SEC and Edgar Filing Information

There's plenty of paperwork involved in an SEC filing.

The Securities and Exchange Commission regulates the securities industry, stock and option exchanges as well as various electronic securities markets. The SEC helps enforce fairness and efficiency in the financial industry by requiring all public companies to file regular financial reports. These reports can be accessed by the public on Edgar, the SEC's online database.

The Facts

The SEC was created in 1934 during the Great Depression in order to oversee the stock market and eliminate fraud. The SEC was given the power to bring companies it believed were involved in fraudulent activities to a civil trial and assist law enforcement agencies with a criminal trial.

Significance

All public corporations must file annual, quarterly and other supplemental reports in order to comply with SEC regulations. This helps bring light to the company's financial conditions, significantly reducing fraud and allowing investors to establish the fair market value of that corporation.

Edgar

Edgar, or the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system can be found through the SEC website by the public. Investors use the Edgar database to retrieve information on public companies in order to evaluate their financial conditions and current trends.

References

• Securities and Exchange Commission:About the SEC
• Securities and Exchange Commission:About Edgar

Resources

• Securities and Exchange Commission:Edgar