SEC Filings

SEC filings are the disclosures that companies registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are legally required to make, published through the SEC's EDGAR system. The most useful for competitive intelligence include the 10-K (comprehensive annual report — business overview, risk factors, financials, competitive landscape), the 10-Q (quarterly financial update), the 8-K (prompt disclosure of material events such as acquisitions, executive changes, or major contracts), and the S-1 (the registration statement a company files before an IPO, often the first deep public look at its finances and strategy).

For CI, filings are gold because they are authoritative, standardised, and legally required to be accurate. The "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis" sections often name competitors, admit weaknesses, and telegraph strategy in ways marketing never would. An S-1, in particular, exposes a private competitor's economics for the first time.

The limitation is coverage and cadence: only public companies file, and even then quarterly, so filings give a deep but periodic view. They complement — rather than replace — the continuous, observable signals (pricing, product, hiring) that move between reporting dates.