Research Guides: WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services): Getting Started: Key Resources

About WRDS

Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) provides researchers access to financial, economic, and marketing data through a uniform, web-based interface. This hosted data service has become the locus for quantitative data research and is recognized by the academic and financial research community around the world as the leading business intelligence tool.

Accessing WRDS

Register for a WRDS account through Dartmouth.

WRDS access is limited to current faculty, staff, students, and research assistant. Please choose from the following when completing the registration form.

Faculty - Choose Dartmouth College from the list of institutions and choose "Faculty" as the account type. You will be emailed a username and password.
Class - Faculty may request accounts for use by students in a specific course. Access is for the term the course is taught and can accommodate up to 15 simultaneous users - choose Dartmouth College from the list of institutions, choose "Class" as the account type, and include the faculty member's name.
Students - Currently-enrolled Ph.D., Masters, and Undergraduate students may request a WRDS account - choose Dartmouth College from the list of institutions and choose the appropriate account type. You will be emailed a username and password. Note: no summer access
Research Assistants - Accounts are available to graduate and undergraduate students performing research for a faculty member. Students may request a the account - choose Dartmouth College from the list of institutions, choose "Research Assistant" as the account type, and include the faculty supervisor information. The faculty member will be contacted for confirmation and you will be emailed a username and password.

Databases Available via WRDS

Bank Regulatory (via WRDS)
Five databases for regulated depository financial institutions. These databases provide accounting data for bank holding companies, commercial banks, savings banks, and savings and loans institutions. Request an account
Beta Suite (via WRDS)
Powerful web based tool allowing researchers to calculate stocks’ loading on various risk factors in a timely way. The tool is designed with flexibly in mind, capable of handling monthly, weekly and daily rolling regression on common set of market risk factors. Request an account
Blockholders (via WRDS)
This dataset contains standardized data for blockholders of 1,913 companies. The data was cleaned from biases and mistakes usually observed in the standard source for this particular type of data. Blockholders' data is reported by firm for the period 1996-2001. Request an account
BoardEx (via WRDS)
BoardEx contains extensive data on the boards of publicly listed and notable private companies from around the world. Profiles of directors, senior management, and disclosed earners with biographical info, educational background, prior employment, compensation, and more. Determine network connections between people. Discover details of board compositions and committees. Also includes details of companies - employees, capitalization, revenue, auditors, and more. Request an account
Bureau van Dijk (via WRDS)
Access to 3 datasets:
- AMADEUS: financial database of European public and private company information.
- ORBIS: database covering global public and private companies.
- OSIRIS: database containing financial information on globally listed public companies, including banks and insurance firms from over 190 countries.
Request an account
CBOE Options - Indexes (via WRDS)
The CBOE (Chicago Board Options Exchange) Volatility Index (VIX) is a key measure of market expectations of near-term volatility conveyed by S&P 500 stock index option prices. Request an account
COMPUSTAT - S&P Global Market Intelligence (via WRDS)
Access to multiple datasets:
- COMPUSTAT: standardized North American and global financial statement and market data for over 80,000 active and inactive publicly traded companies. Datasets are broken down by North America, Global, Bank, Historical Segments, Snapshots, and Execucomp.
- Other Products: Marginal Tax Rates, Point in Time History, Preliminary History, and Unrestated Quarterly.
- Tools: Complete Financial Statements, CUSIP Converter, Data and Ratios.
Request an account
COMPUSTAT - North America (via WRDS)
North America - U.S. and Canadian fundamental and market information on active and inactive publicly held companies. It provides more than 300 annual and 100 quarterly Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows, and supplemental data items.
Request an account
COMPUSTAT - Global (via WRDS)
A database of non-U.S. and non-Canadian fundamental and market information on more than 33,900 active and inactive publicly held companies with annual data history from 1987, normalized to provide comparability across a wide variety of global accounting standards and practices. Request an account
COMPUSTAT - Execucomp (via WRDS)
Executive compensation data collected directly from each company’s annual proxy (DEF14A SEC form). Request an account
CRSP (via WRDS)
The Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) maintains the most comprehensive collection of security price, return, and volume data for the NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ stock markets. Additional CRSP files provide stock indices, beta- and cap-based portfolios, treasury bond and risk-free rates, mutual funds, and real estate data. Request an account
DMEF (via WRDS)
Direct Marketing Educational Foundation - Four individual data sets, each containing customer buying history for about 100,000 customers of nationally known catalog and non-profit database marketing businesses. Request an account
Dow Jones (via WRDS)
The Dow Jones Averages (aka Historical SPDJI) are comprised of The Daily and Monthly Dow Jones Composite (DJA), as well as The Dow Jones Industrial (DJI), The Dow Jones Transportation (DJT), The Dow Jones Utility (DJU), The Dow 10, and The Dow 5. Daily & monthly historical data is available. Request an account
Eventus (via WRDS)
Event studies using data read directly from CRSP stock databases or pre-extracted from any source. The Eventus system includes utility programs to convert calendar dates to CRSP trading day numbers, convert CUSIP identifiers to CRSP permanent identification numbers, and extract event study cumulative or compounded abnormal returns for cross-sectional analysis. Request an account
Fama-French Portfolios and Factors (via WRDS)
Fama-French Portfolios are constructed from the intersections of two portfolios formed on size, as measured by market equity (ME), and three portfolios using, as proxy for value, the ratio of book equity to market equity (BE/ME). Returns from these portfolios are used to construct the Fama-French Factors. Request an account
Federal Reserve Bank (via WRDS)
Three databases collected from Federal Reserve Banks: Foreign Exchange Rates, Interest Rates, and FRB-Philadelphia State Indexes. Request an account
I/B/E/S (via WRDS)
I/B/E/S International Inc. created their Academic Research Program over 30 years ago to provide both summary and individual analyst forecasts of company earnings, cash flows, and other important financial items, as well as buy-sell-hold recommendations. In 2000, I/B/E/S was integrated with Thomson Reuters / First Call, and in 2012 First Call was discontinued. Request an account
ISS Directors US (via WRDS)
Institutional Shareholder Services Directors dataset includes the universe of S&P 1500 companies with a range of variables related to individual board directors (e.g., name, age, tenure, gender, committee memberships, primary employer and title, etc.). Coverage 1996 to date. Request an account
Lipper Hedge Fund Database (TASS) (via WRDS)
Provides performance data back to 1990 on 7,500+ active hedge funds and funds of hedge funds and 11,000+ graveyard funds that have liquidated or stopped reporting. Request an account
Mergent Fixed Income Securities Database (via WRDS)
Mergent Fixed Income Securities Database (FISD) is a comprehensive database of publicly offered U.S. bonds. FISD contains issue details on over 140,000 corporate, corporate MTN (medium term note), supranational, U.S. Agency, and U.S. Treasury debt securities and includes more than 550 data items. Request an account
MFLinks (via WRDS)
The MFLINKS tables provide a reliable means to join CRSP Mutual Fund (MFDB) data that covers mutual fund performance, expenses, and related information to equity holdings data in the Thomson Reuters Mutual Fund Ownership data (formerly known as the CDA S12 data). Request an account
Morningstar CISDM (via WRDS)
A database of qualitative and quantitative information for more than 6,000 hedge funds, funds of funds and CTAs since 1994. The revised new database is a highly valued research tool across the hedge fund and CTA fields. In addition to current funds, the Morningstar CISDM Database includes a graveyard database of dead funds, which provides robust information for over 13,000 inactive hedge funds, funds of funds and CTAs. Request an account
OptionMetrics (via WRDS)
Comprehensive source of historical price and implied volatility data for the US equity and index options markets. Ivy DB OptionMetrics contains historical prices of options and their associated underlying instruments, correctly calculated implied volatilities, and option sensitivities. Request an account
ORBIS (via WRDS)
BvD's flagship database covering global public and private companies. It includes data from all their other databases and more. Request an account
OSIRIS (via WRDS)
Osiris has information on listed, and major unlisted/delisted, companies around the world. The information is very detailed and includes a lot more than financial reports. Different templates are used to show accounts in the correct formats for their company type and location. It covers around 80,000 companies. Request an account
PHLX (via WRDS)
Philadelphia Stock Exchange trades more than 2,800 stocks, 740 equity options, 12 sector index options and 100 currency pairs. Data on currency options and implied volatility. Request an account
Penn World Tables (via WRDS)
Provides national income accounts-type of variables converted to international prices. The homogenization of national accounts to a common numeraire allows valid comparisons of income among countries. Request an account
Preqin Private Equity (via WRDS)
20+ years of private equity and venture capital data covering fund managers, funds, open funds, investors monitored, funds with performance, deals, and exits. Request an account
S&P Capital IQ Compustat Snapshot North America (Via WRDS)
A backtesting database allowing historical analysis and backtesting models with annual and quarterly data, preliminary source updates and final source updates. Conduct research on a large population of North American companies (US and Canada), seek uncharted sources of alpha, and get a clear picture of preliminary and final data for annual, quarterly and year-to-date periods, minimizing lag assumptions and look-ahead bias. Date Range: Point-In-Time Coverage from 1986-present. Request an account
SEC Order Execution (via WRDS)
On November 15, 2000, the SEC adopted new rules aimed at improving public disclosure of order execution and routing practices. As a result of Rule 11Ac1-5, market centers that trade national market system securities must make monthly, electronic disclosures of basic information concerning their quality of executions on a stock-by-stock basis, including how market orders of various sizes are executed relative to the public quotes and information about effective spreads. Request an account
TRACE (via WRDS)
Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine is FINRA's over-the-counter (OTC) corporate bond market real-time price dissemination service. Bringing transparency to the corporate bond market, it helps create a level playing field for all market participants by providing comprehensive, real-time access to corporate bond price information. Request an account
Thomson / Refintiv / LSEG (via WRDS)
Access to multiple datasets:
- Datastream: Global historical data and analytics: equities, market indices, company accounts, macroeconomics, bonds, foreign exchange, interest rates, commodities and derivatives. Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly formats, covering 30+ years.
- Insiders Data : captures all U.S. insider activity as reported on Forms 3, 4, 5, and 144 in line-by-line detail. In addition, a unique cleansing process is used by Thomson Reuters that adds value by making systematic interpretations on the accuracy of as-reported data and inserts cleansed fields for comparison. A cleanse code is also included to denote the overall level of confidence in each record. Additionally, the Insider Filing Data Feed includes performance calculations revealing which insiders prior trades have been most predictive of subsequent stock returns.
- Institutional (13f) Holdings - S34: provides institutional common stock holdings and transactions, as reported on form 13F filed with the SEC and contains ownership information by institutional managers with $100 million or more in assets under management (Section 13(f) Securities).
- Lipper Hedge Fund Database (TASS) : provides performance data back to 1990 on 7,500+ active hedge funds and funds of hedge funds and 11,000+ graveyard funds that have liquidated or stopped reporting.
- Mutual Fund Holdings - (S12) : provides security holding information for all registered mutual funds that report their holdings with the SEC, plus 3,000 global funds. Reported securities include all NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ, Toronto, and Montreal common stocks.
Request an account
Preqin (via WRDS)
20+ years of private equity and venture capital data covering fund managers, funds, open funds, investors monitored, funds with performance, deals, and exits. Request an account

WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services): Getting Started

About WRDS

Accessing WRDS

Databases Available via WRDS

WRDS Data Tools