How Filings Work
Most market news traces back to a specific SEC filing — a proxy, a Form 4, a 13F. Knowing what each form is, and when it has to be filed, turns a headline into something you can check yourself. This exhibit is a short field guide to the disclosures that make public markets legible.
7 artifacts · Based on SEC rules and filing requirements. Each artifact links to its own sourced page.
Every public company must file a proxy statement (Form DEF 14A) before its annual meeting. It’s where CEO pay, board elections, and shareholder votes are disclosed — the source behind CEO$.
When a corporate insider buys or sells their own company’s stock, they must report it to the SEC on Form 4 within two business days — which is why insider trades show up so quickly.
Big investors disclose their holdings on Form 13F only 45 days after each quarter ends — so the "whale" positions everyone watches are always at least six weeks stale.
When something material happens — a CEO resigns, a deal is signed, results are pre-announced — a company usually has just four business days to file an 8-K telling investors.
Before a company can go public it files an S-1 — a registration statement laying bare its finances, risks, and ownership. It’s the first time outsiders get a real look inside.
Since 2018, U.S. companies have had to disclose the ratio of their CEO’s pay to the median employee’s — a Dodd-Frank rule. Some ratios run into the thousands to one.
Members of Congress can legally trade individual stocks — but under the 2012 STOCK Act they must publicly disclose most trades within 45 days. That disclosure is what makes tracking them possible.