Not all but many of our clients trial our dividend forecast data before we work together.
Trialling at its simplest allows clients to verify the general quality/accuracy of our data. At its more complex trialling involves deep back-testing to understand whether our forecast data delivers what’s required for a specific investment strategy e.g. verification of the accuracy and timeliness of specific data fields such as our amount or ex-div date forecasts.
Because different clients have different needs, we’re super flexible over how we trial.
There’s generally no charge and we sign a short NDA / Trial Agreement (ours or yours) for options 3. through 5.
Working from the simplest through to the more complex / involved trials, we offer the following:
- Straightforward sample: snapshot of a specific universe
We provide a sample of a particular universe (usually a specific index), most commonly as it is today (on occasion as it was at a particular date in the past). This is single point-in-time and for use as comparison either to actuals or against one of our peers’ forecast data. - Historical comparison: our forecasts vs. actual dividend declarations together in one file
We provide a .csv file for a specific universe and time period which contains the actual declarations and in a separate column our own forecast amounts and dates as they were on the day of declaration. This can also be set to include our own % comparison scores (for amounts and key dates e.g. ex-date)
This is the simplest file to output and to analyse as it allows easy comparison of our forecast data vs. the actual declared dividend amounts and dates. - Login access: short-term access for spot-checking and review
This is quick and simple to set up, and allows spot-checking of particular names/securities. If relevant we can set this up alongside email notifications for testing timeliness of dividend declarations and/or changes to forecasts. We generally run these for a short period (weeks not months). - Full historical forecast file: point-in-time history for all forecasts made
This file contains every forecast made for a specific universe, including forecasts later updated or overwritten. This is known variously as a time-series or point-in-time file allowing clients to backtest by knowing what our forecasts were for any particular security / name on any specific date in the past.
At the time of writing (March 2022) we have 5 full years of forecast history (running from January 2017).
This is a more complex analysis project and requires client internal resource in the form of analyst or data scientist. - Live / open API or FTP trial: fully explore our data within your system
For a pre-defined period we will feed through our dividend forecast data for a specific universe, making it available via API, FTP or S3. You will receive dividend declarations and all updates to forecasted dividends, exactly as our clients receive data from Woodseer.
This option generally requires internal IT for the ingestion set-up and for our data to be delivered through to the appropriate internal system.
All of our trials are available for a specific coverage universe and/or time period – just let us know what is required. Where ‘file’ is specified this is a .csv file.
So, over to you – how can we help? You can contact us here to request the trial format that you need or to request a call to discuss specifics.