Source Data

1. Data Sources

To compile these averages, I am indebted to the following data sources. I do have to splice the data and the industry definitions are different in each database.

	Data Source
U.S.	Value Line Database: tracks about 7000+ firms and provides accounting and market data on them monthly Morningstar: follows all trades US stocks and has information on 8000+ companies. Any mutual fund data is also obtained from Morningstar. Compustat (Not any more): I used to get data on operating leases from Compustat; I did not report raw data for companies but I did report sector averages. However, the intransigience of Standard and Poor's on the use of their data in recent days has led me to reevalute this practice and rethink my use of S&P data in general.
Europe	Bloomberg provides the raw data for all of the firms in these samples. Bloomberg gets the data from the annual reports and other filings made in each country. The data is generally in the local currency of the country.
Emerging Markets
Japan

2. Data Timeliness

I update the data roughly once every six months. The market data (stock prices, market capitalization, beta) reflect the date of the update. In other words, if the update is on July 25, the market data is within a day or two of the update. The accounting data is messier since it reflects the most recent financial statements.

	Data Source
U.S.	Most of the accounting data reflects the most recent annual annual report or 10K. The trailing 12 month net income and sales reflect the numbers as of the last four quarters.
Europe	The data for most companies reflects the most recent annual report. Since annual reports do not get filed until a few months after the fiscal year, the January updates will reflect the previous year fiscal year end. In other words, the January 2006 update will reflect the fiscal year ended December 2002 but the July update will reflect the December 2004 data. The stock price and market cap data should be as of the month of the update.
Emerging Markets
Japan