Blog

By Cecilia Lohse, Thomas Basbøl og Søren Madsen

“#N/A Review”

This has become an all too familiar error message for our users. Both our Bloomberg and Workspace/Datastream terminals are being used to access financial data at an accelerating rate, and our monthly data limits are being reached alarmingly early. In March, for example, it took only a few days before it was no longer possible to download data through our terminals.

At present, we have no effective way to police the use of our terminals and are relying on our students’ judgment and restraint in accessing data to ensure that other students are not left empty-handed.  

We are asking for your help in educating the students about the importance of sustainable data practices.

Some Possible Misunderstandings

We suspect that the problem arises from a number of misunderstandings:

Students may set up spreadsheets with functions that query the terminal for fresh data every time they open their project.

They may think that they need data on every company in an industry, where a random sample would be sufficient.

They may think that they need daily prices where monthly ones would do.

Also, they may believe that the better research project is the one that uses the most recent data available, so they will redo their entire analysis with fresh data immediately before submitting.

Better Living Through Data Management

To remedy this, we have a few suggestions:

The first is that, wherever possible, we ask you not to encourage the students to use “big data” approaches to research. We simply cannot offer all your students the amount of data they would need to do this kind of work.

Second, we ask you to explain that, for the purposes of any given assignment, they do not need 100 % current data.

Finally, unless your teaching objective is specifically related to the use of Bloomberg or Workspace, we ask you to suggest alternative sources of data, like the Orbis company database, which can often provide the same data.

More generally, if you are assigning or supervising research projects that make use of financial data, please contact our DataLab team, so that we can work together to find the best possible way to support your learning objectives while staying within the objective limits set by our data suppliers.

Contact: datalab.lib@cbs.dk

by Søren Madsen

If you are working with ESG Data, you may want to take a look at this new database.
With MSCI ESG Direct you can evaluate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data, as well as find contents and analyses at company and industry level or as thematic reports.
MSCI ESG Direct measures the social, environmental, and governance performance of nearly 8.000 corporations using current ESG scores and reports.

How is the data organized?
MSCI ESG Direct is organized into two main tabs: 1/ Companies and 2/ Reports and Publications.
With MSCI ESG Direct, you can search companies and download:

• Company background reports
• Issuer Summaries
• ESG Ratings Tearsheets (brief summaries)
• ESG Ratings Reports (full reports)
• Industry Reports

If you are looking for reports and publications specifically, you will find that they are grouped into five categories:

• Green Bond Index Note
• Industry
• Methodology
• Thematic
• Other

Historical ESG data
Historical data from MSCI is available on request. Please contact Søren Madsen or Erik Sonne.
Until 1^st May 2024, access to this data is funded by Center for Corporate Performance | CBS - Copenhagen Business School

Find out more about MSCI ESG Direct and get help with your search

Check out the CBS Library guide to ESG data

Watch out for CBS Library ESG Data Days 2022
CBS Library is currently planning our annual ESG Data Days in October, when we will be hosting presentations by data suppliers, including Bloomberg, Eikon, and Morningstar, on how to make the most of their services.

You will find some of the 2021 presentations right here

Please feel free to reach out to Søren Madsen or Erik Sonne, if you have any questions.

Written by Erik Sonne

Are you looking for the most recent data on financial markets or time series of key financials or commodity prices? If so, S&P Capital IQ, our brand acquisition and one of the leading financial databases, would be a good place to start.  

The web-based S&P Capital IQ platform provides highly structured, in-depth financial and company data, as well as data on markets, industries, and people. S&P Capital IQ covers among other things:

• Companies: detailed coverage of 63.000 public companies and 4.5 million private companies, totaling 99% of global market capitalization.
• Research reports: company and industry research reports from various contributors and publishers, including brokerage, consulting, and research organizations.
• Transactions: detailed transaction coverage for M&A deals and IPOs
• People Intelligence: profiles of more than one million professionals, including private and public company executives, board members, and investment professionals

Although S&P Capital IQ is a web-based platform, you can also access the database through an Excel plug-in, which allows you to undertake multifaceted analyses of companies and markets.

Although S&P Capital IQ is a web-based platform, you can also access the database through an Excel plug-in, which allows you to undertake multifaceted analyses of companies and markets.

Getting started
To access the database, you need to register. Check out how to register and other relevant details on our website or in our S&P Capital IQ guide.

CBS Library also provides access to other financial databases, but S&P Capital IQ is the only one that is available both on and off campus.  

With the acquisition of S&P Capital IQ, access to the financial database Thomson One Banker will be discontinued. We have provided access to this database for years, but in addition to technical issues around accessing the database, the owner of the database has decided to shut it down altogether.

Written by Søren Madsen

CBS Library has organized a series of four introductions to ESG data.

Students and staff are now invited to sign up. In the introductions, we will explore how to access the data and the tools needed to integrate ESG factors into portfolio analysis, equity research, screening, and quantitative analysis.  
 

The first introduction is by Louise Aagaard Jensen, a CBS alumnus, who will talk about working with ESG integration across investments. The remaining introductions will be presented by database specialists from Bloomberg, MorningStar, and Eikon/Datastream.

Find out more about ESG Data Days 2021
 

More information about ESG data in our libguide

If you want to know more, please contact Søren Madsen or Erik Sonne

Written by Søren Madsen

If your students can document knowledge of Bloomberg, Eikon, Datatstream, or MorningStar, they may be in a better position when applying for a job.

Many of the financial data providers whose platforms are available from CBS Library offer a certification programme for students. Upon the successful completion of a test, students will receive a certificate as proof for inclusion in job applications etc. 

Bloomberg
The most famous of the programmes is the Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC).
The BMC is a 12-hour, self-paced e-learning course that provides an interactive introduction to the financial markets. BMC consists of three sections — Core Concepts (includes four modules – Economic Indicators, Currencies, Fixed Income, Equities), Getting Started on the Terminal, as well as Portfolio Management. All sections are woven together from Bloomberg data, news, analytics, and television.
The BMC course is available through the Bloomberg Terminal at BMC <GO>. Each module takes between one and two hours to complete and comprises 160 questions and case studies to reinforce learning.

As an instructor, you can integrate state-of-the-market Bloomberg data, news, and analytics into your coursework with BMC. To this effect, the BMC provides a professor account where you can set up class codes, invite learners, track learner progress, and receive detailed score reports.

It is also possible for CBS students to sign up individually by using the BMC service.

On top of the intrinsic value of the BMC, students may find themselves with a recruiting edge by including a certificate of completion to their resumes, and by using BMC contents in their preparations for interviews.

Eikon / Datastream
The Eikon programme consists of seven modules and comprises 32 short training videos.
The Datastream programme consists of six modules and comprises 26 short training videos.

Find Learning resources and product certification details for Eikon /Datastream from Thomson Reuters

Again, a final test will help students document database proficiency to relevant stakeholders.

MorningStar Direct
MorningStar offers two different programmes: Morningstar Direct Academy  and the Morningstar Office Academy

If you have questions, please contact Søren Madsen

Written by Erik Sonne

Morningstar has a reputation in the investment community for providing trusted, institutional, and high-quality data. The company prides itself on collecting data from primary sources and subjecting them to an extensive quality-assurance process. It provides an array of investment research and management services.

One of these services is Morningstar Direct, a financial database and investment analysis platform that provides performance and holdings analyses of investments. Morningstar Direct comprises data on closed-end funds, equities and equity ownership, exchange traded funds, hedge funds, markets indexes, offshore funds, and much more.
Morningstar Direct data is sorted by folders called Research Reports, Performance Attribution, Performance Reporting, Portfolio Analysis, Portfolio Management, etc.

Check this link for more information about Morningstar Direct

You will find global data from 1980 to present, all depending on the type of data.

Morningstar Direct is available from CBS Library Data Lab, which is located on 1^st floor of the Solbjerg Plads library.

In addition to Morningstar Direct, CBS Library provides access to a wide range of databases on financial market data and financial data. Each database covers different aspects of financial data and access varies across databases.

Click here for a list of financial databases as well as information about access and contents for each one.

For more information, please contact Søren Madsen or Erik Sonne

By Erik Sonne   

Preqin is a publisher of online databases, reports, and data on alternative investments, including private equity (PE), real estate, hedge funds, infrastructure funds, private debt, and natural resources.

Preqin contents: the CBS Library subscription only includes access to the Private Equity module.

Preqin offers the following separate private equity modules:

• Fund Managers: contains profiles and information on more than 10,000 private equity and venture capital fund managers worldwide. It includes funds raised, available capital, investment preferences, and contact details.
• Funds: tracks funds in the process of raising money, recently closed funds, and prospective fund launches.
• Performance Analyst: contains individual fund return data for more than 8,200 private equity funds worldwide.
• Investor Intelligence: profiles of more than 6,100 active institutional investors worldwide. This module also profiles investors who are no longer investing or have put their PE investments on hold.
• Buyout Deals: contains details of about 48,000 PE-backed buyout deals worldwide since 2006, including historical data for the largest 750 firms.
• Compensation: Preqin conducts an annual survey of the latest trends in compensation practices at private capital firms.
• Venture Deals: NO ACCESS to this module

Sources of information:
Preqin sources its performance data from both public and private sources. Public sources include regulatory filings and documents, news, and Freedom of Information Act requests to relevant organisations. Preqin indicates that up to 70% of its data are obtained through such requests, made to pension funds and other institutional investors. The rest is sourced directly from fund managers and GPs (General Partners).

Access to Preqin: You have on-campus access to Preqin.

WARNING! Be careful with

heavy use of Preqin!
Preqin displays a page Captcha warning if you view more than 20 pages within 60 seconds – as the system will assume that you are using a bot to view multiple pages in quick succession. This happens when multiple tabs are open.
Please be mindful and do not open up too many windows/tabs when using Preqin. This will help prevent triggering the Captcha.

Other databases with Private Equity contents
CBS Library also provides access to other databases with data and information on the Private Equity industry and PE backed deals; these include Zephyr, Thomson One Banker, and Bloomberg.

Find out more about relevant Private Equity databases
For more information, please contact Erik Sonne

By Erik Sonne

Do you need detailed financial information on banks or similar institutions? Try out Bank Focus (formerly known as Bankscope).
The database offers detailed, standardized reports and ratios for in excess of 44,000 banks across the world (28,000 US and 16,000 non-US). The information is sourced by Bureau van Dijk, which is now part of Moody’s Analytics.

Contents:
With Bank Focus you get access to:

• Detailed, consolidated and/or unconsolidated balance sheets and income statements
• Company ratings and reports
• Ownership information
• Stock data
• Monthly report on banking deals (M&A)

You can search the database using hundreds of different criteria, and you can create benchmarking analyses comparing one bank against its peers.
Coverage:
For US banks you will have access to up to 20 years of financial data, and for non-US banks up to 7 years for listed banks and 3 years for unlisted banks.
Access:
You can access Bank Focus through the following two databases:

Bank Focus
A database with a more traditional configuration and user-friendly interface. From this database you can export data to Excel.

WRDS
Bank Focus is also part of the WRDS portfolio of resources and databases. WRDS provides researchers worldwide with instant access to financial, economic, and marketing data through a uniform, web-based interface.
From WRDS you can export data to a wide selection of output formats, including text and Excel as well as statistical software formats such as SAS, STATA, SPSS, and R

For any questions regarding Banc Focus, please contact Erik Sonne

WRDS (Wharton Research Data Service) is a gateway to financial, accounting, banking, economics, management, and marketing data accessible through a single web-based interface. It is provided by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
WRDS is not a trading platform like Bloomberg but contains data dedicated to the research within the mentioned domains. It is a system designed to give researchers access to a range of financial databases and datasets via a shared interface and with integrated support.
The CBS subscription includes, but is not limited to, the following datasets:

• CRSP: a comprehensive collection of security pricing data
• Compustat: accounting and financial data on more than 25.000 publicly held companies.
• TAQ: The Trade and Quote (TAQ) database contains intraday transactions data (trades and quotes) for all securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and others

Check out the WRDS guide for a summary of contents.
(Please note: The CBS subscription does not include all datasets or all parts of the larger databases).

How to access WRDS:
WRDS can only be accessed if you have a username and password.
This means that you have to register before you can get access to WRDS. Click for more details on how to register.

Contact: Erik Sonne, CBS Library