How to check a fund’s holdings with 13F filings

1. Find it on SEC EDGAR

Search the institution by name on EDGAR (sec.gov/edgar/search) — for example, “Berkshire Hathaway”.

Open that filer and set the filing type to 13F-HR to see only the quarterly reports. Open the most recent one and look for the document labelled Information Table — that is the holdings list.

The table gives the security name (nameOfIssuer), reported value (value), and quantity held (sshPrnamt). Those three columns are the whole of “what they hold and how much”.

2. Four things that trip people up

One manager, several filers. Large firms often file under multiple legal entities, so searching by name can land you on the wrong one. Searching by CIK, the SEC’s own identifier, is more reliable.

Positions are listed by CUSIP, not ticker. A CUSIP is a nine-character security identifier. Names are there too, but written in filing style (“ALPHABET INC CAP STK CL C”), so mapping them to tickers you recognise takes a separate lookup.

The unit of value is not consistent. The rule moved to plain dollars, but some managers still file in thousands. Read it as-is and the portfolio looks 1,000x smaller. Divide value by share count: if the implied price per share is under a dollar, that filing is in thousands.

Amendments are mixed in. A 13F-HR/A is a correction, and some of them contain only the positions that were originally omitted. Read one of those as the whole portfolio and a fund appears to hold a single stock. It has to be combined with the original filing.

3. Reading it on Stocklore

If you would rather not repeat that every quarter, the 13F tracker lists 35 institutions.

CUSIPs are resolved to tickers, and the unit and amendment issues above are handled the way described. Position weight, quarter-over-quarter change (new, added, trimmed), and options (puts and calls) are shown separately.

That page also states which institutions are covered and how concentrated each one is (weight of its ten largest positions).

What to keep in mind

• It is up to 45 days old. Filings are due within 45 days of quarter end, so what you see may already have changed.
• Only long US equity positions appear. Short positions, bonds, cash, and non-US holdings are not reported, so a 13F never shows the full picture of a fund.
• Option quantities are underlying shares. Puts and calls are reported by the number of shares the contract covers, not the contracts themselves. Adding them to stock positions is misleading.
• This is not a suggestion to follow anyone’s trades. What a fund reported is a fact, but 13F does not tell you when or at what price they bought, why, or whether they still hold it. This page is information, not investment advice.