Exploring investment opportunities from 13F

TradingKey - As an ordinary investor, facing thousands of stocks in the US stock market, do you also have "choice difficulties"? Which stock is worth your time to study in depth?

When you have no idea, you may want to see what other "smart money" in the market - especially star fund managers (investment gurus) - are buying and selling. Maybe you can get some inspiration from here.

For example, if you are a value investor, you will naturally pay attention to which targets Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has recently increased its holdings; if you pay more attention to Chinese stocks listed in the US, you may also be curious about which companies top Asian institutions such as Hillhouse Capital are investing in.

So, where can you find the changes in holdings of these top institutions?

The answer is:13F File.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stipulates that any company that manages assets exceeding$100 millionInstitutional investors must submit a report to the SEC after the end of each quarter. This report is called13F File。

It records all the holdings of the institution at the end of the quarter.Long Position,include:

• Which stocks are held
• Number of shares held and market value of each stock
• Increase or decrease holdings

Its original intention was to enhance market transparency, so that small and medium-sized investors can also understand the movements of "smart money" and thus increase their confidence in the market.

It is worth mentioning that 13F only reflects the institutions' holdings in the US stock market, and does not include holdings in Hong Kong stocks, A shares or other markets. For example, although Hillhouse Capital invests in multiple markets at the same time, 13F can only show its US stock holdings, and cannot reflect its actions in other markets.

Institutions are required toWithin 45 daysSubmit 13F documents. That is:

The submission time varies slightly among different institutions. Some institutions submit their reports right after the end of the quarter, while others submit them right up to the deadline.

By analyzing 13F files, ordinary investors have the opportunity to observe the rotation trend of U.S. stock styles and learn the investment logic and strategies of top institutions.

1. The US stock market has a significant weathervane

In the US stock market, money is votes, and 13F is an important window to record the voting behavior of "big players".

For example, if many institutions are reducing their holdings of stocks in a certain industry in a certain quarter, it may mean that this sector is facing adjustment risks; if several well-known fund managers are increasing their holdings in a certain company at the same time, there may be fundamental changes in this company that are worthy of attention.

2. Learning from masters is more important than copying homework

Investment masters such as Buffett, Munger, David Tepper, Bill Ackman, etc. all have distinctive investment styles and long-term stable investment frameworks.

By continuously tracking their 13F holdings changes, you can not only know what they are buying, but also understand theirWhy, when and how long did you buy?Learning this kind of thinking mode is far more valuable than blindly following and buying a certain stock.

Although 13F is a very practical tool, it also has two obvious shortcomings:

① Data has lag

Since the submission cycle is 45 days after the quarter, 13F reflects the position status from at least one and a half months ago.

For example:

• Institutions build a position in a certain stock in early January;
• Sold by early April;
• The 13F that investors saw until mid-May still showed the holdings data for this stock.

so,Don’t make buying and selling decisions based solely on 13F, but a comprehensive judgment based on the latest market information.

② Does not include short positions

13F only disclosesLong Position, that is, stocks held by institutions,Excluding short positions。

For funds that use hedging strategies, their short positions are often more valuable for reference. But we cannot see this information. Therefore, it is very important to understand the institutional style when referring to 13F.

Although you can directly visit the SEC official website https://www.sec.gov/ Query the original file, but it is complex and not intuitive to read.

Recommended use TradingKey platform,Get the sorted 13F data.

The specific path is as follows:

“TradingKey” homepage → click on the “Trading Tools” tab → find the “Popular Investors” column.Here, you can quickly check the latest changes in holdings of major institutions, and even filter out stocks that are jointly increased by multiple star institutions, helping you narrow your research scope and improve investment efficiency.