Many students come to the EDSC asking where they can find specific financial ratios, such as Tobin’s Q, on Eikon Datastream. While not hard to find for those familiar with the Eikon Excel add-on, this might not be immediately intuitive for new users.

When a particular variable is not available in the list of Datatypes, you can use the ‘Expressions’ to find alternative variables, such as financial ratios, via the ‘Expression Picker’ or create your own using the ‘Expression Builder’.

There are two ways to access the ‘Expressions’ button:

1. From the top navigation bar on Excel, under the 'Refinitiv Eikon Datastream' ribbon.
This is a useful way to retrieve the code and view the formula. 

Datastream Expression button via Excel navigation menu

 


 

2. Or by using the ‘Expression Picker’ button on the Time Series Request form.
This is useful when opting to apply the code to a list of companies within a specific time/frequency.

Datastream Time Series search form

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you click on the ‘Expressions’ button, in order to find Tobin’s Q, click on the plus sign next to ‘Datastream’, ‘Ratios’ and ‘Equity Ratios’ on the left-hand side column of the ‘Expression Picker’ tab. 

Datastream provides two codes and their respective formulas to calculate Tobin’s Q for individual companies.

  • Version 2 uses the expression code 170E and uses the following formula to calculate Tobin's Q:  X(DWEV)/X(DWTA)*1.000.
  • The expression code 168E which uses the following formula to calculate Tobin's Q:   
    (X(MVC)*1000.000+PAD#(X(WC03451)~PCUR,C)+PAD#(X(WC03251)~PCUR,C)+PAD#(X(WC03051)~PCUR,C))/PAD#(X(WC02999)~PCUR,C)

List of variables available via the Datastream Expression Picker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The formulas and their descriptions can also be edited using the ‘Expression Builder’ to meet your data needs:

Editing an Expression formula via de Expression Builder.