In the Global Financial Data Series, the publisher (GFD) provides deep historical data on a wide variety of securities, price indices, exports, imports and more for over 200 countries, from around the world. This resource is unique in that it is the only resource, at this point, that provides easy access to many historical time series.
The basic database in the series is the GFDatabase, presenting data on a macro level from the following asset classes on over 200 different countries:
- Equities (from 1693)
- Fixed Income (from 1520)
- Exchange Rates (from 1383)
- Inflation (from 1209)
- Commodities (from 1252)
- Economic Data (from 1168)
- Asset Allocation (from 1800)
The USDatabase (U.S. Stocks) has company-based information for all listed securities on any American Exchange from:
- U.S. Securities (from 1790)
- Foreign Stocks (from 1693)
- Delisted Stocks (from 1693)
The Real Estate Database, developed in partnership with Winans International, has U. S. commercial and residential data, including:
- Housing prices (from 1830)
- National and regional average and median home prices
- National and regional new home sales
- National home average square foot data
The U.K. Database covers historical data on stocks and other British financial data up through the present day, consisting of:
- London Stock Exchange (daily prices from 1693)
- London Bond Market
- London Equities (data on individual securities from 1693)
Data sources for each series are cited. Notable sources include Bank of England lending rates and FTSE from the bank’s inception in 1694 to present day. The Bank’s consol bond (perpetual bonds with no maturities) prices are available from 1729 to present. The series features complete stock prices for South Sea, East India, and Mississippi Companies over their lifespans. Recent additions include series from 27 U.S. regional stock exchanges.
The publishers have included some public domain, open access content as a convenience in response to those wishing to combine it with other GFD sources. This includes data from the European Commission’s Eurostat office and the World Bank. This may help explain why roughly 50% of subscribers are from sites other than North America.
From a geographic coverage perspective, the historical data is strongest for North America and Europe. The publishers indicate that they are exploring adding more stock databases for countries in these regions.
Update to Review 10/12/2017:
GFD added a new database, GFD Global Indices. According to GFD, "GFD Global Indices are proprietary indices calculated by Global Financial Data using data series included in the GFDatabase, the US Stocks Database, and the UK Stock Database. These series aggregate data from thousands of data sets to help users analyze historical trends."
GFD Global Indices provides indices for the following asset classes:
- GFD Global Bond Indices
- GFD Global Commodity Indices
- GFD Global Equity Indices
- GFD London Equity Indices
- GFD US Equity Indices
Update to Review 4/12/2018:
GFD has announced new updates including:
- Updates to the search tools
- A ticker upload that allows users to upload tickers to GFD and download the data without searching for individual symbols
- A capitalization graphing tool that allows users to graph the various sectors at any given point in history
- An events in time feature that allows users to search over 80,000 historical events that may have shaped market behavior
- Launch of a new web platform and several APIs, including a new JSON REST API that can be called R or Python
- Users now have the ability to create their own custom indices, utilizing GFD's Index Creation Tool
- OTC Bank Stocks Data from the 1800's to present
- New corporate website with more than 400 new articles and blog posts