EDGAR

All companies, foreign and domestic, are required to file registration statements, periodic reports, and other forms electronically through EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval). Anyone can access and download this information for free. Here you'll find links to a complete list of filings available through EDGAR and instructions for searching the EDGAR database.

EDGAR performs automated collection, validation, indexing, acceptance, and forwarding of submissions by companies and others who are required by law to file forms with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Web-based search

 * Search the Next-Generation EDGAR System
 * Researching Public Companies Through EDGAR: A Guide for Investors - Basic EDGAR tutorial
 * SEC form types - Master list (index) of filing form types. For example, use this file to find that shareholder annual reports are filed as "N-CSR" after 2003.

FTP access
The SEC also provides free FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access to all data. With appropriate software, data can be extracted for just about any parameter across multiple years, companies, or forms.


 * Information for FTP Users
 * Index of ftp://ftp.sec.gov/edgar/docs/ contains file format information.
 * Securities and Exchange Commission Forms List - Each form filed with the SEC contains numbered questions, which are submitted by the filing entity as numbered answers to these questions. The first 3 characters in each answer file (.fil) match the related question number.

Indices
Indices are ASCII files containing path and filenames where the actual data files are stored. Use the index file information to FTP get the source file from the designated EDGAR folder. Process / extract the data from there.

They are available in Macintosh Stuffit (.sit files), Info-ZIP zip (.zip files), and Unix compressd (.Z files) formats. Each compressed package file contains company.idx, form.idx, and master.idx sorted by company name, form type, and CIK (Central Index Key), respectively.

The full indices contain filings for the current quarter. Archive indices contain available data for every previous quarter back to 1993. Daily indices are also available.
 * Daily and Full Indices to the SEC EDGAR Database

Office of Interactive Disclosure
The SEC's Office of Interactive Disclosure (OID) carries out the Commission's commitment to make financial disclosure accessible and easy to use through the application of interactive data.

Starting with fiscal periods ending on or after June 15, 2009, the Commission's rules require some public companies to submit their financial statements in the XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) interactive data format. The requirement will be phased in for all public companies that file certain periodic reports with the Commission. The Commission has also issued rules that will require interactive data reporting by mutual funds and ratings organizations.

XBRL
Interactive data can provide investors quicker access to the information they want in a form that's easily used and can help companies prepare the information more quickly and more accurately.

Using today's disclosure documents, investors who seek specific information directly from the source must often manually search lengthy corporate annual reports or lengthy mutual fund documents. Even if these documents are online, they are often in a plain-text format with limited search capability. The need to search for and extract particular information in such documents can be time consuming.

Data becomes interactive when it is labeled using a computer markup language that can be processed by software for sophisticated viewing and analysis. These computer markup languages use standard sets of definitions, or taxonomies, to enable the automatic extraction and exchange of data. Interactive data taxonomies can be applied — much like bar codes are applied to merchandise — to allow computers to recognize that data and feed it into analytical tools. XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is one such language that has been developed specifically for business and financial reporting.

The Commission has already implemented interactive data in many contexts throughout its disclosure system. Since 2003, the Commission has required reports of securities holdings and transactions under Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act to be submitted in a tagged format. In early 2009, the Commission published three final rules requiring XBRL tagging of certain disclosure information for operating companies, mutual funds, and credit rating agencies. The Commission continues to investigate ways to further integrate interactive data into its disclosure system.

XBRL.sec.gov is the Securities and Exchange Commission's portal for information about eXtensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL—part of the family of interactive data reporting standards required by the SEC. This page provides links from the SEC website to sources of information about XBRL technology, as well as creating and submitting XBRL-tagged interactive data files in compliance with Commission rules.