Explore EDGAR: the Securities and Exchange Commission's free, public database with information and filings from public companies.

Learn about the essential Securities and Exchange Commission filing types, including S-1, 10K, 10Q, and 8-K.

Watch this video to learn how to read a company's earnings report, the documents that reveal key details about a public company's recent financial performance.

Watch former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler's 'Eras Tour' for the agency's 90th anniversary, a look back on the pivotal moments in the agency's history.

An S-1 reveals financial and other details to the public, often for the first time, when filing for an IPO

To file for an IPO, a company must file a registration form called an S-1 or prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. S-1s detail a company's current business model, competitive landscape, and other financial information.

Earnings season—the time period at the end of each quarter when many public companies release their earnings reports—offers a chance for investors and Wall Street analysts to evaluate how a wide range of companies are performing at once.

The Securities and Exchange Commission was created during the Great Depression to restore public trust in financial markets after the 1929 crash.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public

A prospectus typically contains information about the company's operations, including details about its management team and their compensation, financial statements, how it intends to use any capital raised by the IPO, and more. While these documents can be dense and lengthy, experts say that some of the most important sections of a prospectus for investors to look at include the risk factors section and the use of proceeds section.

An initial public offering is how a private company becomes public.

This milestone requires plenty of preparation, starting with the SEC's S-1 registration, revealing key details about the company's finances and strategy. Investment bankers set valuations, secure long-term investors, and finalize share pricing before the public launch. IPOs provide companies with significant capital, but also demand transparency and invite public scrutiny.

Smaller companies’ IPO information can be hard to track down

This calendar keeps you updated on the current IPO dates and pricing from different companies. You can search for upcoming and future IPO dates and see which companies withdrew from the IPO process.

Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 filings can impact common stockholders

Publicly traded companies don’t file for bankruptcy out of nowhere—there are typically warning signs in a stock’s performance, quarterly earnings calls, and US Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Ride along on one coffee company's journey through the stock market to better understand how a company goes from private to public.

Electronic trading transformed investing, ushering in a new era for retail investors in which average Americans could research stocks online and then use early platforms like StreetSmart and E-Trade to conduct their transactions

In the early 1990s, stock brokerages knew that online trading would be a great equalizer, creating opportunities for more individuals to buy and sell stocks.

The number of publicly traded companies has decreased in recent years.

In 1996, more than 7,300 companies traded publicly on US stock markets, but that number has recently dropped to 4,300. Economists point to two reasons: First, going public requires full disclosure of operations, exposing it to scrutiny from investors, competitors, and analysts. Second, the IPO process is expensive and time-consuming.

Explore a tool that shows how much stake large asset managers, including BlackRock, hold in public companies.

Airbnb’s S-1 in 2020 revealed how it weathered the pandemic and its financials

An S-1 or prospectus is a registration form filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission when a company wants to go public. They can be pretty juicy documents, as S-1s can reveal previously private details about companies to the public, often for the first time.

Companies go public via an initial public offering (IPO) to raise large amounts of capital, helping them expand, invest in new ventures, hire more staff, or pay off debts.

Read a breakdown of the different financial and banking regulatory bodies in the US, including the SEC.

Some private credit funds trade on the stock market

These funds, which trade at market prices, are called "public BDCs," which stands for "business development companies." For instance, the global alternative investment manager Ares Management Corp. has a public BDC.

Explore a giant ETF database

Given that there are more than 3,000 ETFs trading in the US, the list of options for individual investors may be overwhelming. VettaFi provides a database that allows potential investors to sort funds by sector, region, strategy, fund issuers, and more. It tracks nearly 100 funds focused on general technology but just one that focuses on copper mining.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF is one of the most highly traded funds on the market

State Street, a popular ETF issuer, is responsible for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF. This fund trades under the SPY ticker, and State Street maintains a web page with key facts and figures on SPY. For instance, its expense ratio is 0.0945%, or $9.45 on an initial $10K investment.

The stock market, explained in 3 minutes

The stock market consists of a set of exchanges and other venues where shares of public companies are bought and sold. The Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange are two of the most well-known exchanges in the US, while major exchanges also operate around the world, including in Tokyo, Shanghai, London, and São Paulo.

Even iconic companies can get dropped from the Dow

The Dow’s lineup evolves as the economy changes. General Electric, part of the original 1896 index, was removed in 2018, after 122 years. ExxonMobil, once the world’s largest company, was replaced by Salesforce in 2020.

Retail investing by the numbers

When average Americans began pouring into the stock market, Wall Street wasn’t sure if its new guests were there to stay. But at the end of 2023, Public confidently declared that retail investors “weren’t going anywhere” after 30 million new individuals began buying and selling stock. Download the report to learn more here.

The Dow Jones & Company began as a small news service in 1882

Founded in 1882 by Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser, Dow Jones & Company started with hand-delivered market bulletins. Today it’s a global financial news giant, best known for publishing The Wall Street Journal.

Explore a college affordability and transparency guide

From the US Department of Education, this portal provides everything you need to evaluate colleges. The college scorecard provides handy data on every school, from graduation rates to annual average earnings out of school, while the net cost calculator directs you to each school's calculator that allows you to estimate the cost of college based on your unique circumstances.

Investors rely on the S&P 500 as a benchmark for the state of the economy

Since the index represents a broad range of diverse industries, it's become a proxy for the market itself and a common benchmark for investors to compare returns and performance patterns against. Generally speaking, when someone says a stock is under- or out-performing the market, that actually means under- or out-performing the S&P 500. The S&P 500 is exchange-agnostic, and includes companies listed on both the NYSE and Nasdaq.

Insider trading is the practice of trading a company's securities based on material, nonpublic information.

How is credit reporting regulated in the US?

While the three main credit bureaus and the credit scoring companies aren't government entities, they are subject to certain US government regulations, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

S&P Global, the company that makes the S&P 500, is listed on the S&P 500

When the S&P 500 index was released in 1957, it was helpful for investors, but not necessarily profitable. S&P Global now makes more than $1B a year just from selling its index data. Alongside its other services, like credit ratings, S&P Global makes more than $14B a year.

See every company in and out of the Dow since 1928

The index has had 30 companies since 1928. See each company’s tenure on the index and what firms were added or replaced by year and industry.

Track all of the acquisitions in BlackRock's history, from eFront to Preqin.

Listen to the methods and strategy of the secretive S&P 500 selection committee

Stocks are added to the S&P 500 by a secret selection committee that meets regularly to assess which companies can remain in the index, which companies need to be added, and which companies no longer meet the criteria. The members of the committee used to be public, but S&P Global decided to keep its members confidential after companies sent packages, letters, and gifts to try to make it into the index.

More than 650 companies went public in the US in 1996

As the dot-com bubble reached its peak, most dot-com companies went public with little proof of being profitable and were often overvalued. In 1999, the Nasdaq's price-to-earnings ratio (a tool used to determine a stock's value that divides its price by earnings) hit 90.2, signaling that many companies were operating at a net loss. Startups promised investors that more time and money would help scale their businesses and become profitable.

A direct listing is when a company goes public, listing shares on a stock exchange

A direct listing is when a company goes public, listing its shares on a stock exchange, rather than issuing new shares or raising capital. That means investment banks—traditionally serving as intermediaries—could lose out on some of the profits from these deals as more companies like Spotify opt for direct listings.

A deep dive into Enron, one of the largest accounting scandals in history

Investing comes with great opportunities for reward, but it also carries great risk. Investors learned that the hard way when Enron collapsed. Everyone lost money—from the largest institutions on Wall Street to mom-and-pop investors who bought S&P 500 index funds. This series from American Scandal starts with a close-up into an investment manager at Enron who started to unravel the accounting scandal happening behind the scenes. Listen here.

Explore data on every US county with this interactive

The Community Explorer is an interactive tool that brings the power of big data and machine learning to the equity-related policy discussion. Search by economic profile and county and see the country from a different lens.

The fees for keeping a company listed on the NYSE are typically higher than the Nasdaq's.

The S&P 500, managed by the same company, is another major stock index

Also run by S&P Dow Jones Indices, the S&P 500 tracks 500 large US firms using market-value weighting. Many analysts view it as a more accurate gauge of the American economy.

See a database of large companies owned by private equity firms

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project tracked more than 200 companies owned by private equity with more than 7,000 employees. Companies on the list include J. Crew, Jersey Mike's Subs, Barnes and Noble, Panera Bread, and Tropical Smoothie Cafe.