Data download limits: Data extracted through the Excel API is subject to daily and monthly download limits. Please be judicious in downloading data to avoid hitting the limits for yourself and all other users. Once the monthly limit is reached at a terminal, data cannot be downloaded until the start of the next month.

The monthly limit is driven largely by the number of securities retrieved. Downloading a large number of different securities can bring a terminal up to the monthly limit. The daily limit takes into account the number of fields and date/time elements. Thus downloading 5 different fields for 10 different dates for 1 security would count as 50 hits towards the daily limit.

Bloomberg has advanced capabilities for screening that can be used before downloading. See Bloomberg: screening for equities and securities for instructions. Further advice can be enlisted from Bloomberg Help at the terminal. More information on limits can be accessed through the Bloomberg WAPI command.

If data is downloaded by accident, please consult a librarian immediately so a courtesy adjustment to the terminal limits can be requested.

Each Bloomberg workstation has its own counter that determines when the limit is exceeded. You can try a different workstation.  Better yet, try one of these suggested alternatives so limits on other workstations are not exceeded:

• FactSet
• Capital IQ Excel Add-In
• Global Financial Data
• Refinitiv