Questions / How to read a filing
How to read a filing: questions answered
Every public disclosure reports something that already happened, and the law gives the filer time to report it. Reading a filing well starts with two dates, the date of the event and the date of the filing, and with the terms the form uses.
The articles below cover the delay between an event and its filing, the meaning of the terms used across the filings, and where to find the data for free.
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Where can you find insider trading and Congress trade data for free?
Every dataset OQRO uses starts as a free public record: SEC EDGAR for insider trades, planned sales, fund holdings and 5% stakes; the House Clerk and Senate eFD sites for Congress trades; USAspending.gov for federal contracts; and the House and Senate lobbying databases. OQRO, a paid tracker of these disclosures, adds plain-language lines, matching to companies and alerts. It does not replace the official filings, which remain the authority.
What are the key terms in public disclosure filings?
These are 30 terms that appear in insider, Congress, fund, contract and lobbying filings, each defined in plain English from the official rule or form that uses it. They are grouped by the kind of disclosure: insiders, stakes and funds, Congress and officials, contracts, and lobbying.
Why are public disclosures always late?
Because the law sets a deadline after the event, not before it. An insider has two business days to file a Form 4, a member of Congress up to 45 days, a fund 45 days after quarter end, a lobbying firm 20 days after a quarter. Each filing can then take more time to publish.
Pillar guides
The guides at /learn go through one real filing line by line.
All questions · Every dataset OQRO uses starts as a free public record: SEC EDGAR for insider trades, planned sales, fund holdings and 5% stakes; the House Clerk and Senate eFD sites for Congress trades; USAspending.gov for federal contracts; and the House and Senate lobbying databases.
This explains public filings in plain words. It is not legal or investment advice. Corrections: contact page.