Getting Data: Single Dataset Retrieval

Suppose you need to look at a dataset that you currently do not have in your PC.  In most cases it can probably be acquired fairly easily.  Yahoo!Finance and the Federal Reserve Board of St. Louis provide many such datasets for free.  FDC has a facility for retrieving them quickly and easily.

First, click on the Data Wizard   , and  you will get the data template:

Select your source (Yahoo or the Fed):

 and the template will change.  If you choose to retrieve data from the Fed, you will see the following:

If you select one of the commonly-requested series, all you need to do is enter the start and end dates of your series.  If you do not know the symbol, a button will take you to the Fed’s website where you can find the specific dataset. 

If you do not enter startdates and enddates, FDC will get you the last year of data.  If you enter only a startdate, you will obtain data from that date.  If you only enter an enddate, you will get all data up to that date.

Retrieving data from Yahoo! Finance is similar:

When you make a request, FDC enters the language for that request in a command line, effectively instructing you how to make such a request directly.  That language will be important should you wish to download a list of datasets.

If the dataset is not presently resident in your PC, the dataset will be named (and saved) with its symbol.  Such is the case with “dgs2” above.  However if your PC already has a dataset named “ibm”, FDC will not overwrite your previously-saved data.  In that case, your downloaded data will appear as a temporary dataset and given a temporary name, such as “temp1”.  If you wish, you may use SAVE AS to save the dataset with any name of your choosing.

If you download a dataset with a reserved FDC name that is not already on your PC, FDC will use its symbol name and add the suffix “ZZ”.  For example, the symbol for Goodyear Tire is GT.  However GT is FDC code for “greater than”.  Thus if you download the symbol GT, it will appear in FDC at GTZZ.  Here’s a list of the reserved FDC names:

ABS                 BE                   BOX                CL                   COL

DY                   EXP                 GE                   GT                   LEN

LOW               MTH                NE                   OI                    VAR

Futures Prices:

If you are looking to download futures prices, you will have no choice but to pay a data supplier.  The futures exchanges charge for their data; and all data suppliers must charge their clients and pass on some of the revenue to the futures exchanges.