Form 13F

What is form 13f?

Form 13F is a quarterly filing in which large U.S. investment managers disclose the qualifying stock positions they held at quarter end. It is public evidence of professional ownership, reported after the fact.

Written by
Suggested Investments Research Team
Content type
Reference definition
Published
2026-09-13
Last reviewed
2026-09-13

Always historical

Managers report positions as of a quarter end, then file up to 45 days later. A position may already have been sold before you read about it.

An incomplete picture

13F covers only qualifying U.S. securities. Short positions, bonds, foreign listings and cash sit outside it, so the filing is not a manager's full portfolio.

A worked example

A March quarter-end position can legally appear in a filing published in mid-May, describing what was held six weeks earlier.

The mistake people make

Copying a famous manager's disclosed position as though it were current, or treating the filing date as the position date.

How we use it

Ownership Intelligence is 20% of the Suggested Investment Score and is built strictly from disclosure dates, never from position dates, so nothing is scored before it was genuinely public.

Related terms

Following the evidence, not the crowd

Sources and methodology

  • Investing Glossary

    Every investing term we use, defined once and in plain English — from compounding and drawdown to Form 13F and share dilution.

  • Compound interest

    Compound interest is growth earned on both your original money and on the growth it has already produced. It is the reason long holding periods matter more th

  • Dollar-cost averaging

    Dollar-cost averaging means investing a fixed amount on a fixed schedule regardless of price. It removes the need to decide when to invest, and it buys more s

  • Free cash flow

    Free cash flow is the cash a business has left after paying the costs of running and maintaining itself. It is the cash that can fund dividends, buybacks, deb

  • Expense ratio

    An expense ratio is the annual percentage of your money a fund keeps to run itself. It is deducted from returns quietly, every year, whether the fund performs

  • Maximum drawdown

    Maximum drawdown is the largest peak-to-trough fall an investment has suffered over a period. It measures the worst stretch an investor would have had to sit

Educational information only. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any investment, and no research measurement removes the risk of loss.