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Keeping Up With Your Businesses

By Joe Ponzio on March 10, 2008

I have to admit — going to the EDGAR database every day to look for new filings is not one of my favorite tasks. When engaged in workouts, I find myself checking EDGAR multiple times a day to see if there is anything upsetting my applecart. Then there's the issue of, "I bought this business and I want to stay on top of it, but I can't check all my businesses every day — I'll never have time to find new ones!"

So, I put my web designer to the test. The result? Sit back, put your feet up, and let your companies come to you.

Introducing the EDGAR Filing Feed

The F Wall Street RSS for EDGAR Filings (accessible at any time from the left menu) allow you to subscribe to any company's or individual's filings with the SEC. Obviously, the company or person in question must be a SEC filer — a public, reporting company, an executive/insider, etc.

What this means: Rather than checking the EDGAR database for filings and updates, this tool will allow you to be automatically notified when new forms are filed. Insiders selling? You'll know when the SEC does. Something upsetting the applecart? Be informed before reporters have time to write (and break) the story.

Fancy. But how does it work?

This tool pulls the data directly from the EDGAR database and creates an RSS feed. By subscribing to that feed, you'll be notified when new forms and filings appear on the EDGAR system. You'll be looking at the same information; it's just presented differently. Rather than just being there for you to find, filings and updates are sent to you.

I don't use RSS. Should I start using this free, timesaving gift from the technology gods?

Obviously, I like RSS. You should get to know it — it's the future of information dissemination. It's free; it's fast; it's convenient. Here's a free YouTube tutorial on using RSS.

I currently subscribe to about 40 RSS feeds. Rather than going to each of those 40 websites and reading the news/articles, I sit back and let them come directly to my Outlook. Right now, I have 2,200 news pieces on possible workouts that I have to go through. Don't want to read them? Delete All.

Best of all: It's free, and you can unsubscribe to any feed at any time.

Let me know what you think about the RSS for EDGAR Filings. Enjoy!

23 comments. Read them below or add yours!

 
 

The Discussion on Keeping Up With Your Businesses

Casey M. said,
SWEET.
 
Bryan said,
Great work! Very useful. You should charge for it!
 
Howard said,
As usual, you rock! Thanks once again! This is very very cool.
 
Boring Market said,
Genius. Thanks for innovating.
 
Joe Ponzio said,
I hope you all enjoy it. I am loving this new feature.
 
Stephen said,
Love the RSS feeds, very sweet. I was watching Apollo take over Huntsman, the feed just told me, it could be getting interesting.... (FD: I am just watching, I've got no money in the deal).
 
Night said,
great idea! thanks a ton, Joe.
 
ME Williams said,
RSS Feeds are the best way to keep track of new information. Try google reader and you can access your RSS feeds from any machine by logging on with your google account.
 
Nick said,
Way to go Joe. Much appreciated.

 
Mike said,
Awesome, I have always wanted something like this.

Thanks Joe!
 
Adam S. said,
I only had a minute or two to play around with this and am still learning the basics of the RSS feed.

However, is there a way to show the date next to each of the forms that have been filed?
 
Joe Ponzio said,
Adam,

The date is on there and correct; the time is not correct yet (they all show midnight). If it is not showing up properly, it may be that your RSS reader that is getting it wrong. What reader are you using?
 
Jason said,
Does anyone have a specific pick for an RSS Reader? I currently use Google Reader since I can access it from anywhere!
 
George said,
Joe, thank you for making this great resource available. I shared it with my readers this morning at http://www.fatpitchfinanc...

I must say that I'm impressed with the work of your web designer. I'm curious as to how the EDGAR RSS generator works. If you or your tech guy ever have a chance, I'd love to learn a bit more about your code. I'm always playing around with these type of "investor" hacks. Feel free to email me.

Jason, I also use Google Reader and find it very useful.
 
Dan said,
Hi Joe - just curious...what specific applecarts are you checking on nowadays? ;-)
 
Adam S. said,
I'm just using my Firefox browser...not sure if I have installed a RSS reader or not?

Do I have to actually subscribe to the feed first before I can see the date?

Here is what I see:

EDGAR Filings for COVENTRY HEALTH CARE INC


EDGAR Filings straight from the SEC, free from Joe Ponzio's F Wall Street


Form 4
Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securitiesAcc-no: 0001320086-08-000005
Form 4
Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securitiesAcc-no: 0001335624-08-000001
 
Joe Ponzio said,
Jason: I like reading the feeds in my Outlook 2007. Then again, I'm in front of the computer all day. I used Google for a while - nice, but I wasn't crazy about it. It is also very god with the dates, showing the authors, etc. In my opinion, Outlook is the most robust reader I've tried; then again, I've only tried a few.

George: I sent you an e-mail this morning. Thanks for the nice write up! Hope you enjoy the service.

Dan: I'm trying to catch up on more than 2,000 articles from Yahoo!'s Merger & Arbitrage Feed. Mostly fluff (and a garbage feed). I'll let you guys know when I know.

Adam: The actual feed address (in this case, (http://www.fwallstreet.com/0001054833/edgar.xml) is an XML document which is then usually read by an RSS reader. You can subscribe to a free reader (e.g., Google Reader) or have it come to your Outlook. Some people can even have it appear on their home page when they get online.

In Firefox, when you go directly to the feed, you won't see the date. I don't know why they do that. Take a look at Google Reader (it's free). Sign up, add the address to your subscriptions, and watch the news come to you.

Google's Reader isn't perfect because it displays the date the documents were retrieved (i.e., today if you sign up today). Hovering over that date, you can see when they were filed. Still, you can access it from any computer with an internet connection.

Or, if you have Outlook, you can subscribe through there. As I mentioned to Jason, this is my favorite way to read feeds.

Hope that helps!
 
alex mackinnon said,
A work of art!
 
jans said,
Hi there. I just discovered a really neat website called tickerspy.com.
It's kind of like Stockpickr.
 
Dan said,
Hey Joe - I'm curious what you think about the CCU workout. *Everything* seems to be in place for this to close this month. And there's still that 8% spread.
 
Joe Ponzio said,
Dan,

I have to look at it a bit more, and I definitely will!
 
Tom Elliott said,
Did the link to your feed creator die? This link:
http://www.fwallstreet.co...

Is "Ooops. Page Not Found." at the moment.

Great idea- I hope the SEC gets this set up on its own site asap too.
 
Amit said,
Awesome post, I cant believe I missed this one.. priceless
thanks Joe, I guess its time for me to embrace this technology.

Saves you time, so you can be human again (must be tiring to have gone through 500 annuals
 

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