13F filings
Copying an investor means copying a list of holdings. Applying the rules they published is a different thing, and it reaches further.
The difference
| A 13F | vincii | |
|---|---|---|
| What it shows | what one manager held | which companies pass the rules they published |
| How old | up to 45 days, once a quarter | recomputed the day it files |
| How many companies | however many that one manager holds | 5,315 |
| Why it is held | no column for it | the test, the arithmetic and the filing |
Every row is about the form itself or about this site. There is no claim here about anyone else’s product, because a claim like that is the one thing on this page you could not verify.
The gap
439 US-listed companies clear the business tests Warren Buffett has published. His own portfolio holds a few dozen.
That is not disagreement about the companies. A manager deploying hundreds of billions across a few dozen positions cannot take a stake that matters in one worth a few hundred million, so a concentrated portfolio at that size is confined to the biggest names — while the tests go on applying all the way down.
Copy the portfolio and you get the few dozen. Apply the tests and you get all 439 — and then decide what to pay, which is the half no filing holds.
What a 13F is, and when it comes
A manager with discretion over $100 million or more in US-listed securities files one every quarter, listing what they held on the last day of it. The deadline is 45 days after the quarter closes, so a position opened in early January can stay private until 15 May.
It is a disclosure requirement, not a communication. Nobody files one to explain what they think.
What it leaves out
- Anything off the list. Cash, private holdings and foreign-listed shares sit outside it, so a manager’s largest position can be missing from their own filing.
- Short positions. Not on this form, so a list of holdings can describe a book hedged to nothing.
- Anything withheld. A manager building a position can apply for confidential treatment, and the disclosure arrives after the buying is done.
- Every reason. Two managers holding the same company for opposite reasons file identical lines.
What this site does instead
Nineteen investors have set out in public what they look at before buying. Those tests are computed here from each company’s own filings, with the arithmetic shown and the filing linked, across every one of the 5,315 companies that report enough to be asked. Four of them also weigh price, which no filing contains — supply one and those compute too. See the nineteen lenses →
Criteria are not judgment. Buffett has bought companies that fail mechanical value tests, including tests drawn from his own writing, and no screen can assess management or how long a business can defend itself.