Investing term
What is EDGAR?
The SEC's free public database where US-listed companies file their 10-Ks, 10-Qs, 8-Ks, and other disclosures.
EDGAR is the SEC's free public database where every US-listed company files its official disclosures — annual reports (10-Ks), quarterly reports (10-Qs), event-driven filings (8-Ks), insider trades, and more. It's the primary, unfiltered source for researching a US company, with no paywall and no spin.
Serious investors go to EDGAR rather than relying on headlines or third-party summaries, because it's where the actual, legally required documents live. The information is the same whether you're a professional or an individual — a genuine level playing field. Learning to pull up a company's 10-K, read its footnotes, and check recent 8-Ks for material events is a foundational research skill, and it costs nothing. Other countries have their own equivalents, but EDGAR is the model.
EDGAR is the SEC's free database of company filings — 10-Ks, 10-Qs, 8-Ks, insider trades. The same unfiltered documents professionals use, so serious research starts here, not with headlines.
For example
Instead of trusting a summary article, you look the company up on EDGAR, open its latest 10-K, and read the actual audited financials and footnotes yourself.
Learn it by doing
That's EDGAR in theory — it clicks when you use it. Practise it hands-on in a free, interactive lesson (Stage 14, Reading Financial Statements).
Try the free lesson →Why it matters to you
EDGAR matters because it democratises access to the primary sources of company information — the same audited filings the professionals use, free to everyone. Relying on headlines or paid summaries means getting a filtered, sometimes spun version; going to EDGAR means reading the real thing. For anyone doing serious research on a US company, knowing how to find and read filings on EDGAR is the difference between second-hand impressions and first-hand understanding.
⚠ Relying on summaries instead of the source
Third-party articles and summaries filter, simplify, and sometimes distort what a company actually disclosed. The details that matter — risks, debts, accounting choices, insider sales — are in the original filings on EDGAR, free to read. Depending on second-hand accounts while the primary source sits one search away means investing on someone else's interpretation rather than the facts.