May 14, 2023
I am opposed to this regulation change.
The 13f filings rule stands as an incredible boon to the little investor who uses it to reduce the cost and time put into stock research by being able to evaluate professional portfolios in a timely way.
It is an immense boost of confidence to a small investor to see that several professionals bought a stock they are interested in. And to see what percentage of the pro's portfolio went to that stock ... and at what price ... that's an incredible benefit to the little guy that the SEC hopes to serve.
Millions of small investors are becoming financially literate because of a revolution in online financial information disclosure. Please do not remove one of the little guy's best sources of information about what the best institutional investors in the world are doing.
Increasing the minimum to $3.5 billion will eliminate most of the pro investors we follow - great investors who intentionally limit the size of their investment portfolios - pros like Guy Spier, Mohnesh Pabrai, and Allan Meecham, all of whom will be excused from filing by this change. We rely on small institutional investors for the best sort of guidance in the stock market and would sorely miss this information.
To indicate how beloved these filings are, entire websites are dedicated to these 13f filings, like Gurufocus.com, Dataroma.com, and WhaleWisdom.com. Gurufocus.com alone has over 500,000 unique visitors a month seeking this information.
In the 1970s, when this regulation was implemented, the purpose was to disclose portfolios that could move the market to benefit other large investors. Today, things have changed. The little guy is looking for more disclosure, not less. Now this data is also used by millions of small investors to improve their investing results. The 13f data for portfolios between $100 million and $3.5 billion is the sweet spot for small investors, and we hope you will see the value in keeping this requirement in place.
Warmest regards,
Hussam Elsheikh