How this works
What we read, how often, what we cannot see, the words we use, and our plans.
Method
Everything on this site comes from public filings at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulator every fund and every large investor must report to. Those filings are public records; we read them and put them in plain words.
What we read: the notice an investor must file within days of owning 5% or more of a fund, and every update to it; the yearly and quarterly reports each closed-end fund files about who runs it, what it costs, how much it borrows and what it holds; and the documents a fund files when it offers to buy back shares, calls a vote, plans to close down or merge, offers new shares, or sets a fixed payout.
How often: we check for new notices every minute, and each fund's reports every day. The footer of every page says when we last managed to check.
What we cannot see: today's share price and today's value of the holdings. Those are sold by data companies under licence, and we do not show them. Every value on this site carries the date it was filed and a link to the document it came from. We read documents automatically; when something looks wrong, the original is the one that counts.
Data
| Dataset | What we read | How often | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notices from large investors | Every notice an investor must file when it owns 5% or more of a fund, and every update. | Every minute | Sept 17, 2026, 6:40 a.m. New York time |
| The list of funds | Which registered funds are closed-end funds, their tickers and where they trade. | Daily | Sept 17, 2026, 2:32 a.m. New York time |
| Yearly reports | Who runs the fund, what it costs, what it paid out, and the value of its holdings at year end. | Daily check; funds file once a year | Sept 17, 2026, 2:32 a.m. New York time |
| Quarterly holdings reports | Size, borrowing, the top holdings and how the holdings did each month. | Daily check; funds file every three months | Sept 17, 2026, 2:32 a.m. New York time |
| Annual-report facts | Fee tables and two years of the gap between share price and value, for the funds that tag them. | Daily check; funds file once a year | Sept 17, 2026, 2:32 a.m. New York time |
| Annual-report payouts and returns | What the fund paid out per share and where it came from, and how the fund did over its fiscal year, read from the annual report's own table. | Daily check; funds file once a year | Sept 17, 2026, 2:32 a.m. New York time |
| Fund announcements | Buy-backs, votes, closings, mergers, offerings, payout notices. | Every few minutes, plus a daily and a weekly sweep | Sept 17, 2026, 6:31 a.m. New York time |
Words we use
- Closed-end fund
- A fund with a fixed number of shares that trade on an exchange, like a company's shares. The price can be above or below the value of what the fund owns.
- Notice
- A document an investor must file with the U.S. securities regulator within days of owning 5% or more of a fund, and again whenever the stake changes by about 1% or the investor changes its intentions.
- Pushing for changes
- The investor has told the regulator it may try to change how the fund is run: a buy-back, new managers, or closing the fund down.
- Passive investor
- The investor has told the regulator it is not seeking changes. Banks, brokers and index funds usually file this way.
- Sold down
- The investor now owns less than 5% and no longer has to report.
- Stake
- The share of the fund the investor owns, for example 7.7%.
- Value of the holdings
- What the fund's investments are worth, per share, after what it owes. The share price on the exchange is usually a little below or above it.
- Above or below the value
- How far the share price is from the value of the holdings. Trading 12% below the value means you pay 88 cents for a dollar of holdings.
- Buy-back offer
- The fund offers to buy back some of its shares at close to the full value of the holdings. You decide whether to take part, by a date.
- Shareholder vote
- Holders vote on a proposal, by mail or online, before a meeting date.
- A fight over the vote
- Two sides ask for your vote: the people who run the fund and a large investor.
- Rights offering
- The fund offers existing holders the chance to buy more shares, usually below the current price.
- Selling new shares
- The fund may sell new shares; rules only allow that at or above the value of its holdings.
- Closing down
- The fund sells everything it owns and pays the cash to holders.
- Folding into another fund
- Your shares become shares of another fund at the same value.
- Becoming a regular mutual fund
- Holders vote on turning the fund into one you can sell at full value on any day.
- Fixed payout
- The fund pays a set amount each month or quarter, whether or not it earned that much.
- Your own money back
- Part of a payout that was not income: it came from gains, or simply from your own money.
- Borrowing
- The fund borrows on top of its own money. Borrowed money makes gains and losses bigger.
- Preferred shares
- Money the fund has borrowed by selling a special class of shares that gets paid first.
- Yearly cost
- What the fund charges each year, as a share of its holdings: management fees, and in total including interest on borrowed money.
- Size
- What the fund's holdings are worth in total, after what it owes.
- Run by
- The firm that manages the fund's investments.
- Last checked
- The last time we successfully read the regulator's records.
Plans
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Disclaimer
This is information, not advice. We do not recommend buying, selling or holding anything, we do not know your situation, and we are not a registered investment adviser or broker. We are not connected to any fund company or to the SEC. Filings can be late, amended or wrong, and our reading of them can be wrong. Read the original documents before you act.
Contact
Corrections, a fund we are missing, or anything else: hello@cefradar.com.
For developers
An assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor can read this site for you through our assistant server: how to connect one. The same facts, events and holdings are also available as a programming interface: the interface documentation and a manifest of the JSON calls. Lists on this site can be downloaded as spreadsheet files (CSV) from the Details section of each page.