If you don't have a few thousand dollars to blow each month on a data service that scans the SEC's database, aggregates the full financial statements (instead of summarizing them like Yahoo! Finance), and puts relevant information at your fingertips, I've got good news for you — you no longer need it. On Wednesday I sat in on a conference call with the SEC to discuss some upcoming changes to their EDGAR filing standards. XBRL will be the new standard, and it is very exciting for "regular" investors.

Continue Reading XBRL: The New SEC Filing Standard ››

I want to invest like Warren Buffett. Who doesn't? To understand how he invests, I have purchased and read every book ever written on the man. A good starting point. The problem is that they all talk about the same few investments (e.g., Coca-Cola, American Express, GEICO). The no-brainer type investments. What else has he dabbled in?

See for yourself with the EDGAR database.

Continue Reading The EDGAR Database: Watching Warren ››

For seven months now, I've been talking about "going straight to the source" to find information and financial statements to analyze companies. Websites like Morningstar are great starting points and usually have accurate financial information; still, nothing beats reading quarterly and annual reports, proxy statements, and contracts as they were filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Of course, those discussions were based on the premise that everyone is familiar with the EDGAR database. For those that are not, let me introduce you to EDGAR.

Continue Reading The EDGAR Database: A Primer ››