This guide covers extracting publicly accessible data. Always review a site's robots.txt and Terms of Service before scraping.

TL;DR

Use AlterLab's Extract API to send a URL and a JSON schema describing the fields you want (e.g., ticker, price, change_percent). The API returns validated, typed JSON—no HTML parsing, no fragile selectors. See the Python and cURL examples below for a quick start.

Why use Bloomberg data?

  • AI training: Feed structured price and volume time‑series into models for forecasting or anomaly detection.
  • Analytics: Build dashboards that track market movements across sectors without manual CSV downloads.
  • Competitive intelligence: Monitor peer companies' fundamentals and real‑time quotes to inform strategy.

What data can you extract?

Bloomberg's public pages expose finance‑focused fields that are useful for pipelines:

  • ticker: Symbol like AAPL or USDCAD.
  • price: Last traded price as reported on the page.
  • change_percent: Percentage change from previous close.
  • volume: Shares or contracts traded in the session.
  • market_cap: Total market capitalization derived from price × shares outstanding. All of these can be captured via a JSON schema and returned as strongly typed values.

The extraction approach

Raw HTTP requests followed by HTML parsing break whenever Bloomberg updates its front‑end or serves different markup to bot‑like traffic. Maintaining selectors, handling pagination, and dealing with JavaScript‑rendered content adds overhead. A data API abstracts that complexity: you declare the shape of the data you need, and the service handles retrieval, rendering, anti‑bot measures, and validation.

Quick start with AlterLab Extract API

First, install the client and follow the Getting started guide. Then call the extract endpoint with your schema.

Python
import alterlab

client = alterlab.Client("YOUR_API_KEY")

schema = {
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "ticker": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The ticker field"
    },
    "price": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The price field"
    },
    "change_percent": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The change percent field"
    },
    "volume": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The volume field"
    },
    "market_cap": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "The market cap field"
    }
  }
}

result = client.extract(
    url="https://bloomberg.com/quote/SPX:IND",
    schema=schema,
)
print(result.data)
Bash
curl -X POST https://api.alterlab.io/v1/extract \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://bloomberg.com/quote/SPX:IND",
    "schema": {"properties": {"ticker": {"type": "string"}, "price": {"type": "string"}, "change_percent": {"type": "string"}}}
  }'

The response is a JSON object matching your schema, with proper types and no extra markup.

99.2%Extraction Accuracy
1.4sAvg Response Time
100%Typed JSON Output

Define your schema

The schema parameter drives the entire extraction. AlterLab uses an LLM‑guided extractor to locate the requested fields on the page, then coerces the output to the declared JSON types. If a field cannot be found or converted, the API returns an error rather than garbage data. This guarantees that downstream pipelines receive clean, predictable JSON.

Example schema for a Bloomberg commodity page:

JSON
{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "ticker": {"type": "string"},
    "price": {"type": "number"},
    "change_percent": {"type": "number"},
    "volume": {"type": "integer"},
    "market_cap": {"type": "integer"}
  },
  "required": ["ticker", "price"]
}

Notice that numeric fields are declared as number or integer; AlterLab will parse strings like "$123.45" or "1.2M" into actual numbers.

Handle pagination and scale

For bulk extraction—say, pulling quotes for hundreds of tickers—batch your requests and respect rate limits. AlterLab supports asynchronous job submission via the same endpoint; you can poll for results or use webhooks.

Python
import asyncio
import alterlab

client = alterlab.Client("YOUR_API_KEY")

urls = [f"https://bloomberg.com/quote/{sym}:IND" for sym in ["SPX", "DJI", "IXIC"]]
schema = {
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "ticker": {"type": "string"},
    "price": {"type": "number"},
    "change_percent": {"type": "number"}
  }
}

async def fetch(url):
    return await client.extract_async(url=url, schema=schema)

async def main():
    results = await asyncio.gather(*[fetch(u) for u in urls])
    for r in results:
        print(r.data)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

See the Extract API docs for details on async job IDs, webhook configuration, and concurrency limits. For cost estimates, visit the pricing page—charges are per successful extraction, with volume discounts available at higher tiers.

Key takeaways

  • Declarative schema‑based extraction eliminates fragile HTML parsing.
  • AlterLab handles rendering, anti‑bot, and validation so you receive typed JSON instantly.
  • Start with a simple schema, scale with async batches, and monitor usage via the dashboard.
  • Always verify that the data you target is publicly accessible and compliant with Bloomberg's robots.txt and Terms of Service.
Try it yourself

Extract structured finance data from Bloomberg

Share

Was this article helpful?

Frequently Asked Questions

Bloomberg offers proprietary data terminals and licensed feeds, but no public free API for ad-hoc JSON extraction. AlterLab provides a programmable way to pull publicly available finance data from Bloomberg pages and return validated, typed JSON.
You can extract any publicly visible fields such as ticker, price, change_percent, volume, and market_cap by defining a JSON schema; AlterLab returns the data as strongly typed JSON without requiring HTML parsing.
AlterLab charges per successful extraction request on a pay‑as‑you‑go basis, with no minimums and credits that never expire; see the pricing page for detailed rates per tier.