Module 10 · Lesson 12 of 12 · Fundamentals and macro · About 5 minutes
Reading Primary Sources: Filings, Releases and Exchange Notices
On this page
Before you read: Reading Company Financial Statements: A Plain-Language Guide
What you will learn
- What a primary source is, and why it beats a summary when details matter.
- Where to find company filings, economic releases, central bank statements and exchange notices.
- A short checklist for reading any source and checking what a headline claims.
What is a primary source?
If a headline says a company “missed badly,” where would you look to check?
A primary source is the original document: the company’s filing, the agency’s release, the central bank’s statement, the exchange’s rulebook or notice. Secondary sources, such as news articles, data sites and social media posts, summarize them. Summaries are useful and fast, but they can round numbers, leave out context, mix up adjusted and reported figures, or simply get things wrong.
Source map diagram
Illustrative diagram constructed for teaching. Not real market data.
The diagram traces a fictional headline back to four kinds of primary source: a company filing, an agency release, a central bank statement and an exchange notice, with a six-step reading checklist beside it. It is constructed for teaching and is not real market data.
Where are the main sources?
Which sites publish the original documents for free?
- Company filings. The SEC’s EDGAR system holds US filings: 10-K and 10-Q reports, 8-K reports of major events, proxy statements, and insider transaction forms. Company investor relations pages post earnings releases, presentations and call recordings.
- Economic data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (jobs, CPI, PPI), the Bureau of Economic Analysis (GDP, PCE), and the Census Bureau (retail sales) publish releases and schedules. The Federal Reserve Board publishes its own statistical releases, and the Treasury Department publishes auction results and daily yield data. Going to the agency that produced a number shows it as first released, with its notes and revisions.
- Central banks. The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England and others publish statements, minutes, projections and speeches on their own sites.
- Exchanges and regulators. Exchanges publish contract specifications, trading hours, holiday calendars and rule changes. The SEC, CFTC, FINRA and NFA publish rules, investor alerts and broker registration records.
- Fund documents. An ETF’s prospectus and fact sheet describe its objective, holdings, costs and risks.
How do you read a source well?
What should you check before you trust a number?
A short checklist:
- Who published it, and when? Check the date and whether a newer version exists.
- What exactly is measured? Read the definitions: reported or adjusted, seasonally adjusted or not, annualized or not, nominal or real.
- What period does it cover? A quarter, a month, trailing twelve months.
- Has it been revised? Economic data and estimates often are.
- What do the notes say? Footnotes and technical notes often explain the surprises.
- Does the headline match the document? Compare the claim with the source line by line.
Why does this matter for learners?
What do you gain from reading the original once, even if you usually read summaries?
Reading a primary source once shows you what a summary leaves out. It also helps you notice when a claim on social media or in a promotion cannot be traced to any source. Investor alerts from regulators are a good place to learn the warning signs of fraud, such as promised profits with no risk of loss or pressure to act quickly.
What this does not tell you about primary sources
- How to interpret every document. Some, such as rulebooks and footnotes, take practice.
- That primary sources are never wrong. They can be revised or corrected.
- What any figure means for any price.
- Nothing here recommends any trade or investment.
Method in Practice: one release, read from the source
Fictional example. John, Harbor Index futures, the prices, times, costs and results are all invented for teaching. This shows how a written plan can be built and tested. It is not a recommendation, and nothing here says how often this idea works.
Try it on a real chart. Test this idea yourself on past sessions with bar replay. Keep your own count, including the days with no trade.
The idea. A headline is someone's summary. The agency's own release has the full table, the revisions and the notes (this lesson). John reads one fictional release, from the fictional "Harbor Statistics Office", the way the lesson describes.
Three outcomes (adapted: what each source said)
-
The headline: "Payrolls surge by 250,000"
-
The agency's table: +250,000 this month, but the prior two months were revised down by 120,000 in total. So three months together were weaker than first reported
-
What John did: nothing. His plan stood aside that morning anyway. He logged the revision
Show John's reading notes
| Item | From the release |
|---|---|
| Headline number | +250,000 (seasonally adjusted) |
| Revisions | Month −1: from +180,000 to +110,000. Month −2: from +140,000 to +90,000. Total −120,000 |
| Three-month change, after revisions | 250,000 + 110,000 + 90,000 = 450,000. Before revisions, the earlier two months had been reported as 320,000 |
| Notes | A methodology note about a survey change. Read in full |
| John's action | Stood aside (major release). Logged: "The headline and the table told different stories." |
Test it yourself
- Find the agency's own release page and calendar for one release you follow.
- Read the revisions table and the notes, not just the headline number.
- Compare three headlines about the same release with the source.
Where it breaks
- Agencies revise numbers, sometimes a lot.
- Seasonally adjusted and unadjusted numbers can tell different stories.
- Reading the source doesn't tell you how a market will react.
Reflection question: For the last release you heard about, did you read the agency's own page?
Check yourself
- Where would you find a US company’s annual report? Hint: the SEC’s filing system.
- Name two questions to ask before trusting an economic number. Hint: definitions and revisions.
- A post claims a “guaranteed” monthly return. What does that tell you, and where could you learn more? Hint: regulators publish investor alerts.
Reflect on your own process
- Which primary sources are bookmarked in your own process, and when did you last check that each link still works?
- When you write a fact in your journal, do you record the publisher, the release date and whether it has since been revised?
- What step in your checklist catches a claim that cannot be traced to any original source?
- For the last release you heard about, did you read the agency's own page?