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Filings and Primary Sources

Find original stock-market disclosures and keep issuer, period and revision identity clear.

86 guides

• Trading plans: reconcile adoption, changes and termination

  Reconcile trading-plan adoption, replacement and termination with matched sales, keeping unused capacity separate from executed activity.

• Read a 10-Q with the correct quarter and year-to-date period

  Separate quarter, year-to-date, and balance-sheet dates in a 10-Q, then record a period matrix that prevents incorrect source comparisons.

• Form 11-K: separate employee plan assets from sponsor cash

  Reconcile an employee savings plan's assets and contributions while separating participant resources from sponsor cash and funding obligations.

• Form 13F: reconstruct positions without inventing trades

  Rebuild a 13F table through restatements, added holdings, option flags and other-manager references without fabricating executed trades.

• Form 144: distinguish proposed sales from completed sales

  Separate proposed Form 144 sales from historical activity and matched execution evidence, preserving unmatched quantities as unresolved.

• Build a 20-F reading map without assuming 10-K headings

  Map research questions to an issuer's actual 20-F contents, preserve cross-references, and distinguish reporting identity from listing geography.

• Form 6-K: trace what is incorporated by reference

  Trace Form 6-K incorporation language to the named receiving document. Preserve exhibit scope, exclusions, chronology and the distinction from public availability.

• Find an A-share announcement beyond a news summary

  Trace an A-share news claim to the issuer's disclosure, confirm the security code and announcement date, and separate a summary from the full document.

• Read an 8-K as an event record with linked exhibits

  Connect an 8-K event date, item heading, and attached exhibit so an announcement does not become an unsupported claim about a completed event.

• Track a corrected announcement without losing the original

  Connect an issuer correction to the original announcement, identify the exact changed fields, and update affected research notes while preserving history.

• Form ATS-N: reconstruct matching eligibility and priority

  Turn Form ATS-N operating disclosures into an eligibility and priority event tree, separating subscriber tiers, conditional firm-up, timestamps and actual executions.

• Audit assertions: match evidence direction to missing balances

  Match existence, completeness, rights, valuation, and presentation evidence to the correct starting population, using two opposite tests of the same payable account.

• Confirmations: distinguish nonresponses from confirmations

  Reconcile confirmation replies, exceptions, nonresponses, and alternative evidence without treating silence as agreement or a balance reply as proof of collection.

• Inspection reports: interpret selected audit deficiencies

  Calculate a selected-audit deficiency ratio without projecting it to a firm's entire practice, and separate audit counts, findings, reporting dates, and issuer evidence.

• After the audit report: trace late-discovered existing facts

  Build a timeline for facts discovered after an audit report, distinguish existing conditions from new events, and track investigation, revision, and reliance status.

• Audit sampling: separate projected and observed errors

  Separate known errors, sample projections, and sampling risk using a stratified monetary example that avoids double counting full-check items and sample errors.

• Audit opinions: identify the affected account and limitation

  Map qualified, adverse and disclaimer audit opinions to affected accounts and research calculations. Distinguish known departures from insufficient audit evidence.

• Audit materiality: aggregate errors before judging scale

  Build an error register that separates corrected and uncorrected amounts, current and prior-period effects, qualitative significance, and different materiality levels.

• Auditor changes: read disagreements and the response letter

  Compare auditor-change disclosures with the former accountant's response and successor engagement, preserving contested claims and dates.

• Bankruptcy filings: trace the plan treatment of existing equity

  During a bankruptcy process, continued stock trading does not establish that existing equity will receive a recovery.

• Beneficial ownership: separate voting power from stated intent

  A beneficial ownership percentage does not independently show how many votes a shareholder can direct, how much economic exposure it has or what action it intends to take.

• Buybacks: distinguish authority, execution and cancellation

  Track buyback authority, executed purchases, treasury holdings and confirmed cancellation separately. Reconcile share movements and cash before judging capital allocation.

• Use the CIK to resolve a filer, then verify the security

  Use a CIK to anchor SEC filing research while keeping legal entities, ticker changes, share classes, and traded securities in separate identity fields.

• Clawbacks: separate policy adoption from cash recovered

  Trace compensation recovery from the triggering restatement to excess calculation, cash receipts, noncash settlement and outstanding amounts.

• Conflict minerals: test inquiry scope and unknown sourcing

  Reconstruct conflict-minerals inquiry scope, reply quality and unresolved origins. Keep supplier-count coverage separate from verified sourcing claims.

• Critical audit matters: connect the issue to the tested estimate

  Connect critical audit matters to management estimates, audit responses and research follow-up. Distinguish CAM communication from modified or separate opinions.

• Convertible notes: map conversion, calls and cash settlement

  Map convertible-note eligibility, ratios, calls and settlement choices. Compare cash and share scenarios while separating legal issuance from diluted EPS accounting.

• Match a company across US, A-share, and Hong Kong disclosures

  Map a legal issuer to market-specific securities and reports before combining US, A-share, and Hong Kong disclosure evidence in one research file.

• Cyber disclosures: separate discovery from materiality

  Separate cybersecurity discovery, materiality and filing dates, then track continuing impact without overlapping cost and lost-sales estimates.

• Debt supplements: map issuer, guarantees and ranking

  Map a bond series to its issuer, guarantees and asset pools, distinguishing structural subordination from contractual and collateral ranking.

• Delisting notices: distinguish deficiency, appeal and removal

  A listing deficiency notice, a decision to delist, a trading suspension and legal removal from an exchange are different states.

• Dividends: verify declaration, entitlement and payment evidence

  A dividend announcement creates a research task with three parts: what was declared, who is entitled and whether payment occurred.

• Estimate backtests: separate outcomes from earlier bias

  Compare earlier estimates with settlements using frozen information dates, separate later events from unexplained differences, and avoid treating hindsight as proof of bias.

• Separate event, publication, and research dates in filings

  Build a three-clock filing timeline that separates when an event occurred, when information became public, and when your research actually checked it.

• Executive departures: reconcile dates and exit obligations

  Reconcile executive departure dates with severance, consulting and equity obligations, preserving conditions and payment schedules.

• Extraction payments: reconcile project and government totals

  Reconcile resource-extraction payments by project and government without double counting. Preserve in-kind valuation and distinguish the ledger from tax expense.

• Follow a filing exhibit back to the actual agreement

  Follow an exhibit index through incorporated references, verify the agreement version and parties, and record missing schedules without guessing their contents.

• Document a failed filing search without claiming nonexistence

  Turn an unsuccessful filing search into a reproducible search log, distinguish access failures from no matches, and define the next evidence-seeking step.

• Find the correct SEC 10-K before taking notes

  Locate a company's SEC 10-K, confirm the legal filer and fiscal period, and preserve an exact document reference before researching claims.

• Map a fiscal calendar before comparing annual filings

  Record fiscal start and end dates, week-based periods, and transition reports so annual filing labels do not hide unequal reporting windows.

• Form ADV: rebuild regulatory AUM without calling it equity

  Rebuild Form ADV regulatory AUM using portfolio eligibility, managed scope, gross values and private-fund commitments, while separating it from NAV and fee assets.

• Form AP: separate audit hours and divided responsibility

  Reconstruct Form AP participation ranges, verify legal firms and audit-report identity, and keep Part IV audit hours separate from Part V financial-statement scope.

• Fails to deliver: read balances without summing daily stocks

  Rebuild SEC fails-to-deliver balances by settlement date without summing stocks into new failures, inferring age, or treating missing records as universally zero.

• Going concern: test management financing plans against evidence

  A going-concern disclosure often lists management actions intended to address a funding gap.

• Distinguish a Hong Kong results announcement from an annual report

  Choose a Hong Kong results announcement or full annual report according to the research question, while preserving period, version, and disclosure-role differences.

• Search HKEXnews with a reproducible disclosure trail

  Find a Hong Kong issuer document on HKEXnews, preserve the stock identity and release window, and distinguish a results announcement from the annual report.

• Insider filings: distinguish purchases, awards and tax sales

  An insider's increased holdings can come from a market purchase, an award, option exercise or another transaction.

• Journal entries: test overrides beyond round numbers

  Test journal entries and report-level adjustments using population completeness, user authority, approvals, business support, and reversals without equating flags with fraud.

• Inventory observation: bridge count-date evidence to year-end

  Bridge a physical inventory count to year-end with tested receipts and dispatches, while keeping quantity, ownership, condition, and valuation evidence distinct.

• Late reports: test the explanation against the eventual filing

  Compare a late-filing notice's explanation and preliminary results with the eventual report, keeping completion and relief conditions separate.

• Internal control weaknesses: verify remediation evidence

  Verify internal-control remediation through design, operation and dated conclusions. Distinguish staffing and system deployment from evidence that a weakness is resolved.

• Lawyer responses: preserve scope limits in loss evidence

  Map a lawyer's response to the client, matters, dates, and questions it covers, distinguishing an appropriate scope limit from refusal and inherent uncertainty.

• Litigation disclosures: track the stage before estimating cash

  Track litigation stages, provisions, awards and actual payments separately. Reconcile legal and accounting evidence without double counting the same dispute.

• Management letters: identify what signatures cannot prove

  Separate signed management representations from corroborating evidence, unresolved gaps, and contradictions, with a dated three-balance reconciliation.

• Merger closing: separate approval from satisfied conditions

  A signed merger agreement establishes a transaction framework, not completed ownership transfer.

• Mining reports: match resource claims to technical evidence

  Match mining resource headlines to technical reports by property, category, estimate date and ownership basis before interpreting metal totals.

• Nonreliance notices: quarantine the affected statement periods

  Map nonreliance notices to affected statement periods and dependent metrics, then define the evidence needed to restore current use.

• Check a translated filing claim against the original language

  Compare translated disclosure claims with the original passage, preserve conditional wording, and keep official language versions distinct from your own translation.

• Fund repos: trace N-PORT collateral beyond cash labels

  Rebuild fund repo collateral coverage from N-PORT, keeping lending principal, collateral value, counterparty, maturity and hypothetical recovery scenarios separate.

• Form N-PX: test actual voting against the stated policy

  Compare N-PX voting records with the policy in force. Preserve filer scope, split votes, abstentions, loaned shares and the denominator behind any support percentage.

• OTC volume: separate reporting venues from ownership

  Reconcile ATS and non-ATS volume using nonoverlapping reporting units and matched market totals, without converting venue activity into beneficial ownership.

• CEO pay ratios: audit the employee population first

  Rebuild a CEO pay ratio's employee population and measurement choices before attributing a lower ratio to continuing-worker pay increases.

• Pay versus performance: reconcile accounting pay adjustments

  Reconcile compensation actually paid from the Summary Compensation Table. Separate equity valuation, pension adjustments, cash receipts and incentive-contract analysis.

• Performance undertakings: test milestones before fulfillment

  Test performance undertakings against contract-defined metrics and remedies. Separate operating achievement, compensation calculation, acceptance and actual settlement.

• IPO dilution: rebuild net tangible book value per share

  Rebuild IPO net tangible book value using net proceeds and new shares, while separating selling-holder shares from primary issuance.

• Rights issues: map entitlements, dilution and subscription cash

  Map rights-issue entitlements, subscription cash and dilution under different participation choices. Reconcile applications, allotments and account entries.

• Record redactions and missing schedules as research limits

  Document redacted terms and unavailable schedules, distinguish public-information gaps from negative evidence, and keep research conclusions inside visible support.

• Identify which entity a disclosure statement actually covers

  Trace a disclosure statement's subject from the registrant to groups, subsidiaries, and contract parties so research notes preserve the original reporting scope.

• Related person approvals: test policy against the actual decision

  A related-person transaction can be disclosed in financial statements while its approval process remains a separate governance question.

• Compare risk disclosures without turning edits into events

  Compare risk passages across filing versions, classify textual changes, and identify the extra evidence needed before claiming that a risk has materialized.

• Rule 606: separate routing payments from execution results

  Read Rule 606 routing shares, payments and tier conditions on their stated denominators, without treating broker incentives as measured customer execution losses.

• Rule 605: compare quality on matched order populations

  Compare Rule 605 metrics on matched order populations, reconcile execution-share weights, and preserve the 2026 compliance dates, quote benchmarks, and reporting lag.

• Form S-8: reconcile registration with the plan share pool

  Reconcile S-8 registration, plan reserves and actual share delivery, with separate checks for evergreen additions and cancelled awards.

• Read a 10-K/A or 10-Q/A by its stated amendment scope

  Determine what an SEC amendment changes, link it to the original period, and update only the research claims affected by its stated scope.

• SEC comment letters: verify the promised disclosure change

  Track SEC comments from question to response, commitment and actual revised disclosure. Distinguish review closure, explanation, amendment and unresolved inconsistencies.

• Service auditors: map periods and customer controls

  Map service-organization evidence by system, control objective, period, test results, and user controls without mistaking two separate time windows for full coverage.

• Shelf and ATM filings: distinguish capacity from shares sold

  A shelf registration creates a framework for possible securities offerings; an at-the-market agreement creates a sales mechanism.

• Short-sale volume: separate daily activity from positions

  Compare daily short-sale activity and short-interest snapshots using matched coverage and dates, and show why daily files cannot reconstruct positions.

• Pledged shares: test release evidence and control exposure

  Map pledged-share parties, release evidence and control exposure. Reconcile share quantities and denominators without treating personal loans as issuer debt.

• Spin-offs: map which company inherits debt and commitments

  A spin-off separates ownership, but the economic obligations can remain connected through guarantees, indemnities and service agreements.

• Verify a filing source before trusting a forwarded PDF

  Check a forwarded filing against its official publication record, compare document identity and content, and separate authenticity from statement accuracy.

• Opening balances: test what a successor audit establishes

  Trace how opening balances affect a successor audit's current-year results, using inventory and receivables cases that distinguish new evidence from inherited opinions.

• Tender offers: separate tendered, accepted and settled shares

  Distinguish tendered, eligible, accepted and settled shares. Track offer conditions, proration and account evidence before recording a completed disposal.

• Trading halts: connect the reason code to resumption evidence

  Connect trading halt reason codes to issuer news and separate quotation and trading resumption evidence. Preserve time zones, market states and scheduled versus actual events.

• Shareholder votes: rebuild the denominator for each proposal

  Rebuild each proposal's voting denominator before calculating support. Separate turnout, abstentions, broker non-votes and approval thresholds.

• Unregistered sales: reconstruct cash and noncash consideration

  Separate cash placements from debt-settlement share issues, then trace claimed exemptions, closing status and later resale registration.