Who has to file a 13-F?

Any institutional investment manager (fund, bank, insurance company, etc.) that exercises investment discretion over $100 million or more in US equity securities must file a 13-F. This includes hedge funds, mutual funds, pension funds, endowments, and bank trust departments.

How do I track hedge fund holdings?

13-F filings are publicly available on SEC EDGAR at sec.gov. You can search for any fund by name and view their quarterly holdings. Tools like Dataroma, WhaleWisdom, and 13F.info aggregate this data for easier analysis. Note the 45-day reporting delay.

What are the limitations of 13-F data?

Key limitations: 45-day delay (data is stale by the time it's public), only shows long US equity positions (not short positions, bonds, or non-US holdings), managers can apply for confidential treatment for certain positions. The 13-F shows what funds held, not why.

What Is a 13-F Filing? Track Hedge Fund Holdings

Q: What is a 13-F filing?

A 13-F is a quarterly filing that institutional investment managers with $100 million or more in assets under management must submit to the SEC. It discloses all their US equity holdings. Hedge funds, mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance companies all file 13-Fs.

Every quarter, the largest hedge funds, mutual funds, and institutional investors must disclose their US stock holdings to the SEC via a form called 13-F. These filings are publicly available - which means any investor can see exactly what Berkshire Hathaway, Bridgewater Associates, or Renaissance Technologies held at the end of each quarter.

This guide explains what a 13-F is, who files it, what it contains, its key limitations, and how to use 13-F data practically as an investor.

What is a 13-F filing?

A 13-F (formally called “Form 13-F - Quarterly Report Filed by Institutional Managers”) is a quarterly disclosure of equity holdings filed with the SEC. It was mandated by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and has been required since 1978.

The filing shows every US-listed equity security that a qualifying institutional manager holds - including stocks, options, convertible notes (debt that can be converted into stock), and certain other equity-like instruments.

Who must file a 13-F?

The threshold is $100 million. Any institutional investment manager that exercises investment discretion over $100 million or more in Section 13(f) securities (essentially US equity securities) must file a 13-F.

This captures a wide range of institutions:

This captures hedge funds like Bridgewater, Citadel, D.E. Shaw, and Renaissance Technologies. It also includes mutual fund and ETF providers such as Vanguard, BlackRock, and Fidelity, along with pension funds like CalPERS and CPP Investments. University endowments (Yale, Harvard, MIT), insurance companies with investment portfolios, bank trust departments, and investment advisers managing separate accounts above the threshold all fall under the requirement as well.

Individual investors and funds below $100 million in US equity assets are not required to file. Some firms voluntarily file even below the threshold.

What’s inside a 13-F?

The core of a 13-F is the holdings table - a list of every qualifying equity position at the end of the reporting quarter. Each row contains:

Column	What it shows
Name of Issuer	The company name (e.g., “Apple Inc.”)
Title of Class	The class of security (e.g., “COM” for common stock)
CUSIP (a unique ID number assigned to each US security)	The unique identifier for the security
Value	Market value of the position (in thousands of dollars)
Shares/Principal Amount	Number of shares held
Investment Discretion	Sole, Shared, or Other
Voting Authority	How many shares the manager can vote

From this data, you can see: which stocks a fund holds, the size of each position (in dollars and share count), and whether the position grew or shrank versus the previous quarter.

13-F filing deadlines

13-Fs are due 45 calendar days after the end of each calendar quarter:

Quarter End	13-F Deadline
March 31	May 15
June 30	August 14
September 30	November 14
December 31	February 14

Many large institutions file on or close to the deadline, so the rush of 13-F filings appears mid-February, mid-May, mid-August, and mid-November.

Famous 13-F filings investors watch

Berkshire Hathaway’s 13-F is probably the most closely watched in the world. When Warren Buffett’s filing drops each quarter, financial media analyzes every buy and sell. Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, also draws attention, though its macro strategies often show relatively small equity holdings relative to total assets under management.

Renaissance Technologies, one of the most secretive quantitative (algorithm-driven) hedge funds, files a 13-F revealing its systematic equity positions. Pershing Square, Bill Ackman’s concentrated activist fund, often reveals ongoing or new activist campaigns through its filings. And Scion Asset Management, run by Michael Burry, gained a cult following after his profile from “The Big Short.”

Key limitations of 13-F data

13-F data is valuable but must be interpreted carefully. There are four major limitations every investor should understand:

1. The 45-day delay

The biggest limitation: 13-Fs reflect holdings from 45 days ago. By the time Berkshire’s 13-F shows a new position in Company X, Buffett has had six weeks to add more, reduce, or exit entirely. The data is historical, not current.

2. Only long US equity positions

13-Fs only show long positions in US-listed equity securities. They do not disclose short positions, international equity positions, fixed income holdings like bonds and Treasuries, derivatives used for hedging (though options on US equities are disclosed), or private equity and real estate.

A fund that looks like it loves a sector based on its 13-F might be fully hedged with offsetting shorts not visible in the filing.

3. Confidential treatment requests

Institutional managers can request “confidential treatment” for certain positions - the SEC may allow them to omit holdings from the public 13-F for a period of time if disclosure would harm the manager’s trading strategy. This means some positions are invisible until the manager has finished building (or exiting) them.

4. No explanation of “why”

A 13-F shows what was held, not why. A large new position could represent a long-term conviction, a short-term arbitrage play (profiting from a temporary price difference), a hedge for another position, or simply index rebalancing. Context is not provided.

How to access 13-F data

The primary source is SEC EDGAR. Go to sec.gov, search for the fund name under “EDGAR Full-Text Search,” then filter for 13-F filings. The raw XML or HTML files are available for free.

Several aggregation tools make 13-F data much easier to browse. Dataroma is free and tracks “superinvestors” including Buffett, Munger (historically), Ackman, and more. WhaleWisdom offers free and paid tiers and is excellent for comparing fund holdings across quarters. 13F.info provides a clean interface for browsing individual fund filings, and GuruFocus tracks well-known value investors’ 13-F filings with portfolio analysis tools.

How to use 13-F data as an investor

13-F data is best used as a starting point for research, not as a trading signal:

Identify new positions - A fund you respect initiating a new position is a reason to look closer, not a buy signal on its own.
Track concentration - If three separate high-conviction managers all hold the same stock at large weights, that convergence is worth noting.
Watch for exits - When a major long-term holder sells out completely, it sometimes precedes bad news (or simply reflects valuation discipline).
Compare across quarters - Changes in holdings - adds, trims, exits - often tell a more interesting story than the absolute positions.

The 45-day lag means 13-F data is more useful for understanding an investor’s portfolio construction philosophy than for copying specific trades.