Sample Database Contents from Thomson Reuters PIT

Figure 3 illustrates the sequence of General Motors's quarterly revenue values for the period ending September 30, 2005 (Q3Y05). This quarter was first available in a press release on October 17, 2005 with a value of 47226 (row 1) and finalized on November 9, 2005 off a quarterly report with a revenue value of 47182 (row 2).

With the press release of the period ending December 31, 2005 (Q4Y05) on January 26, 2006, the company released a nine month value of 141424 for Q3Y05. To indicate a number other than a standard quarterly value, a special alternate figure (af) code is placed in the data time series. In this example, the value represents a nine month number. At the user's discretion, the value can either be divided by the number of periods (three) to estimate a quarterly value or ignored.

The quarterly amendment for Q3Y05 contains the same finalized value of 47182 (row 4) which remains the same until a nine month figure of 143033 is provided off the press release for the December 31, 2006 period end date (Q4Y06) on March 14, 2007. Finally with the filing of the 2006 10-K, the value is altered to 47727.

It is important to note in Figure 3 that only the yellow rows are available in the Standard Quant Standardized Financials since the database stores data as of the period end date. So, in this instance, a back test will utilize the revenue value of 47182 on March 28, 2006, and completely lose the ability to integrate the preliminary value (row 1) and use the first finalized value on November 9, 2005 (row 2). The Thomson Reuters Point In Time Database captures this missing data.