Lesson 4 of 5 · 3 min · Filings

Form 13F: who else owns a stock

Big funds must show their US stock holdings every quarter on Form 13F. Late, and with gaps.

1. Every large money manager in the US has to show what it owns. A manager with $100 million or more in US listed stocks and similar securities files a Form 13F with the SEC every quarter.

2. The deadline is 45 days after each quarter ends. So a 13F shows what a fund held on the last day of the quarter, which can be four and a half months old by the time the next one arrives.

3. It shows only part of the picture. Short positions are left out, so a fund betting against a stock can still look like a holder. Shares listed outside the US, most bonds and cash are left out too.

4. The $100 million line comes from a 1975 law and has never been raised. In 2020 the SEC proposed lifting it to $3.5 billion, which would have freed nearly 90% of filers from reporting. It never took effect.

5. A manager can also ask the SEC to keep a position confidential for a while. So use 13F filings for the big picture: what kinds of investors own a company, and whether they have been adding or cutting over several quarters.

6. Ryufin’s ownership page draws each stock’s 13F record quarter by quarter, and says plainly what these filings cannot tell you.