What a 13F filing actually is
The quarterly disclosure behind every 'guru portfolio' headline — who files it, what's in it, and what the numbers mean.
Form 13F is a quarterly report that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires from institutional investment managers exercising discretion over $100 million or more in certain U.S.-traded securities. Hedge funds, mutual-fund advisers, banks, insurers, pension managers and large family offices all file it. The filing lists the manager's reportable long positions as of the last day of the quarter: the security's name, its CUSIP identifier, the number of shares, and the market value of the position on that date.
Three details matter more than anything else on this site.
First, the values are point-in-time market values, not purchase prices. A 13F says a manager held $500 million of a stock on March 31; it does not say what they paid, when they bought, or at what price. Since 2023 values are reported in whole dollars (previously thousands), and we display them exactly as reported.
Second, the reported total is not "assets under management." A 13F covers only reportable U.S.-listed securities — the SEC's official 13F list. Cash, bonds, most non-U.S. shares, private stakes and short positions are all absent. Throughout this site the total is called the reported 13F portfolio value, because that is what it is. For some managers (a credit specialist, a global macro fund) the 13F is a small sliver of what they run.
Third, filings arrive late by design. The deadline is 45 days after quarter end, and most large managers file in the last week. What you read in mid-August describes June 30. Positions may have changed since — this is history, not a live feed.
Who has to file
The $100 million threshold is measured across all accounts the manager controls. Managers can request confidential treatment for some positions (rarely granted, mostly for ongoing programs), and can file a notice (13F-NT) when their positions are reported on someone else's filing — a common arrangement inside fund families.
How to use one honestly
A 13F is best read as a census: who owned what, in what size, at a known date. Aggregated across many managers it shows breadth and direction of institutional ownership. Read alone, it shows one manager's disclosed U.S. long book. Everything else — intent, timing, hedges, average cost — is inference, and this site labels inference as such wherever it appears.