13F filing.
In plain English
Form 13F requires institutional investment managers holding more than a threshold amount of covered U.S. equity securities to report those positions after each quarter ends. The report lists issuer, share count, and market value as of the quarter-end date, not as of today. It is filed weeks after the period closes, so by the time you read it the manager may already have changed course. Short positions, cash, bonds, and most foreign holdings are excluded, which means a 13F is a partial picture of a strategy rather than a portfolio. Managers can also request confidential treatment for certain positions in limited circumstances.
01Why it matters
A 13F is a stale, partial snapshot, so treating it as a live picture of what a famous manager owns is a reliable way to be wrong about both timing and strategy.
02The math, step by step
Say a manager's 13F shows a large new position as of the quarter-end date and the filing appears roughly six weeks later. If the manager sold in week two, nothing in the filing would say so. You are reading a photograph, not a live feed.
Illustrative example. The amounts here are hypothetical, chosen to show how the math works, not real quoted rates or figures.
03What this is NOT
It is not the whole portfolio. Shorts, many derivatives, bonds, cash, and most non-U.S. holdings are excluded. A manager who is net short a sector can appear long in a 13F, because only one side of the book is reported.
04Receipts
Every figure on this page is sourced to a primary document. Tap to open the original.
Plain-English answers from our glossary. Receipts included. Never advice.
Educational tool. Answers come only from ClearMoneySchool's published glossary and are not advice. Why we never give advice