General & Platform
What is 13Foresight?
13Foresight is a professional-grade institutional intelligence platform that tracks and analyzes SEC
Form 13F filings. We normalize raw filings from thousands of hedge funds and asset managers into clean,
queryable data β and layer on top a full suite of analytics: strategy backtesting, performance rankings,
portfolio construction, crowding scores, and capital flow signals. Whether you're a retail investor
researching what Berkshire Hathaway is holding or a professional PM benchmarking manager alpha,
13Foresight gives you institutional-level tools without the institutional price tag.
What are 13F filings?
Form 13F is a quarterly disclosure required by the SEC for any institutional investment manager
controlling $100 million or more in U.S. equity securities. It must be filed within 45
days of each calendar quarter-end (March, June, September, December). The filing lists all long equity
positions, exchange-traded options, and convertible bonds held at quarter-end β but does not
include short positions, cash, bonds, or non-U.S. listed securities. It's essentially a quarterly
snapshot of the "public" side of a fund's portfolio.
How many funds and filings are in the database?
Our database covers over 5,000 active institutional managers and tens of thousands of
historical filings going back to the late 1990s when the SEC began accepting electronic submissions.
Every quarter, several hundred new filings arrive from newly registered managers. All filings are
parsed, normalized, and enriched with price data and ticker mapping before being made available on the
platform.
What is the data coverage period?
Our database provides
full historical coverage for every fund from the first day they
began submitting electronic 13F filings. For the majority of institutional managers, this includes
normalized data going back as far as
1999.
Examples of funds with deep history in our system:
How often is the data updated?
13Foresight processes new 13F filings continuously as they are submitted to SEC EDGAR. Managers file
throughout the 45-day window after each quarter-end, so the platform is updated daily during the filing
season. The main filing windows close around February 14, May 15, August 14, and November
14 each year. Once a new filing is detected, it is typically processed and live on the
platform within minutes.
Who needs to file a 13F β and who doesn't?
Any investment manager whose U.S. equity portfolio exceeds $100 million on any trading
day during the year must register with the SEC and begin filing 13Fs. This includes hedge
funds, mutual funds, pension funds, family offices, insurance companies, banks, and endowments. Managers
who fall below $100M for four consecutive quarters can deregister and stop filing. This means our
database is skewed toward larger, more established managers β very small or early-stage funds are not
required to disclose.
Data Quality & Accuracy
Why does a fund's portfolio sometimes not add up to 100%?
There are several legitimate reasons: (1) The 13F only covers U.S. long equity positions β cash, fixed
income, foreign-listed stocks, and private holdings are excluded and can represent a large part of a
fund's actual portfolio. (2) Some holdings list options (calls/puts) which are reported at notional
value, distorting the percentage breakdown. (3) A very small percentage of holdings may fail ticker
mapping (especially for delisted or obscure securities) and are excluded from weight calculations. For
most large equity-focused funds, the disclosed positions represent 90β100% of their actual publicly-held
portfolio.
Why are some holdings showing as "N/A" for ticker?
Each 13F holding is identified by a CUSIP (a 9-character security identifier), not a
ticker. 13Foresight maps every CUSIP to its corresponding ticker symbol via a comprehensive securities
database. Unresolved cases are typically: (1) Delisted stocks β companies that went
bankrupt, were acquired, or went private after the filing date. (2) Foreign private
issuers β ADRs or OTC-traded foreign stocks with non-standard CUSIPs. (3) Rare or
obscure instruments β certain warrants, rights, or structured products. These N/A holdings
are still counted in AUM calculations but excluded from performance backtesting.
What does the "Value" column in holdings mean?
Per SEC 13F reporting rules, the "value" field is reported in thousands of U.S.
dollars. A value of 1,500 means $1.5 million. 13Foresight converts these to absolute dollar
figures everywhere on the platform so you always see the actual dollar amount, not the raw thousands.
The value reflects the fair market value of the position at the end of the quarter.
Are options (puts/calls) included in the holdings?
Yes, put and call options on U.S.-listed equities are required to be disclosed on Form 13F. 13Foresight
displays them in the holdings table with the option type flagged. However, for backtesting and
performance calculations, we exclude options from the simulated long portfolio because replicating an
options strategy is not feasible for most investors and would produce misleading performance numbers.
Only direct equity positions (shares) are used in the backtest engine.
How accurate is the AUM figure shown for each fund?
The AUM shown on 13Foresight reflects the total market value of disclosed long U.S. equity
positions as reported in the most recent 13F. This is the "13F AUM" β not the fund's total
assets under management. Most hedge funds have a broader portfolio (including bonds, cash, foreign
equities, and short positions) that is not captured in the 13F. For pure long-only equity managers, the
13F AUM is a very close approximation of total AUM. For multi-strategy or global macro funds, the 13F
AUM may be a fraction of total assets.
Does 13Foresight show intra-quarter trades?
No β and this is a fundamental limitation of Form 13F itself, not a platform limitation. The 13F only
captures a single snapshot at quarter-end. If a fund bought and sold a position entirely within a
quarter, it will not appear in the filing. This is why a manager with high portfolio turnover may appear
deceptively "stable" on paper β the disclosed holdings only reflect what they held at the end of
Q, not what they traded during the quarter.
Analytics & Backtesting
Can I try the backtester without creating an account?
Yes β our
Live Demo gives you full,
unrestricted access to the backtester on three real funds with no signup required. You'll see the
complete premium experience: full historical depth (not truncated), all weighting modes (Equal Weight
and Manager Weight), benchmark comparisons against SPY, QQQ, IWM, and DIA, and all risk metrics β Sharpe
Ratio, Max Drawdown, Alpha, Beta, Calmar Ratio, and more. It's the real thing, not a watered-down
preview.
How does the Backtester handle the 45-day SEC filing delay?
To ensure realistic, tradeable results, 13Foresight's backtester uses the filing date
as the portfolio entry point β not the quarter-end date. If a 13F for Q4 2023 was filed on February 12,
2024, the backtest simulates entering those positions on February 12, 2024 (not December 31, 2023). This
accurately captures the real-world experience of a copycat investor who acts on the disclosed data the
moment it becomes public.
What is the difference between Equal Weight and Manager Weight?
Equal Weight allocates the same percentage of capital to every holding in the
portfolio, regardless of the manager's actual position sizes. This removes the fund's conviction signal
but produces a more diversified simulation.
Manager Weight replicates the manager's actual allocation, proportionally sized based
on their reported dollar values. If a manager had 35% of their portfolio in one stock, your simulated
portfolio also has ~35% in that stock. Manager Weight is more faithful to the original strategy but
introduces concentration risk β and is a Premium-only feature.
How is Sharpe Ratio calculated?
We compute the Sharpe Ratio as: (Average Monthly Return β Risk-Free Rate) Γ· Standard Deviation
of Monthly Returns Γ β12, annualized. The risk-free rate is sourced from the 13-week U.S.
Treasury Bill yield (^IRX), updated monthly. A Sharpe above 1.0 is generally considered
good; above 2.0 is excellent. Values near zero or negative indicate the fund's returns
do not justify the volatility taken.
How is Alpha calculated?
Alpha is calculated using the standard CAPM (Capital Asset Pricing Model) formula:
Alpha = Fund Return β [Risk-Free Rate + Beta Γ (Market Return β Risk-Free Rate)]
The market benchmark is SPY (S&P 500 ETF). A positive Alpha means the fund outperformed what CAPM would
predict given its level of market exposure. For example, an Alpha of +5% means the fund delivered 5
percentage points of return above what its Beta-adjusted market exposure would suggest.
What is Max Drawdown?
Max Drawdown (MDD) measures the largest peak-to-trough decline in the simulated portfolio's value over
the entire backtest period. For example, an MDD of β38% means the portfolio at some point fell 38% from
its highest value before recovering. It is the single most important metric for understanding downside
risk and loss tolerance. A fund with a high Sharpe but a β60% drawdown may not be suitable for an
investor who can't stomach large temporary losses.
What is the Calmar Ratio?
The Calmar Ratio is Annualized Return Γ· |Max Drawdown|. It tells you how much
annualized return you get per unit of maximum pain endured. A Calmar of 1.0 means you earned 1% of
annual return for every 1% of max drawdown. Higher is better. It's particularly useful for comparing two
strategies with similar returns but different risk profiles β the one with the smaller drawdown will
have the higher Calmar.
Does your data include short positions?
No. The SEC only requires managers to disclose their long equity positions, put/call options, and
convertible bonds. Short positions, foreign stocks not listed on U.S. exchanges, bonds, and cash
holdings are not reported in 13F filings. This is why many hedge fund 13Fs look like "long-only"
portfolios even if the fund is net short. Always interpret a manager's disclosed 13F as the long
book only.
Why do some metrics show "N/A"?
Metrics like Sharpe Ratio, Alpha, Beta, and Calmar require a minimum backtest history to be
statistically meaningful. We require at least 8 months of monthly return data (roughly
2 full quarters after the first quarter lag). If a fund is newly filing, has significant holding gaps,
or fewer than 3 resolved equity positions per quarter, we display N/A to avoid presenting misleading
statistics.
Rankings & Scoring
How is the Manager Rankings score calculated?
The 13Foresight Rankings Score is a composite metric that weighs multiple performance and risk
dimensions: 3-year annualized return, Sharpe Ratio, Alpha vs SPY, Max Drawdown, and Calmar
Ratio. Each metric is normalized against all other funds in the database (percentile rank),
then combined into a single 0β100 score. This means a fund ranked #1 excels across all dimensions
simultaneously β not just raw returns. A high-return fund with a β80% drawdown will score lower than a
moderately-returning fund with consistent, low-volatility performance.
What time period do the Rankings cover?
By default, Rankings use the trailing 3-year performance window to balance recency with
statistical significance. You can filter Rankings by investment style (Concentrated, Diversified,
ETF-heavy), AUM bracket, and minimum number of holdings to focus on managers relevant to your use case.
The leaderboard is recalculated quarterly after each new batch of 13F filings is fully processed.
Why isn't a certain well-known fund in the Rankings?
There are three common reasons: (1) The fund may have recently re-registered or changed its CIK,
resetting its tracked history below our minimum threshold. (2) The fund may hold fewer than a minimum
number of resolvable long equity positions (e.g., a fund that mostly holds bonds or foreign stocks will
have very few mappable 13F positions). (3) The fund's most recent 13F may still be processing. If you
can't find a fund in Rankings, try searching for it directly in the main fund search β it may have a
full profile page but not yet enough history for the ranking engine.
What is the Crowding Score?
The Crowding Score measures how many institutional managers hold a given stock and what percentage of
the total 13F-reported institutional capital is concentrated in it. A high crowding score means a stock
is widely held by hedge funds and has become a consensus position. Heavily crowded positions are often
subject to violent unwinds during market stress β when one fund sells, others following the same thesis
may rush for the exit simultaneously, amplifying the price decline.
Free vs Premium Access
What are the limits of the Free Tier?
The
Free Tier is designed for retail exploration and includes:
- Latest 8 quarters (2 years) of holdings history per fund.
- Backtesting limited to a 2-year history window.
- Portfolio Builder limited to 3 funds with Equal Weighting only.
- Standard Sector Allocation chart (last 6 quarters).
- Up to 10 saved favorites.
- Access to all fund profile pages and basic search.
What do I get with a Premium Subscription?
Premium Users unlock the full power of 13Foresight:
- Full historical archive β every quarter since fund inception, not just the last
2 years.
- Unrestricted Backtesting β any fund, any time range, any benchmark.
- Manager Weighted portfolios β replicate the fund's actual conviction sizes.
- Full Manager Rankings with composite scoring.
- Advanced Analytics β Crowding Scores, Conviction Dynamics, Sector Rotation
Signals, Position Change alerts.
- Portfolio Builder β unlimited funds, correlation matrix, ENB diversification
analysis.
- Data Export to CSV/Excel for professional analysis.
- Unlimited Favorites.
What's the difference between Premium and the Demo?
The
Live Demo is limited to three
pre-selected funds and is read-only β you can explore but can't save results, change funds, or access
any other features. A
free account unlocks all 5,000+ fund profiles with 2 years of
history. A
Premium subscription removes all depth and feature limits across the entire
platform.
Can I integrate 13Foresight data via API?
Data export to CSV/Excel is available for all Premium subscribers on any holdings or backtest results
page. For programmatic/API access, please contact us β we offer enterprise data integrations for
institutional clients, quant funds, and platforms that need normalized 13F data delivered directly to
their systems.
Investing & Disclaimer
Is 13Foresight financial advice?
No. 13Foresight is a data and analytics platform, not a registered investment adviser.
All information on the platform β including backtest results, rankings, crowding scores, and performance
metrics β is provided for informational and research purposes only. Past simulated
performance does not guarantee future results. Nothing on this platform should be construed as a
recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Always conduct your own due diligence and consult a
qualified financial professional before making investment decisions.
Can I just copy a fund's 13F portfolio and expect the same returns?
No β and this is a critical distinction. A 13F-based "copycat" strategy has several structural
disadvantages compared to the fund itself: (1) 45-day lag β by the time the filing is
public, the manager may have already exited the position. (2) No short book β most
hedge funds hedge their longs with shorts that are never disclosed. (3) No intra-quarter
trades β the disclosed portfolio may look very different from what the manager actually
owned during the quarter. The backtests on 13Foresight explicitly model these constraints β our results
are an honest simulation of what a copycat investor could have achieved, not a replication of the fund's
actual P&L.
Why do top-ranked managers sometimes underperform in the next quarter?
Rankings are backward-looking by definition. A fund that ranks #1 based on the last 3 years excelled in
the market conditions of those 3 years β there is no guarantee that its strategy will continue to
outperform in a changed environment. Markets rotate, factor premiums compress, and manager skill can be
indistinguishable from luck over short periods. Use Rankings as a screening tool to
identify historically disciplined, consistent managers β not as a prediction of future performance.