FactSet Quick Start Guide

Table of Contents

FactSet Quick Start Guide ............................................................................................................................. 1

FactSet Quick Start Guide ............................................................................................................................. 3

Getting Started ............................................................................................................................................. 3

Inserting Components in Your Workspace ................................................................................................... 4

Searching with FactSet ................................................................................................................................. 5

Market Watch ............................................................................................................................................... 5

Identifier Lookup .......................................................................................................................................... 8

Charting ........................................................................................................................................................ 9

Retrieving Time & Sales data ...................................................................................................................... 11

Excel Add-in ................................................................................................................................................ 13

 FactSet Quick Start Guide

What is FactSet?
FactSet is a research platform that consolidates all the analytics and data professionals need to
monitor global markets, public and private companies, and equity and fixed income portfolios in a
single, intuitive interface.

Getting Started

FactSets workspace is customizable and flexible. You can save your workspaces online anytime and
share with your colleagues. FactSet is also easy to navigate you can navigate between your tabs
with your mouse or via keyboard shortcuts.

FactSet Insert Menu

While you are using FactSet, the blue F button is your best friend. From the menu, you can launch
and manage your workspace, components, tabs and sub-tabs. Here is a summary of some basic
functions of each main category:

Learning Portal
Access Courses designed to develop your skills and knowledge of Factset.
Todays Top News
Find market news, company news, investment researches and content online.
Markets
Access world market data, including indices, gainers & losers, volume, economic reports,
etc., and compare market performances and countries data.
Quotes
Monitor market data (with Market Watch), and access equity, option and futures quotes
and historic prices.
Charting
Chart market data and economic series
Economics
View calendar of economic data releases, access Economic information by country/region
and access economic data comparisons and estimates.
 Industry
View overviews, financials and reports on sectors, industries and regions.
Company/Security
Access all the available information, estimates and valuations of public and private
companies, private equity and venture capital funds
Filings
Search for corporate filings and transcripts including all regulatory filings
Screening
Screen for equities and ideas (potential investment opportunities, find potential buyers,
track trends, and identify precedent transactions)
Portfolio
Create, track and evaluate portfolios and/or custom composites in real time.
Ownership
Research ownership details, recent activity and key ownership statistics about a company,
officers and directors affiliated with public and private companies and private equity firms

Inserting Components in Your Workspace

1) Click the plus button next to the tab where you want to create a new tab
2) Then, launch a desired component from the FactSet Insert menu.

If youre using a predefined workspace, you can also click a shortcut icon in the toolbar to launch
the corresponding component (please refer to the following screenshot).

Company Guide
BookBuilder
Quick Portfolio
Alert Manager
Wireless Configuration
If you have already searched and selected a ticker using the FactSet search box, you will be able to
access the specific information of the ticker as you click these icons. Of course, you dont need to
do so. You can always open the tool first and then type in the ticker(s).

Searching with FactSet

Enter keywords into the FactSet Search box. As you type, the FactSearch drop-down menu will
populate with results related to the search keywords. The drop-down menu is separated into the
following sections:

Entities - Includes security types such as equities, indices, people, mutual funds, and private
companies
Components - Includes all the components found in the FactSet Insert menu
Series & Reports - Includes economic charts and series that are available in Economic
Analysis Charting
Search Online Assistant - Opens an Online Assistant search page with a list of help pages
that include your keyword

Some Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

To activate the FactSet Insert menu, press ALT + F.
To display a component outside FactSet, press ALT + O.
To activate FactSearch or the Master Identifier box, press CTRL + T.
To navigate to the lowest tab layer, press ALT + [1-9].
To toggle up/down through the tab layers, press CTRL + Up Arrow or Down Arrow.
To move the cursor left in a tab layer, press CTRL + Left Arrow or Page Up.
To move the cursor right in a tab layer, press CTRL + Right Arrow or Page Down.

Market Watch

Market Watch is one of the most used components in FactSet. It allows you to create a list of real-
time quotes on equities, bonds, commodities, currencies and indices.
To open it, follow: FactSet insert menu > Quotes / Prices > Market Watch

For illustration purposes, we will use IBM, BMO bond (1.95% 30-JAN-2017) and S&P 500 index in
the following demonstrations.

1) Type and select the in the identifiers in the search box.

As we type, a drop down menu will appear, and we will select the ticker we are looking for. If
you dont know the ticker(s), just simply type in the name of the ticker, and you will be able to
screen out the results.

2) After you are done, we will be able to monitor the list.

3) If you would like to monitor some other fields, right click on the market watch window >
select Options > and you can browse through available columns and add new column.
Identifier Lookup

If you are uncertain of the identifier of any securities, click the magnifying glass button and select
Identifier Lookup, and this will bring out the following window.

You can search by name and narrow down the results with the categories on the left and the region
on the right, and after you finish selecting the name of the security you are looking for, you can
narrow down even further by choosing the region and exchange. After that, you can double click
the identifier in the right most box or click Add Selected to add the identifier into your selection
box. When you are done, click OK and your selections should be added to the tools you have
opened (ie. Chart, Market Watch, etc.).
Charting

To chart a security, go to FactSet Menu > Charting > Chart. If you already have the identifier in the
search box at the top, or you have selected an identifier from the Identifier Lookup, FactSet will
automatically chart the symbol for you.

click to chart multiple indicators.

click to toggle crosshair.
click to draw a horizontal line on the chart.
click to draw a trend line between two points.
click to draw Fibonacci retracement lines.

To delete any lines drawn, right click the chart and go to Delete. If you would like to change the
charting details, right click on the chart and go to Options.

Charting Specific series

1. in this example we will use the 30 Day US Commercial Paper (USCP30D-TU1)

2. Under the Charts box on the left hand side click the Blue X (shown below) to remove Plot 2

3. Under Plot 1, series 1, click the price button to change the graph

4. Select Fixed Income Yields YTM to graph the Yield to Maturity of the 30 Day US
Commercial Pape

5. To change the date range, click the gear button on the top right side and a pop up Chart Options
should appear
 6. Choose the desired date range by clicking the calendar button to the right of the From and To
label. Hit Enter.
7. Click the D(A) button and change it from Auto to Daily

8. Click the Show Report Button to show the table of values and find the desired date and the
corresponding value.

Retrieving Time & Sales data

Retrieving the Data

To calculate a market Volume-Weighted-Average-Price (VWAP) for a certain security using FactSet,

click the search icon on the top left of the screen (or press CTRL+SHIFT+F) and type: @T&S

A new Time and Sales (@T&S) window will pop up. Within the new window fill out the Date/Time
Range and filters side bar to your desired settings. For daily values, remember to set the time from
9:30:00 to 16:00:00 and the beginning and end date to the same date. In this case we will use
September 1, 2015 as our date and will uncheck all filters. Next, within the search bar at the top
type your security ticker, we will use General Electric (GE-USA) as an example.
After entering your security, press the ENTER key. In our case, the security name will be GE. If
followed correctly, your window will look similar to the one below. If you are unsure about FactSet
naming conventions, you can type the name of your security and FactSet should automatically
populate a list with the possible results. The ending result will look like the screenshot below.

The next step will be to export the data to Excel to perform your calculations. To do this right click
within the table and press Download Report... A window will pop up asking where you wish to
save the document, you can download the document anywhere but it should be saved as a .csv
file to ensure proper number formatting. The data can be copied or saved elsewhere after it has
been downloaded. Determine what data will be used in your calculations and copy this into a new
Excel file. Downloaded data will look like the screenshot below.
Excel Add-in

1) To launch the Factset add-in search Factset Excel in the start menu and select the
FactSet Excel Add-In shown below. This will have to be done even if Excel is already open.

2) If Factset isnt working in Excel please contact the Financial Research & Trading Lab
assistants.
 3) When FactSet Add-In is enabled and opened properly, you will be able to see FactSet on the
toolbar.

To insert a simple table of a data item versus date, you can click Sidebar > Insert, select the
identifier(s), the data item and input details, and then hit Insert at the bottom.

Note: You can only retrieve one type of series at once using this method.

Formula Lookup (FQL)

To look up a formula, go to the Insert Formula Dropdown Menu > Insert Formula, and the FactSet
sidebar will pop up.
With Insert Formula, you can search and select the Formula you will use to download and retrieve
data from FactSet.

Retrieving Data
There are two ways to retrieve data Data Downloading and =FDS Codes.

Using =FDS Codes

=FDS codes are DDE (dynamic data exchange) codes that make a direct call from Excel to FactSet's
mainframe. =FDS codes contain both the identifier and the data item. They calculate in the
spreadsheet with your codes, so FactSet does not create a separate data file (i.e., you only work
with one spreadsheet).

The Factset Sidebar will allow you to identify =FDS codes through the formula look-up bar. To
download data, first add security identifiers to the sidebar in the identifier field as shown below.
Then include your desired data through the Data item field, to request data search for a metric,
the example uses EBIT, and press enter. The sidebar will show items that match with your search
terms. Select a metric and press insert to input the data to a cell.

To change the template, you would simply change the FDS formula. As for refreshing your data, you
can go to the FactSet Ribbon > Refresh Dropdown Menu > select All =FDS Codes

=FDS Code Syntax

The general syntax for using =FDS codes in Excel is as follows:

=FDS("[symbol]","[item(date)]")

Items in square brackets signify inputs of the formula.

An example of retrieving Ford Motor Co price data is: =FDS("F-US","FG_PRICE(0)")

Unlike Data Downloading codes, there is no caret (^) at the beginning of an =FDS code. Instead, the
formula begins with =FDS. The symbol and item are enclosed in quotation marks.

Using FDS Codes for Time Series Data

Use the Factset Sidebar to generate FDS codes for time series data. Much like the earlier function
specify the identifier and data item that you wish to pull. After searching for a data item, such as
price, select which formula you would like to use. In the example below we selected Price, which
then shows three additional tools: Inputs, Definition and Formula Workspace.

The inputs tab allows you to specify certain characterisitcs for each data item. For Price you can
select the Date range you want to look at, the frequency of data, currency displayed and
adjustement items. The parameters below show daily price data from one month ago to the last
price in local currency accouting for stock splits and spinoffs. These parameters can be customized
to suit the data being pulled.

The Defintion tab shows exactly what the formual will be pulling. The picture below shows that this
price formula will specifically pull the closing price.

The Formula Workspace tab allows you to view the FDS code that will pull the specific data that you
want to pull. You can also edit this code manually to reflect a different request.

When you have finalized all of the parameters you wish to pull regarding time series data click
insert to retrieve the values in excel.

Data Downloading
Downloading codes are used in spreadsheets to request data from the databases on FactSet via
Data Downloading. To create a template for Data Downloading, select Series Lookup from the
Insert Formula dropdown menu. First select the identifiers you wish to look at through the
Indentifiers menu on the right.
This will open a new window where you can search for different assets or data available on Factset.
You can use either the search bar or left side menu as shown below.

When you have selected an identifier click Add Selected to indicate which identifiers you would
like information on, then click ok. This will bring you back to the series lookup screen. In the Series
Lookup Screen you will then select which data item you want to retrieve for each identifier.

The red boxes on the screen below show the two ways to search for items: either directly in the
search bar or through the suggested items in the left side menu and center display items. The green
box shows how to specify characteristics of the data being retrieved such as date. The blue box
shows how the data will be displayed on a new sheet. When you have requested everything click
ok.
This will load various formulas with a ^ in front of them, as shown below. This is Factset syntax
which will then be used to pull the data.

To retrieve the data in the Factset tab, select Data Downloading under the refresh dropdown
menu as shown below.
You will then be asked to save a new file which includes the downloaded data. Excel will create a
separate file (or data file) for each identifier which displays the requested data. If you want to make
any changes to the codes in your spreadsheet (formatting, adding new codes, etc.), make sure you
make the changes in the original file (or template file), and refresh the data from the FactSet
dropdown menu and view the results in the new data file.

Template File:

Data File: