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Stock Reference Data and Classification Differences

Article Quant Q&A · Author: stevew
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Summary

The document discusses where to obtain company reference fields such as industry, country, identifier, and primary exchange when price data is readily available from sources such as market-data vendors. Its main lesson is that these fields are not necessarily free or uniquely defined: professional providers classify securities using their own systems, so the same company may receive different sector labels or primary-exchange assignments across vendors.

The response gives no comparison of data sources or empirical evidence; it offers a practical warning about licensing and inconsistent definitions. Researchers building equity universes should check each field’s provenance and methodology rather than assume that a label is universal. It also points to an exchange source for SEDOL information, but provides no further detail on access terms, coverage, or alternative identifiers.

Key ideas

  • Stock reference data may be harder to obtain freely than price histories.
  • Industry classifications can differ across professional providers.
  • Primary exchange assignments may depend on each provider’s evaluation method.
  • Reference-data fields should be checked for vendor-specific definitions and coverage.

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EquitiesStatistics
Full text
# Open stock information database?


# Open stock information database?












I know I can get stock prices from Yahoo Finance or Quandl, but does anyone know where to get stock information? i.e., industry, country, sedol, primary exchange

Cheers, Steve

## Answer by Peter (score 1)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/35778

This kind of data you are looking for is - as far as I know - not available for free.

Stock segmentation depends on various aspects and there are professional agencies that do this job. While MSCI, for example, classifies a stock in Sector A, STOXX classifies it into Sector B.

Also primary exchange depends on various aspects and Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters use different methods to evaluate the primay exchange.

SEDOL numbers: see here: http://www.londonstockexchange.com/products-and-services/reference-data/sedol-master-file/sedol-master-file.htm

Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.