SEC AND 13F FILINGS
The SEC does not check filings for accuracy, they don't ensure the validity of submissions,
and even if everything is accurate, 13Fs still don't give a complete idea of a manager's
positions and/or about the investment outlook. Please never just blindly follow the managers,
do your own research and analysis before doing any conclusions from 13F data.
You can find this notice at the top of every filing on SEC’s site:
The Securities and Exchange Commission has not necessarily reviewed the information in this
filing and has not determined if it is accurate and complete. The reader should not assume
that the information is accurate and complete.
13Fs don't carry all applicable information about a manager's positions. In particular,
short positions are not included, and only sometimes options positions are included.
A manager's actual long/short exposure to an investment may be the opposite of what you see
in the report.
As 13Fs are filed 45 days after the end of the quarter, by which time a manager's positions
and outlook could have changed reasonably, 13Fs are not very timely.
Reported market values (and prices we provide using values) are as of the reporting period,
they do not indicate the price at which the shares were acquired.
There have been many inaccuracies: incorrect market values, typos in CUSIPs, misclassified
amendments ("new holdings" vs. "restatement") and can probably be more.
Getting company info by stock symbol is not fully backed, as the holdings-level SEC data
is reported by CUSIP.
Other significant limitations
More accurate data is only available starting from 2013 Q2, because that's the time when the
SEC required managers to submit XML files according to some specifications.
Filings before 2013 Q2 are plain text and lack a consistent structure, which leads to big errors.
Our "Automated Data Collecting" system was unable to fetch older reports with 100% accuracy as many of the
provided reports contain a lot of errors, data represented in different lines, totally connected
to other data, and much more. For more accuracy there is a need for human interaction.
As we wondered how similar websites got those old data in their website, we started a deep
investigation of the older data and found out that there is TOO MUCH misinformation (errors) on
those similar websites and we decided not to put data on our website with 70-80% accuracy.
As we want to be close to 100% accuracy, we just decided to show data only after 2013 Q2.
(BTW we even found many wrong data in similar websites even on reports filed after 2013 Q2.
That's why we decided to put the official SEC report links on our superinvestors' pages to be
transparent so that you can check and compare yourself. Please just bear in mind that we
don't show (or calculate in total portfolio value) other security types like bonds
(cash as well), options, etc ...)
Although we got 100% accuracy on reports after 2013 Q2 with our cross-check testing systems
using all data within our app, data in network (other websites) and SEC, anyway we
do not guarantee the 100% accuracy, as it is possible that there are still errors in reported
holdings due to mistakes made by the filers of the 13F filings.
That’s why all the links of official reports are provided on each report page in our website,
so that you can double-check if there is some doubt.
When there is a need for double checks, visit the superinvestor's page in our website
and click on "Important" button to see the links to the official reports in SEC website.
WE REFACTOR SEC DATA
Data is automatically gathered “as is” which does not include info about the splits or ticker symbols.
We process and share the information in a comfortable way for you.
We noticed that sometimes managers reported values multiplied by 1,000, and there have been cases
when managers presented values divided by 1,000. And we have fixed those rare cases as well.
We show shares amount (and prices) adjusted to splits.
We also add ticker symbols to the data and refactor issuers' names to more a comfortable way for you.