How to use BLARKAD

What is Form 13F?

Form 13F is a quarterly report filed with the SEC by institutional investment managers who oversee $100 million or more in qualifying assets. These filings disclose the manager's long positions in U.S.-listed equities, ETFs, and certain other securities as of the end of each calendar quarter.

13F filings are public and available through SEC EDGAR. They are a primary source for tracking what large funds own, how their portfolios shift over time, and where institutional capital is concentrated.

Key limitations: 13F data is delayed (filed up to 45 days after quarter end), does not include cash, short positions, most foreign securities, or many derivatives, and may not reflect the manager's full economic exposure.

Platform overview

BLARKAD processes thousands of 13F filings each quarter and combines them with insider transactions, ETF flows, and sector trend analysis. The main navigation gives you access to the following areas:

• Managers — browse institutional funds ranked by portfolio value (AUM) or alphabetically.
• Latest Filings — the most recently filed 13F reports as they are processed.
• Trends — sector composition, most-held tickers, and capital rotation across quarters.
• Sector Performance — market sector returns and comparative analysis.
• ETF — institutional ETF ownership trends and most-held ETFs.
• Insiders — recent SEC Form 4 insider transactions (buys, sells, exercises).
• Economic Calendar — upcoming economic events and data releases.
• Search — find any manager, ticker, or CUSIP across the platform.

The Manager page

Each fund or institutional manager has a dedicated profile page. Here is what you will find:

• Snapshot — the manager's latest reported portfolio value, number of holdings, and most recent filing date.
• Sector allocation chart — a stacked area chart showing how the fund's sector composition has shifted across quarters. This chart uses equity positions only (no options) to avoid distortion.
• Filing history — a table of all available quarterly filings. Click any filing to see its full holdings.
• Instrument breakdown — money flow by instrument type (stocks, ETFs, options, debt), showing the split between capital allocation and exposure.

You can subscribe to a manager to receive notifications when new filings are processed.

Reading a filing

When you open a specific 13F filing, the platform shows the fund's reported holdings for that quarter. There are two views available:

• Aggregated view (default) — holdings grouped by security, with a simplified set of columns for quick analysis.
• Detailed view — the full breakdown including share classes, investment discretion, voting authority, and other fields reported in the filing.

Both views support filtering:

• By status: All, New, Added, Reduced, or Sold Out — showing how positions changed from the prior quarter.
• By instrument: Stocks, ETFs, Options, Debt, or Other — isolating specific asset types.

Position changes: New, Added, Reduced, Sold Out

BLARKAD compares each filing to the fund's prior quarter to calculate position changes:

• New — the position appears in the current filing but was not present in the prior filing.
• Added — the position existed before and the reported share count increased.
• Reduced — the position existed before and the reported share count decreased.
• Sold Out — the position was in the prior filing but is no longer reported.

These labels are derived from comparing normalized holdings across quarters and may be affected by filing amendments, CUSIP changes, or mapping adjustments.

Portfolio weight and instrument types

Portfolio weight shows each position's share of the total reported 13F portfolio value. Unlike many platforms, BLARKAD calculates weight within instrument buckets to prevent options exposure from distorting equity percentages.

Holdings are classified into the following instrument types:

• Stocks (SH) — common shares, preferred shares, and other equity instruments.
• ETFs — exchange-traded funds, identified by internal mapping.
• Options (PUT/CALL) — reported with underlying exposure value, not the premium cash paid or received. This is a critical distinction — see the Options methodology guide for details.
• Debt (PRN) — principal amounts in convertible notes, bonds, and other debt instruments.
• Other — warrants, rights, and instruments that do not fit the above categories.

The Ticker page

Each publicly traded security has its own page where you can research institutional activity around that ticker:

• Shareholders — which institutional managers hold this security and how much, ranked by position value.
• Insider transactions — recent Form 4 filings showing executive and director buys, sells, and option exercises.
• Public files — SEC filings related to this security.
• Ownership — institutional ownership composition and trends over time.

You can also view a specific fund's historical position in a ticker by navigating from the manager's filing page.

Trends and sector analysis

The Trends page provides a macro view of how institutional capital is shifting:

• Sector composition — market-share breakdown by sector across quarters, showing rotation patterns.
• Industry breakdown — more granular view at the industry level within each sector.
• Most-held tickers — the most widely held securities among tracked funds.
• Top added / reduced — tickers with the largest quarter-over-quarter changes in institutional ownership.

Trend analytics are equity-focused (stocks and ETFs only) to provide an accurate view of capital allocation without options exposure distortion.

ETF dashboard

The ETF section tracks how institutional managers allocate capital to exchange-traded funds:

• Most-held ETFs — ETFs with the highest aggregate institutional ownership across tracked funds.
• ETF heatmap — a visual overview of ETF market activity.
• Ownership trends — how ETF ownership has changed across recent quarters.

Insider transactions

The Insiders page shows recent SEC Form 4 filings — mandatory disclosures when corporate insiders (officers, directors, and significant shareholders) buy, sell, or exercise options in their company's stock.

• Buys — open-market purchases by insiders, often watched as a confidence signal.
• Sells — open-market sales, which can reflect diversification, tax planning, or other motivations.
• Exercises — stock option exercises, which are common components of executive compensation.

Insider data is also available on individual ticker pages for company-specific research.

Sectors and industries

Holdings are classified into sectors and industries based on internal mapping. You can explore these breakdowns from:

• Fund-level sector charts on each manager's page, showing the fund's sector allocation history.
• Platform-wide sector trends on the Trends page, showing aggregate allocation shifts.
• Sector Performance — comparative sector returns across different time periods.
• Individual sector and industry pages — drill into any sector or industry to see which funds are most exposed.

Comparing filings

BLARKAD allows you to compare two filings from the same manager side by side. This is useful for tracking how a fund's portfolio evolved between quarters — which positions were added, increased, reduced, or eliminated.

Filing comparisons are accessible from a manager's filing history table.

Why numbers can differ from other platforms

If you compare BLARKAD data to other 13F websites, you may notice differences. Common reasons include:

• Options separation — BLARKAD does not blend options exposure into equity portfolio percentages. Many platforms do, which inflates portfolio weights.
• Bucketed weighting — portfolio weight is calculated within instrument buckets (stocks, ETFs, options, debt) rather than across the entire filing.
• Ticker mapping — different platforms use different methods to map CUSIPs to tickers. Some mappings may differ or be incomplete.
• Amendment handling — filings can be amended after publication. Different platforms may process amendments at different times or in different ways.
• Calculation methodology — totals, percentages, and change calculations depend on specific choices each platform makes about rounding, aggregation, and normalization.

BLARKAD favors defensible methodology and explicit labeling over visually inflated single-percentage views. For a deeper explanation, see the Options in 13F guide.

Quarterly data collection and early-period behavior

SEC 13F filings are due within 45 days after each calendar quarter ends. This means new quarter data does not appear all at once — it accumulates gradually over several weeks as funds submit their reports.

What to expect during the early filing window:

• Fewer holders per ticker — only funds that have already filed will appear on ticker and shareholder pages.
• Partial trend data — sector shares, ticker flows, and industry breakdowns reflect only the filings processed so far.
• Smaller samples — rankings (most-held tickers, top ETFs, sector composition) may shift significantly as more filings arrive.
• Default period selection — the platform may default to the most recent complete quarter on certain pages. You can always select the current reporting period manually.

BLARKAD displays a notice on affected pages when you are viewing early or partial data. All data updates automatically as new filings are processed — no manual refresh is needed.

Typically, the bulk of filings arrive between 30 and 45 days after the quarter ends. By day 50–60 the dataset is substantially complete for most large managers.

Understanding data limitations

13F data is powerful but has inherent constraints that are important to keep in mind:

• Delay — filings reflect holdings as of the quarter end and can be filed up to 45 days later. The portfolio may have changed significantly by the time you see it.
• Partial view — 13F filings show reportable long positions only. They do not include cash, short positions, most foreign securities, private investments, or the full range of derivatives.
• Confidential treatment — managers can request to delay disclosure of certain positions. These may appear in later amendments.
• Stale or amended data — filings can be corrected or amended after initial publication. Previously displayed data may change.
• Mapping issues — not all securities map cleanly to tickers. Some holdings may appear without a ticker or with a partial mapping.

For full details on data sources and disclaimers, see the Sources & Disclaimer page.

Guides

Related resources

• FAQ — answers to common questions about 13F data and the platform.
• About BLARKAD — platform mission, approach, and methodology.
• Sources & Disclaimer — data sources, limitations, and legal disclaimers.
• Contact / Feedback — report data issues or send feedback.