Identifiers
When you want to download data from financial databases like Datastream, Thomson One Banker, CRSP or CompuStat, you'll see that they don't use names to identify companies, but codes, for example ISIN- or SEDOL-codes, DSMnemonics, tickers etc.
Unfortunately financial databases don't use the same identifiers; the identifiers used depend on the data vendor. This means it can be difficult to match data from one database with data from another database.
TIP: when you create lists of companies, add as many identifiers as you can find. You never know when they can be useful! |
We have made two overviews with the main identifiers and the databases in which they are used. One list is made for US-companies, one for European companies.
