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Workshop Registration
The Reynolds Center has announced its 2009-10 free workshop schedule.
Select a workshop and register from the drop-down menu below.
Online Seminars
The Reynolds Center registration for Fall 2009 free online seminars.
The Dow's Shaky Day
By Travis Grabow and Carol Legg
From the Bottom Up
By Jeff Bailey
The Business Side of Sleep
By Jennifer Hopfinger
Fair Checking
By Alec Klein
Economic Perspective
By Dick Weiss
Super-Charged 13Fs
By Michelle Leder
August 22, 2008
When it comes to SEC filings, it’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed with just the basics: 10Ks, 10Qs and proxy statements. Even if you cover 10 companies (and when I was at one daily, I was covering more than 30), that’s a lot of stuff to get through. But once a quarter, another form comes around that is worth a closer look: the 13F. This filing gives ordinary folks a snapshot of what some of the nation’s super-charged investors are doing.
The forms are typically filed 45 days after the close of the quarter, so we’ve just been through a batch that’s a virtual who’s who of top investors. And while it’s easy to dismiss these forms as an exercise in voyeurism — after all, most of us will never have this kind of money in our own IRAs or 401Ks — they can be incredibly informative, once you get used to reading them.
Take Carl Icahn, a vocal investor who recently started his own blog (though he seems to be on summer vacation right now). Earlier this year, Icahn famously waged war against Yahoo! after the Internet portal rejected an overture by Microsoft. The proxy contest was avoided when Yahoo agreed to give Icahn three board seats.
A quick skim of the 13F that Icahn Capital filed shows 25 different positions worth $4.8 billion. That amount includes about $55 million worth of Yahoo! stock, making it Icahn’s second largest position after Motorola, where Icahn Capital owns $144 million worth of shares.
While these filings are readily available on the SEC Web site, learning to read them takes some practice. But thankfully, there are various services, including Insider Score, that crunch the numbers to detect various trends. Indeed, Ben Silverman (contact him at ben@indieresearch.com), a recovering New York-based journalist who left journalism to work for Insider Score, is a wealth of information on 13Fs and a great resource for anyone looking to dig in to what the bold names behind some of Wall Street’s biggest funds are up to.
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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism
The Reynolds Center has announced its 2009-10 free workshop schedule.
Select a workshop and register from the drop-down menu below.
The Reynolds Center registration for Fall 2009 free online seminars.
By Travis Grabow and Carol Legg
From the Bottom Up
By Jeff Bailey
The Business Side of Sleep
By Jennifer Hopfinger
Fair Checking
By Alec Klein
Economic Perspective
By Dick Weiss
Super-Charged 13Fs
By Michelle Leder
August 22, 2008
When it comes to SEC filings, it’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed with just the basics: 10Ks, 10Qs and proxy statements. Even if you cover 10 companies (and when I was at one daily, I was covering more than 30), that’s a lot of stuff to get through. But once a quarter, another form comes around that is worth a closer look: the 13F. This filing gives ordinary folks a snapshot of what some of the nation’s super-charged investors are doing.
The forms are typically filed 45 days after the close of the quarter, so we’ve just been through a batch that’s a virtual who’s who of top investors. And while it’s easy to dismiss these forms as an exercise in voyeurism — after all, most of us will never have this kind of money in our own IRAs or 401Ks — they can be incredibly informative, once you get used to reading them.
Take Carl Icahn, a vocal investor who recently started his own blog (though he seems to be on summer vacation right now). Earlier this year, Icahn famously waged war against Yahoo! after the Internet portal rejected an overture by Microsoft. The proxy contest was avoided when Yahoo agreed to give Icahn three board seats.
A quick skim of the 13F that Icahn Capital filed shows 25 different positions worth $4.8 billion. That amount includes about $55 million worth of Yahoo! stock, making it Icahn’s second largest position after Motorola, where Icahn Capital owns $144 million worth of shares.
While these filings are readily available on the SEC Web site, learning to read them takes some practice. But thankfully, there are various services, including Insider Score, that crunch the numbers to detect various trends. Indeed, Ben Silverman (contact him at ben@indieresearch.com), a recovering New York-based journalist who left journalism to work for Insider Score, is a wealth of information on 13Fs and a great resource for anyone looking to dig in to what the bold names behind some of Wall Street’s biggest funds are up to.
Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism