Current Methods for Web-Based Data Collection and Analysis

June 12-14, 2013

Taught by Andy Leone, Arthur P. Metzger, Professor of Accounting, University of Miami

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This three-day course is intended for Ph.D. students and faculty looking to update their knowledge of current methods for data collection and analysis. As more and more source data finds its way onto the Internet, the need for skills to efficiently extract and analysis these data increases. The course is geared towards accounting and finance researchers looking to analyze data found in SEC filings at the SEC Edgar ftp site. Additional data sources to be covered include PDF documents and websites.

PRELIMINARY COURSE OUTLINE:
- Extract data from SEC filings using Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language).
- Extract basic data from SEC filings using Perl Regular Expressions from within SAS.
- Export extracted data to a database (MySQL) for later analysis.
- Apply algorithms from computational linguistics (e.g., readability and tone measures) to text using Perl modules.
- Read data directly from popular statistics packages (e.g., SAS and R).
- Advance your understanding of SQL (Structured Query Language). SQL is a powerful query language for working with relational databases (e.g., SAS, MySQL). The great advantage of SQL is that it can be used across software platforms. For example, SQL can be applied within SAS, STATA, Perl, Excel, Microsoft Access, and MySQL. In this class, you will learn the fundamentals of SQL.

FURTHER INFORMATION: The course will be held in Miami Florida. Registration fee is $500 for Ph.D. students and $1,000 for faculty.

REGISTRATION: To register, please go to: http://inkwellanalytics.com/public/courses.html