Which of the following is a provider of historical/time series data?

• A. FactSet
• B. IDC
• C. SunGard FAME
• D. Thomson Reuters

Answer: (A)

Historical/time series data are sequences of data points collected at successive time intervals, such as daily price quotes, monthly earnings, or quarterly revenue, used to analyze trends, measure performance, and test models over time. A provider of this data supplies these time-stamped records in a consistent, broad, and accessible way, enabling backtesting and longitudinal analysis.

FactSet fits this role well because it offers extensive, integrated financial datasets with long history across many asset classes and markets. Users can pull historical price data, fundamentals, corporate actions, and macro series in a coherent framework, which is essential for building time-based analyses and comparing performance over different periods. The emphasis on comprehensive, long-running time series makes it a natural best choice for sourcing historical data.

The other options fulfill different functions: IDC focuses on IT market research rather than financial time series; SunGard FAME is a software platform for financial data processing and portfolio management rather than a data provider; Thomson Reuters (Refinitiv) is a major data and news provider, but in this context FactSet is the provider most directly associated with broad historical time series data used for financial analysis.