7 ms·

I'm not sure about exponential growth in public filings (and EDGAR does not track regulation, so it's not relevant). For example, the number of publicly traded

I'm not sure about exponential growth in public filings (and EDGAR does not track regulation, so it's not relevant). For example, the number of publicly traded companies is down about 70% compared to twenty years ago: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DDOM01USA644NWDB https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DDOM01USA644NWDB Could you share a link showing exponential increase in the use of EDGAR?

metaobject 9y ago
While there may be fewer companies, are there also fewer stock transactions, etc? This system tracks a lot of different types of transactions involving public companies.
piker 9y ago
Sure. Although you should be aware that not only public companies are required to make filings with the SEC. Index - Q1 1994 - 3mb - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/full-index/1994/QTR1/form.idx https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/full-index/1994/QTR1/form... Index - Q1 2017 - 45mb - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/full-index/2017/QTR1/form.idx https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/full-index/2017/QTR1/form...
- hbcondo714 9y ago
  File sizes are also increasing because filers are adding structured data[1] to their SEC filings. Also, most SEC Filings are now verbose HTML files instead of plain-text files. [1] https://www.sec.gov/structureddata/what-is-structured-data https://www.sec.gov/structureddata/what-is-structured-data
  - zwp 9y ago
    And not really exponential. Something interesting happened 2003-2004 though. We can perhaps observe lead up to dot-bomb (1996-1999 growth) and the 2008 financial crisis. http://hpics.li/2e78909 http://hpics.li/2e78909 1994,3153191 1995,4813587 1996,7539137 1997,13755958 1998,16107028 1999,15935643 2000,17548021 2001,16873202 2002,18904001 2003,27723307 2004,47116841 2005,47982675 2006,50672891 2007,51322342 2008,49635521 2009,45312542 2010,45384720 2011,46455461 2012,46733150 2013,45842099 2014,47065954 2015,48112988 2016,46636963 2017,47037415
    - hbcondo714 9y ago
      Nice breakdown! The SEC introduced some new filing requirements[1] in 2003 and 2004 that may have contributed to this. [1] https://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/regoverview.htm https://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/regoverview.htm
  - piker 9y ago
    It's an index - a '\n'-delimited list of strings indicating the locations of filings. The size of those filings has nothing to do with the size of the index.
whatok 9y ago
EDGAR does not only contain public company filings.
huac 9y ago
Additional regulation increases the number of filings that must be made.

metaobject 9y ago

While there may be fewer companies, are there also fewer stock transactions, etc? This system tracks a lot of different types of transactions involving public companies.

piker 9y ago

Sure. Although you should be aware that not only public companies are required to make filings with the SEC. Index - Q1 1994 - 3mb - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/full-index/1994/QTR1/form.idx https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/full-index/1994/QTR1/form... Index - Q1 2017 - 45mb - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/full-index/2017/QTR1/form.idx https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/full-index/2017/QTR1/form...

hbcondo714 9y ago
File sizes are also increasing because filers are adding structured data[1] to their SEC filings. Also, most SEC Filings are now verbose HTML files instead of plain-text files. [1] https://www.sec.gov/structureddata/what-is-structured-data https://www.sec.gov/structureddata/what-is-structured-data
- zwp 9y ago
  And not really exponential. Something interesting happened 2003-2004 though. We can perhaps observe lead up to dot-bomb (1996-1999 growth) and the 2008 financial crisis. http://hpics.li/2e78909 http://hpics.li/2e78909 1994,3153191 1995,4813587 1996,7539137 1997,13755958 1998,16107028 1999,15935643 2000,17548021 2001,16873202 2002,18904001 2003,27723307 2004,47116841 2005,47982675 2006,50672891 2007,51322342 2008,49635521 2009,45312542 2010,45384720 2011,46455461 2012,46733150 2013,45842099 2014,47065954 2015,48112988 2016,46636963 2017,47037415
  - hbcondo714 9y ago
    Nice breakdown! The SEC introduced some new filing requirements[1] in 2003 and 2004 that may have contributed to this. [1] https://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/regoverview.htm https://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/regoverview.htm
- piker 9y ago
  It's an index - a '\n'-delimited list of strings indicating the locations of filings. The size of those filings has nothing to do with the size of the index.

whatok 9y ago

EDGAR does not only contain public company filings.

huac 9y ago

Additional regulation increases the number of filings that must be made.