August 26, 2021
SEC Makes XBRL Easier For Retail Investors
The SEC announced last week that it’s releasing free “Application Programming Interfaces” that aggregate Edgar submission history and XBRL data. While institutional investors already use XBRL to analyze massive amounts of data, the retail crowd has largely ignored the resource. APIs could change that, because they’ll allow developers to create apps that directly cater to individuals.
The APIs are updated in real-time as filings are made – with submission APIs having a processing delay of less than a second and the xbrl APIs having a delay of under a minute (potentially longer during peak filing times). Time will tell whether the meme stock traders will take advantage of this new information flow. The SEC even has a page that shows how to program with these APIs. It could be a good time to learn how to code!
– Liz Dunshee