EDGAR Primer

EDGAR, the Securities and Exchanges Commisions's searchable depository corporate filings, leaves a great deal to be desired in the area of user- interface, but it can be an extremely powerful tool in the hands of an investor who knows what he or she is doing.

The Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval database, known as EDGAR, contains information including interesting facts not found in press releases from executives' salaries to shareholders' lawsuits. The information that EDGAR offers has always been available to investors, but only those that had time to wade through thousands of documents in the SEC public reference room in Washington D.C. EDGAR changes this, bringing the documents formerly only really available to institutional investors to everyone with Internet access.

As we mentioned, EDGAR is anything but easy to use. But it is worth any hassles. Keep in mind that EDGAR is relatively new, and you will most likely not find any reports filed before 1994.

A Few Suggestions...

• Be Specific
  You must know the exact name of the company you are researching in order to be successful. Know if it is a "Corp." or an "Inc." This is the kind of information that will make your searches easier and faster.
• Search for CIK Numbers
  EDGAR has an internal index called the Central Key Index (CIK). Each company is assigned a CIK number. Looking the company up in here first will save time downloading a long list of meaningless references in the main search engine. Search here for the company you're interested in and then look it up using the CIK number.
• Use the SEC Shorcuts
  Within the site are a number of places that only call up recent data. So if you've used EDGAR recently, save some time and don't search the entire database.

Finally, there is no substitute for understanding the form you are reading. Learn what you need to know about the forms that the SEC requires here.

Go To Edgar!

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