Database Coverage
Stock history is available back to January 1950 (over 58 years). Currently there are around 3500 securities on the NYSE, 600 securities on NYSE Amex, 800 securities on NYSE Arca, 3300 securities on the NASDAQ, and over 6000 securities on the OTC markets (OTC-BB, Pink Sheets, Other OTC). Our database also covers delisted securities dating back to 1950 (over 20,000 delisted securities). Index history is provided on over 800 indices including:
- Daily Dow Jones Industrial Average to its first day of inception in 26 May 1896, Dow Jones Transportation Average (1896) & Dow Jones Utility Average (1929).
- S&P 100 Index history back to inception in 1983
- S&P MidCap 400 Index history back to 1991
- S&P 500 Index history back to 1928
- S&P SmallCap 600 history back to 1995
- Comprehensive Dow Jones US indexes to 1997 (10 Industries, 19 Supersectors, 41 Sectors, 114 Subsectors using the ICB structure)
- Comprehensive S&P 500 Sector, Industry Group, Industry and Sub-Industry Indexes (using the GICS structure) back to 1989
- Comprehensive AMEX sector indexes to 1997
- All NASDAQ Sector & Fund indexes back to inception in 1971
- NYSE Composite Index back to 1966
Adjustments for corporate actions
All securities are fully adjusted all capital-related corporate actions such as stock splits, reverse splits, stock dividends (also known as bonus issues where a non-cash entitlement is provided such as additional shares in the company), special dividends, spinoffs (also known demergers stock is provided in the spun-off company) and capital returns. That is, the open, high, low, close and volume are adjusted to show an accurate historical capital return of the security by removing the dilutive effects that such corporate actions would make on the data. The original closing price for each day is provided in the “Open Interest” field. The data is not adjusted for normal cash dividends.
Complex inter-exchange movements and corporate actions are catered for too. For example, a company shifting from NYSE to NASDAQ, with symbol change and stock split are cleanly and accurately incorporated into the history.
Database Completeness and Known Issues
Trading Game believes that this is the most comprehensive retail-level historical securities database available. It has been built from dozens of sources and user contributions and has had extensive cross-checking of corporate actions, price and volume data. We have even extensively consulted archived newspaper stock price reports to obtain historical data. Due to the sheer size, the extent of the historical data available publicly, and the difficulty in obtaining such information from exchanges that did not have an official reporting mechanism until the 1990s, the database cannot provide definitive coverage of all securities. In compiling the database, we have deliberately excluded securities that appear to have little or no trading range and securities with a limited trading history (< 30 days). Note also that NASDAQ prices before June 1992 were not fully reported by NASDAQ and have limitations in some cases (see below for further details). OTC coverage before 2002 is limited to previously-exchange-listed companies where OTC data could be sourced. Please inform us of any data issues so we can investigate and resolve them if required.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some examples of currently listed securities that have full history back to 1950?
NYSE:IBM International Business Machines. Originally founded as the Tabulating Machine Company back in 1888, it changed its name to the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in 1891. It listed on the NYSE in 1916. In 1924, it changed its name to International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) when it became a Fortune 500 company. Norgate’s price data has all trades on IBM since 1950.
NASDAQ:FWLT Foster Wheeler. Originally formed in 1927 by the merger of a power company owned by the Foster family and the Wheeler Condenser and Engineering Company and was listed as NYSE:FW. In November 2003, it was removed from the NYSE due to its inability to meet requirements regarding stockholder’s equity. It then traded as OTC:FWHLF. In June 2005, it was able to once again have a full exchange listing and began trading as NASDAQ:FWLT. Norgate’s price data includes trading price data from its NYSE, OTC and NASDAQ listings. Since its delisting from the NYSE in November 2003 (priced at an adjusted $17.60), it is has traded at over $120 since its NASDAQ listing in September 2007.
OTC:NAVZ Navistar. Originally listed in 1909 as International Harvester Company (NYSE:HR), it changed its name to Navistar (NYSE:NAV) but in February 2007, it was forcibly delisted from the NYSE due to its previous accounting statement inaccuracies and subsequent issues with its auditors. It still trades as NAVZ on the OTCBB/Pink Sheets market. Navistar was a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from August 1925 to May 1991.
What do you mean by delisted?
Delisted is synonymous with “untradeable” – ie you can no longer trade this security. Traditionally a delisted security is one that is no longer listed on a major exchange. With the advent of the quotation services such as OTC BB, Pink Sheet, the distinction between delisting and simply becoming an OTC stock has become blurred. The delisted database includes securities that have been delisted from a major exchange from 1950 to 2001. Beginning in 2002, our coverage expanded to include OTC securities. Therefore from 2002 onwards if a security is removed from a major exchange but starts to trade as an OTC security, it will not be considered delisted. Any securities that are no longer traded on the OTC markets are included in the database from 2002 onwards, and the code used will reflect the last traded code on OTC (eg. Enron last traded as ENRNQ on OTC)
Why is it important to have delisted data?
In the development of trading systems, any strategies need to be tested against a portion of stock data. If you only test against currently listed securities, you introduce a phenomenon known as survivorship bias. That is, you are only testing against securities that survived. By removing the delisted companies from your testing universe, you may be skewing your results significantly.
Why does a company delist?
When a company delists, it does so for a handful of reasons. Namely:
(i) it underwent a takeover and ceases to be a public company
(ii) it decided to discontinue listing on a particular market – this can happen for dual-listed companies that may be listed on NASDAQ and a foreign exchange. If that company decides to consolidate its listing to just the single foreign exchange it will delist.
(iii) it undergoes voluntary liquidation
(iv) it is declared bankrupt and undergoes a forced liquidation
What are some examples of delisted securities?
OTC:ENRNQ Enron Corp originally formed in 1931 as the Northern Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NNG). In 1979 it reorganised and changed its name to InterNorth (NYSE:INI) . After the takeover of the Houston Natural Gas company in 1985, it changed its name to Enron (NYSE:ENE). In January 2002, the NYSE decided to remove Enron from the exchange, and it became an OTC security trading as ENRNQ. It was finally delisted in November 2004.
See also the question below on “What happened to AT&T” for a comprehensive summary of the listings, mergers, demergers, delistings related to AT&T.
What is considered to be a major exchange?
The NASDAQ, NYSE, NYSE Amex, and NYSE Arca are major exchanges.
What would cause a security to become delisted from a major exchange?
Most exchanges have listing rules such as requiring a certain pricing point (eg. trading above $1), minimum levels of stockholders’ equity (eg. equity of at least $10 million) and timely reporting of financial reports. If a security violates these rules then it may be forced to delist.
What are OTC securities?
Over-the-counter (OTC) securities are those that don’t trade on a traditional exchange, nor are they subject to the strict regulations of a formal stock exchange. In order for buyers and sellers of OTC securities to communicate, such securities are quoted on various quotation systems (OTC Bulletin Board, Pink Sheets).
Why include OTC securities?
When a company is in financial difficult or is unable to adhere to the listing rules on an exchange, but can still operate as a public company, it often becomes an OTC security. Some securities only trade as OTC for a period of time until they can re-satisfy listing rules. Including the OTC trading data ensures that the full trading history is provided irrespective of exact listing status. Some companies have also chosen not (yet) to re-list with a major exchange but are still a valid publicly-traded company (see the information on Navistar and Foster Wheeler above).
Do you show which exchange(s) a delisted security was originally listed on?
No – this data is not available. The only information we provide on a delisted security is its last known company name, trading code and month/year of delisting.
Is the data adjusted for normal cash dividends?
No, the data is not adjusted for normal cash dividends. The only type two types of dividends that are adjusted for are (a) extraordinary/special dividends – typically paid as cash when a company has an extraordinary year but doesn’t want to adjust their standard dividend payments, and (b) stock dividends – these are actually a form of stock split (eg a 5% stock dividend is actually a 105-for-100 split). Stock dividends dilute your shareholding in the company.
Do you provide unadjusted data?
Yes – we utilise the unused “Open Interest” field to store the original closing price.
What coding conventions do you use for delisted securities?
Since many codes are reused, we have decided to create a code that represents its last known code plus the year and month of its delisting. For example, Enron last traded as ENRNQ in November 2004, therefore its code is ENRNQ-200411.
How are the securities organised?
Listed securities are organised into their repsective exchanges (AMEX, NASDAQ, NYSE, OTC and US Indices). Delisted securities are organised in alphabetic folders such that all security codes beginning with ‘A’ are in the A folder, all security codes beginning with ‘B’ are in the B folder etc.
What format is the data provided in?
The listed data is provided in a “MetaStock™ compatible” format (2000-securities-per-folder) format. The delisted data is provided in a “MetaStock™ compatible” format (6000-securities-per-folder) format. Upon paying the fee for downloading the data you can download it immediately.
Notes on NASDAQ prices before July 1992
The NASDAQ, whilst being an all-electronic market, only started to report daily prices on the Large Cap (aka National Market) in November 1982 and daily prices on the Small Cap market from June 1992. Before daily reporting came into effect, the close typically reflects the midpoint between a closing bid and ask and therefore daily range data was not available.
How often is the historical data updated?
The listed historical data is updated once a week. The delisted historical data is updated once every quarter. If you have a daily update subscription to our US markets, both the listed and delisted data is updated each day.
What happens if my database is corrupted?
If you have an ongoing daily update subscription with us, you can download a fresh database installer at any time.
Can you provide it in ASCII / Comma Separated / CSV / XLS format?
Yes we can provide it in an ASCII format as a one-off (non updated) output. Please let us know which format you require (eg. provide an example line or two so we can output in the style/format you require).
Do you have a subset of the data available?
We offer the following data sets:
- Trial data – includes data on all listed stocks and indices going back 1 year, except full history back to 1950 is provided for all securities starting with the eltter ‘A’.
- Listed data back to 1985
- Delisted data back to 1985
- Listed and Delisted data back to 1950
How much disk space does it take?
Listed stock history back to 1985: 600MB
Listed stock history back to 1950: 800MB
Delisted stock history back to 1985: 800MB
Delisted stock history back to 1950: 1000MB
Why do I see duplicate company names in the delisted and listed stocks?
Typically this occurs when the company has undergone complex restructuring, takeover and subsequent rename of the merged company, or traded out of bankruptcy.
For example, Aviall Inc listed on the NYSE in October 1984. Ryder System, Inc acquired all outstanding shares in Aviall in November 1985 and therefore Aviall was delisted (delisted code: AVI-198511). In 1993, Ryder decided to spinoff Aviall as a listed company and it was listed on the NYSE under the code AVL. In September 2006, Boeing acquired Aviall and Aviall was delisted (delisted code: AVL-200609). Therefore there are two Aviall Inc. shares in the delisted folder because they represent two parts of Aviall’s life but the two shares are otherwise unrelated from a chart or price perspective.
Another reason that there may be two names is when a company enters bankruptcy then emerges from bankruptcy as a viable entity. Generally the creditors and bondholders become the new owners of shares and, in most instances, the company’s plan of restructuring will cancel the existing equity shares of the company (leaving those shareholders with a 100% loss). This happened with Algoma Steel (Delisted US code:ALGSF-200011) which cancelled old shares, issued brand new shares in exchange for the debt (which were also called Algoma Steel). The “new” Algoma steel was subject to a takeover several years later (delisted code:ALGOF-200706).
Another reason that there seem to be consecutive company names is during complex mergers. For example, when two companies of approximately equal size merge with each other, they elect to delist both company’s shares then create a brand new share (often with the name, and sometimes the code, of one the previous companies). This happened when Berlitz International Inc (NYSE:BTZ-199302) merged with Fututake Publishing Company in early 1993. The “new” merged company was also called Berlitz and traded on the NYSE under the same symbol (BTZ) until its delisting in 2001 (NYSE:BTZ-200105) due to a takeover.
In other less common cases where it is believed the company that has declared bankruptcy has more assets than debts, the original security may be traded with a ‘Q’ suffix and trade alongside any new security issued (sometimes with a ‘V’ suffix). At a later date these two securities may be merged into the new security listing and the old one delisted.
What happened to AT&T?
Plenty happened to AT&T in its listed past. American Telephone and Telegraph was incorporated in 1875 and listed on the Boston Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘T’ in 1888. In 1901 it was listed on the NYSE under the symbol ‘ATT’ and, in 1930, the NYSE changed the symbol to ‘T’. In the 1970s, the US Government challenged the monopoly rights of AT&T and in 1983 the company was split into seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies otherwise known as “Baby Bells” which were Bell Atlantic, Southwestern Bell, Pacific Telesis, Ameritech, BellSouth, NYNEX and USWest, plus the original AT&T. AT&T Shareholders received 1 share in each of the seven Baby Bells for every 10 shares of AT&T stock they held at the time of the split. AT&T also had an investment in two other companies, Cincinnati Bell and Southern New England Telephone (SNET), and these became fully independent as well.
Further spinoffs have occurred since including Lucent in 1996, AT&T Wireless Corp in 2001, Liberty Media in 2001 and AT&T Broadband in 2002. In 2005, one of the original “Baby Bells”, SBC Communications (at that time trading as NYSE:SBC) took over AT&T for $16 billion. As a result of the takeover, NYSE:T symbol was delisted. SBC decided to re-brand itself as AT&T and change its trading symbol from NYSE:SBC to NYSE:T. Therefore, the delisted code T-200511 represents the original company (and has trading history from 1950 to 2005). The currently listed NYSE:T represents the SBC company history.
Further history on each of the Baby Bells and spun off companies is as follows:
- Southwestern Bell – took over Pacific Telesis in 1998, Southern New England Telecommunications in 1998 and Ameritech in 1999. In 2002, it rebranded itself as SBC. SBC joined their cellphone operation with BellSouth in 2001 into a joint venture known as Cingular Wireless. SBC owns 60% of Cingular, BellSouth owns 40%. Now listed as NYSE:T.
- Southern New England Telephone Company (delisted code: SNG199810) – Known as SNET, was taken over by SBC in 1998.
- Pacific Telesis (delisted code: PAC-199703) – Also known as PacBell, this company was merged into SBC in 1997
- Ameritech (delisted code: AIT-199910) – split into five “Baby Bells” operating units (Michigan Bell, Indiana Bell, Illinois Bell, Ohio Bell and Wisconsin Bell) then all five merged back into Ameritech in 1993, which was taken over by SBC in 1999.
- Bell Atlantic (NYSE:VZ) – took over GTE corporation in 2000 and changed its name to Verizon.
- BellSouth (delisted code: BLS-200612) – spun off Cingular in 2001 then taken over by the new AT&T in 2006
- NYNEX (delisted code: NYN-199708) – Taken over by Bell Atlantic in 1997.
- US West (delisted code: UMG-199806) – split into three “Baby Bells” (Northwestern Bell, Pacific Northwestern Bell, Mountain Bell), then all three merged back into US West Newvector Group in 1991 and was taken over by QWest in 1998.
- AT&T Wireless (delisted code: AWE-200410) – after being spun off by AT&T in 2001, AT&T Wireless was taken over by Cingular in 2004.
- Cingular – formed in a joint venture between SBC and Bellsouth as SBC in 2001, Cingular was taken over by the new AT&T in 2006. Cingular was never listed on a stock exchange.
- NCR Corp (delisted code: NCR-199109) was taken over in 1991 by the old AT&T.
- Lucent (delisted code: LU-200611) was taken over in 2006 by Alcatel.
- AT&T Broadband – was sold to Comcast in 1992. AT&T Broadband was never listed on a stock exchange.
- Liberty Media (delisted code: L-200605) – In 2006, Liberty Media split into four tracking stocks: two stocks for Liberty Interactive NASDAQ:LINTA, NASDAQ:LINTB, and two stocks for Liberty Capital: NASDAQ:LCAPA, NASDAQ: LCAPB
- Cincinnati Bell (NYSE:CBB) – still listed today.
How many securities are included in the delisted database per year?
| 1950 | 6 |
| 1951 | 4 |
| 1952 | 5 |
| 1953 | 17 |
| 1954 | 7 |
| 1955 | 24 |
| 1956 | 21 |
| 1957 | 26 |
| 1958 | 21 |
| 1959 | 15 |
| 1960 | 25 |
| 1961 | 24 |
| 1962 | 36 |
| 1963 | 84 |
| 1964 | 73 |
| 1965 | 82 |
| 1966 | 93 |
| 1967 | 131 |
| 1968 | 150 |
| 1969 | 98 |
| 1970 | 74 |
| 1971 | 61 |
| 1972 | 59 |
| 1973 | 84 |
| 1974 | 101 |
| 1975 | 74 |
| 1976 | 80 |
| 1977 | 102 |
| 1978 | 128 |
| 1979 | 130 |
| 1980 | 112 |
| 1981 | 134 |
| 1982 | 128 |
| 1983 | 305 |
| 1984 | 465 |
| 1985 | 604 |
| 1986 | 670 |
| 1987 | 498 |
| 1988 | 726 |
| 1989 | 604 |
| 1990 | 558 |
| 1991 | 491 |
| 1992 | 626 |
| 1993 | 356 |
| 1994 | 495 |
| 1995 | 611 |
| 1996 | 637 |
| 1997 | 805 |
| 1998 | 1076 |
| 1999 | 1038 |
| 2000 | 1016 |
| 2001 | 976 |
| 2002 | 698 |
| 2003 | 702 |
| 2004 | 930 |
| 2005 | 946 |
| 2006 | 1231 |
| 2007 | 1100 |
| 2008 | 236 up to March 2008 |
