The short version
Form 13F is a report that large investment managers send to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) four times a year. It lists the U.S.-traded stocks and similar securities the manager held on the last day of the quarter: how many shares of each, and what they were worth. Anyone can read it for free on the SEC’s EDGAR website, which is why it is the main public window into what hedge funds, pension funds and famous investors own.
Who has to file
The rule applies to any “institutional investment manager” with investment discretion over at least $100 million in what the SEC calls Section 13(f) securities. That covers hedge funds and mutual fund companies, and also banks, insurance companies, pension funds and family offices that manage enough money. Section 13(f) was added to the Securities Exchange Act by Congress in 1975. The $100 million line has never been raised.
The SEC keeps an official list of the securities that count, updated every quarter. It is mostly U.S.-listed stocks, plus ETFs, some convertible bonds and listed options. Plain bonds, cash and most foreign shares are not on it.
What is inside
A 13F has a cover page, a summary page and an information table. The table is the useful part. Each row is one position, with:
- the issuer’s name and the class of security (common stock, class A shares, and so on)
- the CUSIP, a nine-character code that identifies the security
- the market value at the end of the quarter
- the number of shares
- whether the row is a put or a call option
- who has investment discretion and voting authority
Since January 2023, values are reported in whole dollars. Older filings reported them in thousands of dollars, so a value of 1,000 in a 2021 filing means $1 million.
When it comes out
A 13F is due 45 days after the end of each calendar quarter. In practice that means mid-February, mid-May, mid-August and mid-November. Many large managers file on or near the last day. Our deadline guide has the exact dates for the next year.
What it leaves out
A 13F shows long positions only. Short sales are not reported, and nothing in the filing tells you why a manager bought or sold. By the time it is public, the holdings can be six weeks to four and a half months old. Managers can also ask the SEC to keep a position confidential for a while. We cover these gaps in What a 13F can’t tell you.
Examples
Berkshire Hathaway and Apple, 2016. On May 16, 2016, Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F for the first quarter showed a new position: about 9.8 million Apple shares. It was the first time the public learned that Berkshire owned Apple. News reports soon added that the purchase had been made by one of Warren Buffett’s two investment managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, and not by Buffett himself. A 13F lists what the firm holds. It does not say who inside the firm picked the stock.
The proposal to raise the threshold, 2020. In July 2020 the SEC proposed raising the filing threshold from $100 million to $3.5 billion, which would have excused most smaller managers from filing. The comment letters ran heavily against it: a Goldman Sachs count reported by InvestmentNews found 2,238 letters opposed and 24 in favor. Later that year news reports said the SEC had shelved the plan. It was never adopted, and the $100 million line still applies.
Explain it like I’m 13
Imagine every big kid on the playground who has a huge trading card collection has to show the principal a list of their cards four times a year. The list says which cards they have and how many. Anyone at school can look at it.
But they only have to hand in the list six weeks after they made it, and they don’t have to say why they picked those cards. So you can learn what the best traders like to collect. You just can’t see what they are doing right now.
That list is a 13F. The big kids are investment managers, and the cards are stocks.
How to use it
Read a 13F as a list of ideas worth looking into, and as a record of how a manager invests over time. Compare two quarters to see what changed: our fund pages and quarterly 13F report do that comparison for you. Before acting on anything, remember the delay and check what the stock has done since the quarter ended.
Questions about this guide? Pal reads it with you and answers in plain English.
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