Edgar Full Text Search

The US SEC has at long last enabled full text searching of its Edgar database of corporate filings. The new search page is here. In the past, searching Edgar was quite painful and I usually went to Edgar only after identifying the form type and approximate filing date through other sources. Now it is much simpler. For example, I clicked on “advanced search” and typed in “pretexting” in the “text” field and “Hewlett Packard” in the “Company Name” field and I obtained links to the two 8-K filings on this issue that I have blogged about earlier.

Under Chairman Cox, the US SEC seems to be taking the internet quite seriously. Cox posted a comment on a blog recently in his official capacity. He is also pushing for adoption of XBRL in Edgar filings. Regulators elsewhere have a lot of catching up to do. I hope that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) upgrades its Edifar database to include the full text of the financial statements (and not just the summary financial numbers) as also the material event disclosures that companies currently make only to the exchanges. Only after that can one start asking for search capabilities!

Posted at 1:34 pm IST on Wed, 15 Nov 2006         permanent link

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