EDGAR tips and tricks

To get into EDGAR faster, use Firefox’s bookmarks or Chrome’s custom search engines.
In EDGAR, quickly filter filing types by using the “Filing Type” textbox.

Chrome instructions (new)

Go into Chrome’s settings.
Click on “Manage search engines…”.

Scroll to the bottom of that window.
In “Add a new search engine”, type in a name such as SEC ticker search.
In “Keyword”, type in something like sec.
In “URL with %s in place of query”, type in http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?CIK=%s&owner=exclude&action=getcompany
In “Add a new search engine”, type in a name such as SEC name search.
In “Keyword”, type in something like secname.
In “URL with %s in place of query”, type in http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=%s&owner=exclude&action=getcompany

On my computer, I have the Company Name keyword set to secname and the Fast Search keyword set to sec. If I want to bring up SEC filings for AAPL, I go to the URL bar in Chrome and type in sec AAPL.

Chrome instructions (old)

Go to http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html
Right click the textbox in the image below.
Click “Add as search engine…”
Change the keyword to something shorter and click ok.
Rinse and repeat for Fast Search.

Firefox instructions

Create a bookmark for http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=&match=&CIK=%s&filenum=&State=&Country=&SIC=&owner=exclude&action=getcompany
Get into the properties for that bookmark.
Add a keyword.

To search through AAPL filings on EDGAR, go to Firefox’s URL bar and type in sec AAPL.

Repeat this process for http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=%s&match=&CIK=&filenum=&State=&Country=&SIC=&owner=exclude&action=getcompany

An EDGAR tip

To filter by filing type, you can click in the Filing Type textbook and type in part of a filing’s official designation. Suppose you want to read AAPL’s 10-Ks and 10-Qs. Simply type in “10” in the Filing Type textbox. This will bring up all 10-Ks and 10-Qs.