Is There a Schedule 13F? What the SEC Actually Calls This Filing

If you searched for "Schedule 13F," the filing you want is actually called Form 13F. The SEC's own rule, 17 CFR 240.13f-1, never uses the word "Schedule" for it, and the mix-up has a real reason: 13F is a different kind of report from the filings that do use the word "Schedule."

This guide explains what Form 13F is actually named, why the naming differs from Schedules 13D and 13G, who has to file it, and how to pull the data as JSON instead of parsing raw XML.

Form 13F, not Schedule 13F

Every EDGAR filing in this family is submitted under the type code 13F-HR (or 13F-NT for a manager that only holds confidential positions, or 13F-HR/A for an amendment), and the form itself is titled "FORM 13F" on its cover page. The authorizing rule, Rule 13f-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (17 CFR 240.13f-1), requires "every institutional investment manager" that meets the threshold to file "a report on Form 13F." Nowhere in the rule or the form instructions does the SEC call it a schedule.

The confusion is understandable. Investors already know Schedules 13D and 13G, both filed under the same Section 13 of the Exchange Act, and it is natural to assume the third major filing under that section follows the same naming pattern. It does not, because it is not doing the same job.

Why the names differ: a Schedule reports a stake, a Form reports a portfolio

Schedules 13D and 13G exist because Section 13(d) of the Exchange Act requires anyone, person or institution, who acquires beneficial ownership of more than 5% of a public company's voting shares to disclose it. That disclosure is attached to one company and one triggering event: crossing the 5% line. The SEC calls it a schedule because it is a standard set of disclosure items filed in response to something happening.

Form 13F exists under a separate provision, Section 13(f), added to the Exchange Act in 1975. It does not trigger on an event. It is a recurring report: every calendar quarter, a manager that clears the $100 million threshold reports its entire qualifying portfolio, whether or not any single position is large. That is a periodic form, not an event-driven schedule, and the SEC's naming reflects the difference.

Form 13F vs Schedule 13D vs Schedule 13G

If you want the activist-style disclosures, Schedule 13D filings and activist stakes are tracked separately from Form 13F.

Who has to file Form 13F

Rule 13f-1 applies to any institutional investment manager that exercises investment discretion over accounts holding, in aggregate, at least $100 million in "Section 13(f) securities" on the last trading day of any month during the year. Section 13(f) securities are equity securities of the kind described in Section 13(d)(1): shares admitted to trading on a national securities exchange or quoted on an automated quotation system such as Nasdaq. That reaches hedge funds, mutual fund advisers, pension funds, insurance companies, banks and registered investment advisers. Individuals investing only their own money are not managers for this purpose, and do not file.

A full breakdown of the 13F filing requirements covers the discretion test and shared-manager rules in more detail.

What the cover page and information table hold

A Form 13F submission has two parts:

• The cover page, naming the manager, the reporting period, the form type (13F-HR, 13F-NT or an amendment), the number of holdings entries, and whether any positions are held under shared voting or investment discretion with another manager.
• The information table, one row per qualifying position: issuer name, CUSIP, share class, the number of shares or principal amount, market value as of quarter end, and how voting authority over those shares is split between sole, shared and none.

Confidential treatment is possible for specific positions. A manager can ask the SEC under Rule 24b-2 and Section 13(f)(3) of the Exchange Act to delay disclosing a position, which then surfaces later in an amendment once the request expires.

When Form 13F is due

The rule's own wording is "within 45 days after the end of" the calendar quarter, so the exact date shifts slightly with weekends and holidays. Because many managers file close to the deadline, the positions in a freshly published Form 13F can be six weeks old by the time anyone reads them.

Reading Form 13F data in code

EDGAR serves Form 13F as XML, split across a cover-page document and a separate information-table document for each filing. SecFeed parses both and joins them, so a single call returns the manager, the period and every holding together.

curl "https://secfeedapi.com/v1/form-13f?cik=1067983" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

The cover page comes back with the manager's details and a summary of the information table:

{
  "cik": "1067983",
  "periodOfReport": "2026-06-30",
  "formType": "13F-HR",
  "filingManager": "EXAMPLE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC",
  "tableEntryTotal": 142,
  "tableValueTotal": 48210000000,
  "otherManagersWithSharedDiscretion": []
}

To pull the actual positions instead of the cover page, query the holdings endpoint directly, which can be filtered by CUSIP, CIK or a specific accession number:

from secfeed import Client

sf = Client("YOUR_API_KEY")
rows = sf.holdings_13f(cik="1067983", period="06-30-2026")
top = sorted(rows, key=lambda r: r["value"], reverse=True)[:5]
for r in top:
    print(r["issuer"], r["cusip"], r["shares"], r["value"])

The 13F Holdings API documents every field on both the cover page and the information table, and the 13F cover pages and holdings tutorial walks through joining the two by accession number.

Frequently asked questions

Is "Schedule 13F" the correct name?

No. The SEC's rule and the form itself use the name "Form 13F." "Schedule 13F" is a common search term, but it does not appear in the rule text or the EDGAR filing type codes (13F-HR, 13F-NT, 13F-HR/A).

Why do people call it a schedule?

Because Schedules 13D and 13G are filed under the same Section 13 of the Exchange Act and are more widely covered in the press, it is an easy assumption that the third major filing follows the same naming pattern. It is governed by a separate rule, Rule 13f-1, covering a different kind of disclosure: a recurring portfolio report rather than a one-time ownership disclosure.

Does Form 13F show short positions?

No. Form 13F only reports long positions in Section 13(f) securities. A manager can be long a stock in its Form 13F while holding an offsetting short position elsewhere that never appears in the filing.

How is Form 13F different from a 13F-NT?

A 13F-HR is the standard holdings report. A 13F-NT ("notice") is filed by a manager that has no positions to report publicly, usually because every position is held jointly with another manager that files the combined information table, or because the manager has confidential treatment pending on everything it holds that quarter.

Can I search Form 13F filings the same way I search Schedule 13D filings?

Both are indexed on EDGAR and both can be pulled through SecFeed's filing search, but they are different form types (13F-HR versus SC 13D), so a search for one will not return the other unless you query both form types explicitly.