Creating and using a Local List

In addition to having prepackaged lists of companies (see Using Datastream Constituency Lists), Datastream allows us to create our own lists that can be saved and used over. These local lists are easily created on Datastream Advance and later used with the Datastream-AFO add-in on Excel. In this example, we will create list that can be used to pull up data on automobile manufactures. The result of this sample search will be 10 years worth of monthly stock price information on these companies; however the resulting list can be reused to obtain other data on these companies.

1. To start, open up Datastream Advance by clicking on the icon on the desktop of the Datastream terminal located in the Long Business & Economics Library. Next, scroll down to the data category menu using the blue button(s) [1] and double click on the Local Lists tab [2].
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Click on the List Wizard icon [1].
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Since we are creating a new list, we select that option [1]. But also notice that we can edit existing local lists or import information from existing lists. Click on Next [2] to continue.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. This following screen allows us to build our list. First select the appropriate Data Category. In this case we choose Equity [1]. Next we type in the name of the company in the Find: box [2]. By highlighting FORD MOTOR [3] and clicking on the add arrow [4], we include FORD MOTOR in our list.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. To add more companies to our list, we repeat the same process for each new company. When we are through creating our list, we fill in the List Description box [1] with the name "World cars" and click on Next [2] to go to the list creation screen.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. We name our local list file worldcars.LLT [1]. Note that we must use the .LLT file extension. We click on Upload [2] to make this file available both on the computer that we are working on and on the Datastream server to allow for access from other terminals. By clicking on Finish [3], we complete the process.
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. If we go back to the main Datastream search window and select World Cars [2] from the Local lists [1] category, we see all of the companies [3] that were added to this list.
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Let's use this list in Excel. To use the local list in Excel, we start by clicking on the Datastream menu option [1] and select Time Series Request [2].
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. In the Times Series Request window, we click on the list icon [1], next to the Series box.
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. On the next screen, we see the descriptons of the available Local Lists. Clicking on the World cars entry [1] displays the list of companies in this list [2]. We click on OK [3] to accept this list.
    
    
    
    
    
    
11. We have returned to the Time Series Request screen. Here we set the other varibles for our search: Instead of absolute starting and end dates, we use a relative number -10y [1] in the Start Date box to obtain data going back 10 years from today's date. Next we set the Freq[ency} to Monthly [2]. Since we want data for all of the companies on our list, we click on the TS for each item in our list box [3]. To run the search, we click on Submit [4]. For details on this process, see Datastream Excel Add-in.
    
    
    
    
    
    
12. The resulting search populates the cells in Excel with ten years of monthly data for our companies. (The #N/A in the column for Daimler/Chrsler reflects the period before the merger of the two companies.) The local list that we created can be reused over again to obtain information for different time periods, frequency or data types.