SEC EDGAR: source filings before using extracted facts

EDGAR is a public source for US filings, not a CoTrading-hosted financial API. This guide is a reference/manual preparation workflow; no persistent connection, freshness guarantee or endpoint smoke test is claimed. Official pages checked 2026-10-30.

Coverage and access

The SEC API documentation describes submissions and extracted XBRL data. Read original filings when tags, contexts or units need interpretation. Extracted data is not a ready-made total-return price feed.

Record	Keep	Why
Issuer	Legal name and CIK	Tickers can change
Filing	Form and accession	Distinguish amendments
Fact	Tag, unit, start/end, context	Similar labels can differ
Timing	Filing and acceptance information	Reporting date is not availability
Local copy	Retrieval date, URL and digest	Reproduce the selected input

Public API access does not require a CoTrading key. Automated users must follow the SEC developer resources, identify their client appropriately and respect current access policy. Check current guidance rather than treating a hardcoded request rate as a right. Retry/backoff when limited; do not bypass blocks with rotating identities.

Worked preparation

Suppose the question compares nine-month operating cash flow. Search the company, select the relevant filing, and confirm its covered dates. Save the original statement heading and each selected row. A fact with a year-end end date may be annual, while another is quarter-only; do not select the largest value or newest tag as a shortcut.

In input-manifest.md, write issuer/CIK, accession, form, period, currency, scale, retrieval date and whether the figures are as originally filed or later revised. Give S01 the comparable records and ask it to stop when contexts disagree. Current extracted data alone cannot prove what an investor knew at a historical date.

Failure handling and limits

A blocked request means retrieval failed; keep the error and use a permitted manual download or wait. No original filing means no source-complete conclusion. Custom tags may require human mapping. A filing’s existence does not validate every assertion in it; management explanation remains attributed.

SEC’s reuse FAQ discusses access and reuse. Check separate rights for external images or third-party attachments; do not assume this guide is a license for every asset. Personal research and operating a commercial redistributed data service have different operational requirements. Models, providers and hosting may add costs despite free source access.

Continue with local files and the earnings case.