3 ms·

EDGAR is admirable in many ways, but it's age is really showing, especially from a UI and UX perspective. I really wish the government would spend some effort i

EDGAR is admirable in many ways, but it's age is really showing, especially from a UI and UX perspective. I really wish the government would spend some effort in modernizing that aspect of it. BamSEC.com charges $35/month for essentially just a prettier UI, and it's so much more pleasant to use. Honestly, it's a pity the government never does M&A -- they should just buy BamSEC. The public filings themselves are also a nightmare of hard to follow formatting.

neuland 9y ago
Thanks for mentioning BamSEC.com. It looks way easier to use, even if it is a paid service.
- hbcondo714 9y ago
  Try out Last10K.com for SEC Filings. Admittedly it's not as "pretty" but it's free and includes some unique features including sentiment analysis. Disclosure: Last10K.com is a side project of mine
piker 9y ago
Probably the product of (1) multiple changes in "best practices" data formats over 30 years (XML seems to be the format de jure), (2) optimizing for the filer and (3) diversity of filing data. Agreed it would be ideal if they were all similarly structured, but they have another set of stakeholders on whom they are imposing essentially a tax -- the filers themselves -- who have a legitimate gripe any time the SEC imposes a switching cost. It's easy to dismiss those gripes, but the vast majority of these filers aren't GOOG-sized. Many are very small, and those costs can be non-trivial to them. Edit: Worth mentioning here that EDGAR's ease of use makes sites like BamSEC simple to create. Probably EDGAR's time is best spent focusing on the institutional intermediary. That allows competition to iterate on the best UX/UI for browsing these filings without imposing the cost on the filers themselves as discussed above.
JumpCrisscross 9y ago
> EDGAR is admirable in many ways, but it's age is really showing, especially from a UI and UX perspective I like the bare-to-the-bones simplicity. In contrast to "better designed" portals of some other countries, I can usually point even the most technically-illiterate executive to the filing portal and expect to get something useful out the other end. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Please consult a securities lawyer before preparing and/or filing anything with the SEC.
- JauntTrooper 9y ago
  I love EDGAR. I use it daily, and agree with the benefits of simplicity in its UX/UI. It loads quickly and you can get the info you need in seconds if you know where to look.
noobermin 9y ago
It's almost as if you are unaware of the website you are posting this comment on.

neuland 9y ago

Thanks for mentioning BamSEC.com. It looks way easier to use, even if it is a paid service.

hbcondo714 9y ago
Try out Last10K.com for SEC Filings. Admittedly it's not as "pretty" but it's free and includes some unique features including sentiment analysis. Disclosure: Last10K.com is a side project of mine

piker 9y ago

Probably the product of (1) multiple changes in "best practices" data formats over 30 years (XML seems to be the format de jure), (2) optimizing for the filer and (3) diversity of filing data. Agreed it would be ideal if they were all similarly structured, but they have another set of stakeholders on whom they are imposing essentially a tax -- the filers themselves -- who have a legitimate gripe any time the SEC imposes a switching cost. It's easy to dismiss those gripes, but the vast majority of these filers aren't GOOG-sized. Many are very small, and those costs can be non-trivial to them. Edit: Worth mentioning here that EDGAR's ease of use makes sites like BamSEC simple to create. Probably EDGAR's time is best spent focusing on the institutional intermediary. That allows competition to iterate on the best UX/UI for browsing these filings without imposing the cost on the filers themselves as discussed above.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago

> EDGAR is admirable in many ways, but it's age is really showing, especially from a UI and UX perspective I like the bare-to-the-bones simplicity. In contrast to "better designed" portals of some other countries, I can usually point even the most technically-illiterate executive to the filing portal and expect to get something useful out the other end. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Please consult a securities lawyer before preparing and/or filing anything with the SEC.

JauntTrooper 9y ago
I love EDGAR. I use it daily, and agree with the benefits of simplicity in its UX/UI. It loads quickly and you can get the info you need in seconds if you know where to look.

noobermin 9y ago

It's almost as if you are unaware of the website you are posting this comment on.