Updated May 24, 2026 · 2142 articles
Insights
Research, news and field guides on institutional positioning. Powered by real SEC filings — 13F, 13D/G, Form 4.
Founder-Led Companies: Why Investors Seek Them
Many long-term investors favor founder-led companies for their alignment and long-term mindset. Here's why the theme recurs in 13Fs — and the governance risks.
Sarah MitchellInsurance Float: Why Insurers Hold Big Stock Portfolios
Insurers like Berkshire run huge equity 13Fs thanks to float — premiums they invest before paying claims. Here's how float works and why it makes insurers great investors.
Sarah MitchellPension Funds as 13F Filers: How to Read Them
CalPERS and state retirement systems file 13Fs too — but their books are largely indexed and externally managed. Here's how to read a pension fund's filing.
Sarah MitchellCapital Allocation and Buybacks: Reading How Firms Use Cash
How management spends a company's cash — reinvesting, acquiring, or buying back stock — can make or break an investment. Here's why it shapes quality 13F portfolios.
Sarah MitchellTotal Return Swaps: The Exposure a 13F Can't See
A fund can have huge exposure to a stock that never appears in any 13F — through total return swaps. Here's how they work and why they're a disclosure blind spot.
Marcus ChenReturn on Invested Capital: The Quality Metric
ROIC measures how well a company turns capital into profit, and it's the number quality investors care about most. Here's why ROIC drives so many 13F portfolios.
Sarah MitchellWhat Is an Economic Moat? A Quality-Investing Guide
A moat is the durable competitive advantage that lets a company defend its profits for years. Here are the types of moats and how to spot a moat-driven 13F.
Sarah MitchellSoutheastern Q1 2026: Longleaf's Deep-Value Adds
Southeastern's Longleaf book added aggressively to out-of-favor value names in Q1 2026 — Rayonier +90%, Fortune Brands +83%, Mattel +49% — far from the megacap crowd.
Marcus ChenTrian Q1 2026: Peltz's 8-Stock Activist Book
Nelson Peltz's Trian holds just 8 positions, with 86% in Janus Henderson, GE Aerospace, and Solventum — activism expressed through extreme concentration.
Marcus ChenAkre Q1 2026: Trimming Its Quality Compounders
Akre Capital's concentrated compounder book — Mastercard, Moody's, Visa, Roper — shrank 32.7% in Q1 2026 amid heavy trims, with FICO and Roper the exceptions.
Marcus ChenHow an Activist Campaign Works
Filing a 13D is only the opening move. Here's the activist playbook — from quietly building a stake to proxy fights — and how it shapes reading an activist's holdings.
Marcus ChenConcentrated vs Diversified: Two Ways to Build a 13F
One fund holds 11 stocks; another holds over a thousand. Here's the trade-off between concentration and diversification — and how to read each from a 13F.
Marcus ChenWhat a Gold Miner in a 13F Signals
A gold miner like Newmont in a fund's book is a leveraged bet on gold — usually a hedge, not a growth play. Here's how to read gold exposure in a 13F.
Marcus ChenSpecial-Situation Investing: Betting on Catalysts
Some funds buy stocks for a specific event — a spinoff, merger, or breakup — not the long-term business. Here's how special-situation investing shows up in a 13F.
Marcus ChenWhat a 13F Aggregates: One Filer, Many Funds
A big firm's 13F isn't one portfolio — it rolls up many funds, accounts, and strategies into one filing. Here's why that changes how you read it.
Sarah MitchellWhat Are Tiger Cubs? The Hedge Fund Family Tree
Lone Pine, Viking, Coatue, Tiger Global share an ancestor: Julian Robertson's Tiger Management. Here's what the Tiger cubs are and what their 13Fs have in common.
Sarah MitchellGabelli Q1 2026: A Hyper-Diversified Value Book
Mario Gabelli's book holds just 13.5% in its top 10 and 86% in a long tail of value and special-situation names — diversification as an explicit strategy.
Marcus ChenEdgewood Q1 2026: A Growth Book More Than Halved
Edgewood Management's concentrated growth book has fallen from ~$37B to $15.5B amid outflows. In Q1 2026 it trimmed ASML and Nvidia while adding Netflix and Axon.
Marcus ChenBrandes Q1 2026: A Global Deep-Value Book
Brandes runs a diversified, contrarian global value book — Grifols, Citi, Mohawk, Shell — and added aggressively to cheap cyclicals like Mohawk (+137%) in Q1 2026.
Marcus ChenPershing Square Q1 2026: Ackman Buys Microsoft, Exits Alphabet
Bill Ackman's 11-stock book opened a major Microsoft position (15% of assets) and nearly exited Alphabet in Q1 2026, while adding to Amazon — a big-tech rotation.
Marcus Chen