Research Guides: Financial Databases Help Guides: Home

Financial Databases

The Marshall School of Business subscribes to multiple databases used in financial industries and business and accounting research.

Access: Available to current faculty, staff and students PLEASE NOTE, DATABASES ARE FOR ACADEMIC USE ONLY. See individual tabs for instructions for creating an account and additional help.

Please note: Bloomberg is typically not available virtually, however, during COVID-19 Bloomberg is making Bloomberg available via its Disaster Relief (DR) Bloomberg product on a month by month basis. Please see the Bloomberg tab for more information.

Marshall provides access several databases via the Wharton Research Data Service (WRDS). All current USC users can access WRDS via a day-pass that is generated by WRDS; just enter your USC e-mail as prompted. If you are a graduate student or faculty member, you can apply for an account. Please follow the instructions for application, the accounts are generally approved within 24-48 hours. Accounts typically expire when the user graduates. Both user groups have access to the same data. however account holders are able to save their information/datasets on WRDS.

Marshall has subscriptions to the following commercial databases that are used in finance and other industries. Some have certification or classes to train the users.

Capital IQ is available to all current USC users, but users must install and login to the USC VPN Multiple help videos and instructions are available, no certification or classes are available at this time.
Pitchbook is available to current Marshall students, faculty and staff, and must install and login to the USC VPN. No classes/training. Help videos and instructions are available
FactSet is available ot current USC users, VPN is not necessary. FactSet provides introductory and intermediate certification via its CORE program (type in CORE)
Bloomberg is available under the DR Bloomberg product, month by month during COVID-19. Virtual use is not guaranteed. Bloomberg has discontinued its certification course, but offers Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC), a 4-6 part course.

USC VPN (Anytime Connect): Help: consult.usc.edu / (213) 740-0050. Detailed instructions for installing and using the VPN: https://itservices.usc.edu/vpn/

Bloomberg

Bloomberg - Getting Started
Bloomberg Basics
Bloomberg Mergers & Acquisitions Transaction Tutorial
A short step by step guide on how to access M&A and other deal transactions information on Bloomberg. This guide includes how to select criteria and add/edit column headings for downloading data to Excel.

Detailed instructions for Bloomberg can be found on the Bloomberg Research Guide: http://libguides.usc.edu/bloomberg

Bloomberg authored guides and Cheat Sheets
How to Create an Account
How to find Company and Industry data on Bloomberg
Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC): Bloomberg's course on market concepts and certification
Job Listings on Bloomberg
M&A on Bloomberg

Bloomberg terminals are located in the Accounting Library, the Gaughan & Tiberti Library located in Fertitta Hall, 1st Floor) & JKP Computer Lab

Wharton Research Data Service - WRDS

WRDS Tutorial of Financial Data Sets Part I
Note - USC does not subscribe to every databases listed in this tutuorial
WRDS Tutorial of Financial Data Sets Part II
Note - USC does not subscribe to every databases listed in this tutuorial
Historical Beta Values using WRDS
Instructions for getting historical annual betas for companies.

Collection of databases designed for standardized quantitative analysis. Available datasets include:

CBOE Indexes
Compustat - Annual & Quarterly Fundamentals, Accounting data, Security data and 'Other Data'
CRISP - Comprehensive Research in Securities Prices (price, returns, and volumes)
CUSIP
EVENTUS
Fama French Liquidity & Liquidity Factors
Federal Reserve Bank
First Call
GSIOnline
I/B/I/S - Target price, forecasts, consensus estimates, etc. by analysts - Integrated with Thomson Reuters' First Call, now discontinued (2012)
Penn World Tables
SEC Order Execution
TAQ (NYSE's Trades & Quotes)
Thomson Reuters - Trades and Ownership Databases, 13F, Mutual Funds & Issuers

Thomson One

Thomson One Analyst Reports
A basic guide for using keywords, finding SWOT analysis and industry reports

Equities information and Wall Street analyst reports, news and financial information on companies and industries.

Use the attached guide for searching Analysts' reports and 'non broker' research reports from MarketLine and GlobalData that contain SWOT analysis.

Thomson One is only available via Internet Explorer 8, 9, or 11

SDC Platinum - Marshall students and faculty only

SDC M&A Guide
Instructions for accessing SDC Platinum and step-by-step instructions for creating a list of M&A transactions by industry (or other criteria) that can be used as 'comps.' Access instructions for both on and off campus (via VMware Horizon Client) - included in the SDC M&A Guide
NOTE SDC IS LIMITED TO MARSHALL STUDENTS, FACULTY AND STAFF.

Find data on M&A's, IPOS's, global new issues and venture capital funding. For access instructions and a step-by-step guide to creating an M&A report, please see attached instructions.