About this page
WallStPal explains public SEC filings and congressional stock trade reports in plain English. Nothing is for sale; the site is free and supported by ads.
How to read it
- Form 4
- The form a company insider (officer, director or owner of more than 10%) must file with the SEC within two business days of buying or selling the company's shares.
- 13F
- A quarterly list of U.S. stocks held by an investment manager with more than $100 million, filed within 45 days after each quarter ends.
- STOCK Act
- A 2012 law that requires members of Congress to report stock trades by themselves, a spouse or a dependent child within 45 days.
A real example
In January 2016, when bank stocks were falling, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon bought 500,000 JPMorgan shares with his own money, worth about $26 million. His Form 4 made the purchase public within days, and investors read it as a strong sign of confidence.
Explain it like I'm 13
We read the long, boring forms that grown-ups file with the government and tell you what they say in normal words.
Data from public SEC filings and congressional reports. Information, not investment advice. Check every number against the filing linked on the page.
Sepehr Parsa founded WallStPal to make public filings readable for everyone. He writes and edits the guides, designs how the site reads SEC and congressional reports, and checks the methods behind every number.
Every guide on WallStPal follows the same rules: numbers come from public filings, each one links to its source, and each guide ends with real examples and an "Explain it like I'm 13" section. Corrections are published on the corrections page; the methods are on how we work.
Guides by Sepehr Parsa
- What Is a 13F Filing?
- How Congress Reports Its Stock Trades
- How to Read a 13F Filing
- How to Read a Form 4
- How to Read a Periodic Transaction Report
- What a 13F Can't Tell You
- 13F Filing Deadlines
- What Is a 10b5-1 Trading Plan?
- Is Insider Buying a Good Signal?
- What Is a Cluster Buy?
- How to Follow Berkshire Hathaway's Portfolio
- Form 4 Transaction Codes Explained
- 13F-HR, 13F-NT and 13F/A Explained
- Form 4 vs 13F
- How Concentrated Is a Fund?