Setting up CRSP Stock Data for Eventus in Windows

To use CRSP stock data, you must subscribe to it, normally through your institution. If you use CRSP via WRDS, your institution is a CRSP subscriber. If your institution isn't on WRDS, it still may be a CRSP subscriber. Only the Center for Research in Security Prices, LLC, an affiliate of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, can provide subscriptions to CRSP data. Their website is www.crsp.org.

Most Eventus for Windows users can see https://eventus1.box.com/v/Install-CRSP-Data-for-Eventus for instructions on downloading CRSP stock data and preparing it for use with Eventus. If Eventus is already installed, the app Install CRSP for Eventus in the Windows Start menu (or screen) folder Eventus will guide you through the process of installing or updating CRSP data.

For older versions of Eventus, or if you have been using CRSP with Eventus for some time and prefer to stay with the same format of CRSP when updating, please see https://eventus1.box.com/v/crspsetup.

A little background: CRSP announced several years ago that after 2016, they would no longer be releasing data updates in the CRSPAccess format that they have now used for a quarter of a century. Since then, they extended the end of life date for the format by "at least two years", which have come and gone while updates have continued to be available in the format. After the initial announcement, Cowan Research LC added support for the CRSP SAS data set format to Eventus. The SAS format offers some advantages. For example, we were able to develop a software tool to allow users who both have access to CRSP through WRDS and use Eventus for Windows to install CRSP stock data directly from their WRDS accounts.

Eventus for Windows annual subscribers, and many single-version Eventus licensees, can use the new CRSP SAS data set format in Windows. We will continue to support CRSPAccess format in all active versions of Eventus for Windows as long as CRSP continues updating data in the format. However, new CRSP-specific capabilities added to Eventus may require use of the SAS data set format.