Securities Reference Data: Best Securities Reference Datasets & Databases

What is Securities Reference Data?

Securities reference data is information about both listed and unlisted securities which are traded across the global finanical markets. These securities include ETFs, mutual funds, warrants, and certificates. Securities reference data allows investors to target the stocks belonging to industries they’re interested in, identify opportunities for alpha generation, and manage risk when trading different securities.

How is Securities Reference Data collected?

Like other sub-categories of financial data, securities reference data is collected primarily from the global stock exchanges, such as the London Stock Exchange. Sources of securities reference data can be first, second or third-party:

First-party - First-party securities reference data comes from brokers and buyers themselves. Information about a security and trade deal can be collected from announcements and reports on global exchanges.

Second-party - Public records count as second-party sources of securities reference data.

Third-party - Securities reference data third-party sources include news companies and research firms. News and updates about securities reference intelligence can be scraped to compile data feeds and datasets.

What are the attributes of Securities Reference Data?

Some of the attributes you’d find in a securities reference dataset include:

Country code - where the company offering the security is registered.
Security class - refers to whether the security is listed or unlisted.
Ticker - shortened versions of the stock’s name are known as ‘ticker symbols’.
CIF code - CIF code stands for ‘customer information file’, which is a way of expressing banking and financial details in a digital format.
Industry classification - the name of the industry the security belongs to, for example petroleum or real estate.
Issuer name - the broker or owner reponsible for the security pre-trade.

What is Securities Reference Data used for?

Securities reference data is mostly used by traders and investors to make informed investment decisions. Buying a securities reference data feed or dataset allows them to conduct financial market analytics. From here, financiers can create graphs and charts displaying historical securities reference patterns, as well as predictive models for future price fluctuation for relevant securities. Making data-driven decisions when it comes to investing in securities is how traders and investors manage risk and secure high returns.

How can a user assess the quality of Securities Reference Data?

Securities refererence data should always come from a data provider with access to reliable stock exchange and financial market information. This means that they have good testimonials and reviews left by customers. Also, for securities reference data to be useful, it should be instatly usable. This means it should have an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) number, which assigns securities assoiciated with different countries and currencies with unique codes. Lastly, securities reference data providers should always supply you with a data sample so you can test the data in your investment strategies and analytics to test whether it works for you or not.

Where can I buy Securities Reference Data?

Data providers and vendors listed on Datarade sell Securities Reference Data products and samples. Popular Securities Reference Data products and datasets available on our platform are EDI Securities Reference File with global coverage (1.3 million securities) by Exchange Data International, Reference stocks data API, global coverage, 80K stocks by Cbonds, and Stamdata Bond Reference Data (“stamdata”) by Stamdata.

How can I get Securities Reference Data?

You can get Securities Reference Data via a range of delivery methods - the right one for you depends on your use case. For example, historical Securities Reference Data is usually available to download in bulk and delivered using an S3 bucket. On the other hand, if your use case is time-critical, you can buy real-time Securities Reference Data APIs, feeds and streams to download the most up-to-date intelligence.