13F Filing¶
OVERVIEW¶
A 13F filing is a quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by every institutional investment manager that exercises discretion over $100 million or more in qualifying U.S. equity securities. Required under Section 13(f) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the filing discloses long equity positions—stocks, ADRs, ETFs, convertible bonds, and call/put options—as of the last day of each calendar quarter. Filings are due within 45 days of quarter-end and are publicly searchable through SEC EDGAR. Tapeboard surfaces 13F data across manager profiles, position trackers, and crowding signals so you can monitor institutional positioning without leaving the terminal.
Note
13F filings carry a mandatory 45-day reporting lag. All positions shown reflect holdings as of the last day of the reported quarter, not the current date.
KEY FACTS¶
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Regulatory basis | Section 13(f), Securities Exchange Act of 1934 |
| AUM threshold | $100 million in 13(f)-listed securities |
| Reporting deadline | 45 calendar days after each quarter-end |
| Q1 due | May 15 |
| Q2 due | August 14 |
| Q3 due | November 14 |
| Q4 due | February 14 |
| Source database | SEC EDGAR |
WHAT IS DISCLOSED¶
| Included | Excluded |
|---|---|
| Long stocks | Short positions |
| ADRs | Cash |
| ETFs | Sovereign and corporate bonds |
| Closed-end funds | Foreign securities not on U.S. exchanges |
| Convertible bonds | Commodities and currencies |
| Long call options | Swaps |
| Long put options (notional) | Private equity stakes |
| Registered investment company shares | Single-stock futures |
Each reported position includes:
- CUSIP — security identifier
- Issuer name — reported company
- Share count — units held as of quarter-end
- Market value — quarter-end mark (not cost basis)
- Investment discretion — sole, shared, or none
Confidential treatment can be requested for material positions still being accumulated, but the SEC routinely denies these requests for liquid names.
WORKED EXAMPLE: READING BERKSHIRE'S 13F¶
Berkshire Hathaway's Q4 2024 13F (filed February 14, 2025) listed 38 positions. Top reported holdings included:
| Ticker | Shares | Market Value |
|---|---|---|
| AAPL | 300.0M | ~$75.1B (down from 905M shares pre-2024 trim) |
| BAC | 680.2M | ~$30.0B |
| AXP | 151.6M | ~$45.0B |
| KO | 400M | ~$24.9B |
A reader compares two consecutive 13Fs to derive trading activity. AAPL share count fell from 400M (Q3 2024) to 300M (Q4 2024) → 100M shares sold. The dollar value is reconstructed using the volume-weighted average price during the quarter (≈$220 → ~$22B sold). Brand-new positions appear with no prior-quarter line; eliminated positions disappear entirely.
Aggregator services such as Whalewisdom, HedgeFollow, and Dataroma scrape EDGAR and republish change tables sortable by Buy / Sell / New / Exit, with concentration and tenure metrics layered on top.
HOW TO USE¶
Reading a Single Filing¶
- Open the Managers tab and search for an institution by name or CIK number.
- Select a quarter to load the full position table.
- Sort columns by Market Value, Share Count, or % of Portfolio to identify top holdings.
Comparing Consecutive Quarters¶
- From any manager profile, select Compare Quarters in the top toolbar.
- Choose two adjacent quarters from the dropdown.
- The change table flags each position as New, Added, Reduced, or Exited.
Tip
Use the delta share count column to estimate dollar activity. Multiply shares changed by the quarter's volume-weighted average price for an approximate transaction size.
Crowding and Overlap Analysis¶
- Navigate to Crowding under the Institutional menu.
- Enter a ticker to see the total number of 13F holders, concentration by manager, and holder-count trend over time.
- High holder counts with recent increases flag potential crowding risk during market stress.
Sector Rotation View¶
- Open Sector Flow and set the date range to one or more quarters.
- Tapeboard aggregates 13F changes across all tracked managers to display net institutional allocation shifts by GICS sector.
WHEN TRADERS USE 13F FILINGS¶
- Tracking superinvestors (Berkshire, Pershing Square, Scion, Greenlight, Third Point) for thesis ideas
- Detecting hedge-fund crowding in single names—a high "13F holder count" can become a forced-selling target during a drawdown
- Identifying activist accumulation before a public 13D filing crosses the 5% threshold
- Sector-rotation analysis: aggregating 13F changes across hundreds of managers to read institutional allocation shifts
- Building hedge-fund replication portfolios that mimic specific managers
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS¶
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open manager search | M |
| Toggle quarter comparison | Q |
| Jump to crowding panel | C |
| Export current table to CSV | E |
| Refresh filing data | R |
| Open related terms glossary | G |
LIMITATIONS¶
Critical Caveats
- Lag — By the time a filing is public, positions may already be exited, doubled, or hedged with instruments that do not appear on the form.
- No shorts — Short positions, CDS, and swaps are entirely absent. A long equity line may be net short via puts or single-stock futures that are off-form or reported only at notional value.
- No cost basis — Market value reflects the quarter-end mark only. Entry price and unrealised P&L cannot be derived from 13F data alone. Performance derivation from 13Fs alone is imprecise.
- U.S. equity only — International funds disclose only their U.S.-listed book. Global exposure is invisible.
- Quant and market-maker filings — Many systematic funds file 13Fs where the long equity book is a hedging artifact, not a directional view. Retail copy-traders who mimic 13Fs blindly produce lagged, lossy replications of strategies whose dynamic risk management never appears on the filing.
Tip
Cross-reference 13F data with 13D/G filings (activist accumulation above 5%) and Short Interest data in Tapeboard to build a more complete picture of institutional positioning.