StockCentral :: Community

Join in on the discussion with other like-minded investors in our community forums. Learn about the fundamental investing methodology and participate in educational workshops in the Investing forums, stay up-to-date on StockCentral news and make suggestions to the StockCentral team in Central Square, and discuss your favorite stock or recent market news in our A-Z ticker-based forums.

Subject: Data Differences
Prev Topic Next Topic
Note: You must be a StockCentral subscriber and logged in to post messages.
Author Messages

Richard Lewis


01/22/2007 3:58 PM  
I recently signed up with Stock Central and ran a few SSG's to be sure I was
able to access your data source. I've compared those SSG's with others that
I've run using the NAIC OPS database and find that there are differences in
the data. How much should I be concerned about this?

One example of the differences.... in the OPS database, IBM 4th quarter data
is available, but in the Stock Central database (Hemscott ?) only 3rd
quarter data was shown. Also, when looking at the various data on the
backside, the numbers don't agree.

Please comment on whose data is more accurate and why there are differences.
Thanks,
Dick

Joe Craig
Ellicott City, MD
StockCentral Administrator

01/22/2007 4:22 PM  
Dick,

There are differences, but I don't think that one service is "more accurate" or correct than another. Whenever you go from company reported data to Value Line, S&P, Morningstar, Hemscott Data or any other data source, you'll find differences. I'll address your questions in general terms. If you need more specific answers, please post some numbers and we'll track them down.

"IBM 4th quarter data is available, but in the Stock Central database (Hemscott ?) only 3rd quarter data was shown."

The BI SDS data includes "preliminary" data drawn from company press releases or other sources. The Hemscott data is updated only when the official filings have been made to the SEC. You will find that companies don't always report data the same way they report in their official filings. If you look at the Company Report on the BI website, you'll see that the last quarter is bolded, which indicates preliminary numbers.

"various data on the backside, the numbers don't agree."

I presume that many of the disagreements lie in the area of P/E values. Our data reports high and low CLOSING prices, while the SDS data uses high and low INTRADAY prices. This can make a difference. Also, if the two sets of EPS numbers differ -- this is common due to different organizations' different normalizations -- then P/Es also differ.

If there are other differences, let us know and we'll look into the issues.

Thanks for your questions.

Joe

Nancy Shriver


03/23/2007 4:57 PM  
I also ran comparisons between Stock Central and OPS, the results between the two do not correspond. One company to use as an example is Stryker (SYK), the difference is most noticable in the PERT-A trailing chart. When looking at the lines the only ones that compared were the sales, the others very very different.

OPS has it as a Buy and StockCentral has it as a Sell. I just noticed that the buy and sell prices are upside down on the Stock Central data. (Lower range 50-37) (Middle range 37-12) (Upper range 12-0).

This is very confusing so I hope you can help. Let me know if you need any further clarification or information.
Thanks,
Nancy

Joe Craig
Ellicott City, MD
StockCentral Administrator

03/23/2007 5:14 PM  
Nancy,

I think that I need some more information before I can really begin to answer your questions.

1.  Which software are you using?  Toolkit, or something else?
2.  Are you absolutely sure that you applied the same judgements with the two SSG files?

If you could, attaching both of your SSG files to a reply would be helpful.  That way, I can compare the files number by number ...

Thanks.

Joe

Nancy Shriver


03/24/2007 1:41 PM  

Joe,

Oops, forget about the differences in the Buy/Sell.  I hadn't been saving the StockCentral data and would reload it each time I looked at it.  In my haste I inavertently didn't add a judgement on the SSG's Front.  I was surprised that I hadn't noticed that discrepency before.  It was my error, not the data or the program.

My original concern was about the differences in the other data that's imported, which is noticed best when looking at the PERT-A Chart.  I am using Toolkit 5.

The two files are attached:

Thank you,

Nancy


Attachment: SYK-BI.ITK
Attachment: SYK-IC.ITK


Joe Craig
Ellicott City, MD
StockCentral Administrator

03/24/2007 3:06 PM  
Nancy,

I did compare the SDS and StockCentral SSG files for SYK.

There are some differences, primarily in EPS (this is expected because different providers "normalize" the data differently). I've asked our data gurus to try to track down the differences and see if I can tell you exactly why they are different.

Joe
Note: You must be a StockCentral subscriber and logged in to post messages.
Forums > Investing > The Toolshed > Data Differences



ActiveForums 3.7
 



Register today for a free 45-day trial!

 

Investment Club Tools Investor Advisory Service Historical data by Historical prices by Instant Stock Analysis by About ICLUBcentral Inc.
myiclubBadge.gif IASBadge.gif HemscottBadge.gif CSIBadge.gif TakeStockBadge.gif ICLUBcentralBadge.gif