Form 13F

Form 13F is a quarterly filing that the SEC requires from institutional investment managers overseeing more than a set threshold of qualifying assets, currently one hundred million dollars. The filing discloses the manager's long positions in US-listed equities and certain other securities as of the end of each quarter, giving the public a window into what large funds are holding.

Managers must file within forty-five days after each quarter ends, which means the positions shown are already somewhat dated by the time they become public, since a manager could have bought or sold entirely out of a position in the weeks between the reporting date and the filing date. Form 13F also only captures long positions in the securities it covers, mainly US listed stocks and listed calls and puts on them, so it says nothing about short positions, cash, most bonds, or other holdings outside that list a fund might have.

Despite these gaps, 13F filings are widely followed by investors and financial media trying to track what prominent hedge funds and asset managers are buying and selling, since seeing a respected investor build or exit a position can be a useful data point. The filings are best treated as a lagging, partial snapshot rather than a live view of a manager's actual portfolio or strategy.