WRDS User Guide West Virginia University

Three Ways of Working with WRDS Web – Based PC – SAS The WRDS UNIX server will be accessed using SSH Secure Shell.

Available Datasets at WVU Datasets are classified by vendor and concept (subject) To see WVU subscriptions: ► click Home → My permissions ► WRDS Info home ( ) → WVU Subscription ► Unix commands

Data Descriptions For brief descriptions: ► Select a dataset on the top For overviews: ► Click Support → Dataset overviews To get detail manuals: ► Select a dataset → Select a sub-dataset → Data manuals ► Click Support → Online manuals

Step 1 to extract data: Data Range To check available data range for a dataset (general): ► Documentation To check available data range for a company (specific) : ► Code lookup

Step 2 to extract data: Search Search by GVKEY PERMNO PERMKO CUSIP TICKER… Most errors are caused by this step. A company code must be matched to an identifier chosen.

Understanding identifiers IdentifiersDefinitions GVKEYunique firm ID in Compustat PERMNO PERMCO unique stock and firm ID in CRSP CUSIPunique identification for security approved for trading in the U.S. TICKERused to uniquely identify publicly-traded companies on a stock market Other identifiers: NCUSIP, HISSD, SICCD …

Searching identifiers To search identifiers: ► Code lookup ► Tools → Company Search Example: Search for ticker, IBM PERMNOCUSIPTICKERDATA RANGE IBM

Step 3 to extract data: Variables For a description of each data item: ► Documentation ► Click each item ► Support → WRDS Datasets and Sample program → Dataset list ► Tools → Variable Search

Step 4 to extract data: Output Select format Select compress type Summit request Save queries → Home → My.WRDS → myWRDS queries

Compustat Tools Financial Statement extracts formatted financial statements for a single company. Income Statement Extract designed to customize variables of balance sheet and income statement. S&P Index Constituents retrieves monthly data of companies which constitutes of the main S&P indexes. Support → Tools

Compustat Tools (Cont’d) Compustat → On the bottom of left side Compustat Balance Sheet and Income Statement Extract the most commonly-used items in the Compustat Annual set and offers an alternative variable mnemonics system that was designed to be consistent with variable names in Compustat Research Insight.

CRSP Tools Names and Events retrieves NAMES events and track changes identifiers in during the security’s trading history. Daily Extract with Time Window extracts CRSP daily data for each firm for a selected interval window. Other CRSP tools not mentioned are not available.

Asking Questions For general questions: ► Support (right side) → WRDS Knowledge base For specific questions: ► Home (right side) → Search Forum (can ask and reply questions as well)

Further Information For users conference: ► Home (on the top) → News → Users Conference For Update Schedule: ► Home (on the top) → News → Date Updates