# CEF Radar - the full guide for assistants and programs

Plain-words answers about U.S. closed-end funds, read from public filings at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: whether a large investor is pushing for changes at a fund, whether the fund has announced something a holder must act on and by when, what the fund costs, how much it borrows and what it holds. Every fact carries its as-of date and a link to the original document. Written for holders aged 55 and over.

This is information, not advice. Nothing here recommends buying or selling anything; every answer, feed entry and interface result says so.

## What the site is

CEF Radar reads the public filings that U.S. closed-end funds and their large investors must send to the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission, and writes what they mean in plain words for the people who hold the funds. It covers every U.S.
closed-end fund we can identify from the regulator's own lists (360 funds at the last count), the large investors who file notices
about owning 5% or more of a fund, and the funds' own announcements: offers to buy back shares, shareholder votes and fights
over them, closings, mergers, offers of new shares and payout notices. It shows no prices and no values of holdings beyond
what a filing states, always with the date of that filing.

The site is one server-rendered HTML site with no scripts from third parties, no tracking cookies (a short-lived
form-security cookie only on the alerts form) and no third-party analytics: page views are counted in our own server logs,
IP masked. The same facts are available as spreadsheet files (CSV), a JSON interface, Atom feeds, an iCalendar file and a
Model Context Protocol server. Addresses use the fund's ticker: https://cefradar.com/fund/JOF. A lower-case ticker or a fund slug
redirects (301) to the ticker address.

## How to read a fund page (https://cefradar.com/fund/{TICKER})

1. The heading is the ticker and the fund's name; the line under it says who runs the fund and what it invests in, or its
   status when it is closing down or has merged.
2. "Is anyone targeting this fund?" - the answer sentence (Yes/No), then one line per large investor with its stake, whether
   it says it may push for changes, and since when.
3. "Is the fund doing anything you need to act on?" - the answer sentence, then for every open announcement a paragraph
   "Do I need to do anything?" with the date to act by written in full. "Nothing right now." means no open announcement.
4. "About this fund" - costs, borrowing, size and holdings as sentences, each with "as of" the report it came from and a
   link to the original document; how the value of the holdings did over the last months.
5. "What happened" - the dated timeline of notices and announcements, newest first; each row links to our page for that
   document and to the original at the regulator.
6. "Details" - the full tables, the yearly reports, the top holdings, the download of the fund's history as a spreadsheet
   file, and "See this fund's page at the SEC".
7. The footer of every page says when we last read the regulator's records ("Last checked").

## Words we use (plain words first)

- 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.

## The formal terms, for search and for readers of a broker's letter

The pages use our plain words first; where a holder may have a broker's letter in hand, a fund page shows the formal
term once, in quotes, next to our words. The terms are listed here once so an assistant can map a question to our words.

- "tender offer" - we say: offer to buy back shares; buy-back offer updated; buy-back offer results
- "proxy contest" - we say: a fight over the shareholder vote
- "liquidation" - we say: closing down
- "open-ending" - we say: vote on becoming a regular mutual fund
- "merger" - we say: folding into another fund; taking in another fund
- "at-the-market offering" - we say: may sell new shares
- "managed distribution" - we say: fixed payout notice
- "preferred share redemption" - we say: repaying borrowed money
- "deregistration" - we say: stopped reporting to the regulator
- "delisting" - we say: shares no longer trade
- "discount" - we say: the share price is below the value of the fund's holdings (a "premium" when above).

## Kinds of announcement (the codes the JSON interface and the assistant server accept as `kind`)

- tender_offer: offer to buy back shares
- tender_update: buy-back offer updated
- tender_result: buy-back offer results
- proxy_contest: a fight over the shareholder vote
- liquidation: closing down
- open_ending: vote on becoming a regular mutual fund
- term_change: vote on the fund's planned closing date
- merger: folding into another fund
- merger_acquirer: taking in another fund
- rights_offering: offer of more shares to holders
- share_offering: may sell new shares
- managed_distribution: fixed payout notice
- preferred_redemption: repaying borrowed money
- deregistration: stopped reporting to the regulator
- delisting: shares no longer trade

## The JSON interface

Base address https://cefradar.com/api/v1. Plain GET requests, JSON answers; every object carries `as_of` and `source_url` for each
fact and a top-level `notice` (information, not advice). 100 requests a day per address without
a key; a key from the alerts page ("More options") raises it to the plan's budget - send it as `Authorization: Bearer <key>`.
Every answer has the header `Link: <https://cefradar.com/terms>; rel="terms-of-service"` and the `X-RateLimit-Limit` /
`X-RateLimit-Remaining` headers. The machine-readable description is at https://cefradar.com/api/openapi.json.

- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/activists - The large investors we follow, with how many funds each is in now
- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/activists/{slug} - One large investor: its funds, its recent notices, what it usually does
- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/campaigns - Where the large investors hold stakes: one row per investor-and-fund, with the stake, whether it says it may push for changes, since when, and whether it has sold down
- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/events - Recent announcements across every closed-end fund, newest first, with the date to act by (filter by kind, date, fund, open)
- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/filings - The newest notices large investors filed about owning 5% or more of a fund, one row each
- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/filings/{accession} - One notice by its document number: who filed it, about which fund, the stake, and the original document
- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/funds - Every U.S. closed-end fund with who runs it, what it invests in, yearly cost, borrowing and size (sort, filter, page)
- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/funds/{ticker} - One fund: the investors in it, its latest notices and announcements, and a summary of its facts
- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/funds/{ticker}/events - One fund's dated announcements, newest first: buy-back offers, votes, closings, mergers, offers of new shares, payout notices
- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/funds/{ticker}/facts - One fund's latest yearly, quarterly and annual-report facts, each with its as-of date and source document
- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/funds/{ticker}/holdings - One fund's top 25 holdings and its mix by type of holding, kind of borrower and country, from the latest quarterly report
- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/holdings/search - Which funds hold a company or bond you name (or its CUSIP or ISIN), from the latest quarterly reports
- GET https://cefradar.com/api/v1/search - Up to 6 funds matching a ticker, a name or the firm that runs them (the search-box suggestions)

Examples:
- curl https://cefradar.com/api/v1/funds/JOF
- curl https://cefradar.com/api/v1/funds/JOF/events?open=1
- curl "https://cefradar.com/api/v1/events?kind=tender_offer&since=YYYY-MM-DD" (a date written as year-month-day)
- curl "https://cefradar.com/api/v1/search?q=japan"

## The assistant server (Model Context Protocol)

Address https://cefradar.com/mcp. Streamable HTTP, stateless: POST one JSON-RPC 2.0 request at a time with
`Content-Type: application/json` and `Accept: application/json, text/event-stream`; no session id, no key,
2,000 tool calls a day per address. GET answers 405. Every tool is read-only and returns one
plain-text block plus `structuredContent` with `as_of` dates and `source_url` links; an unknown ticker is `isError: true`
with a plain sentence. Start with search_funds when you only have a name, then get_fund.

- search_funds (query) - Find a fund. Finds a U.S. closed-end fund by its ticker, its name or the firm that runs it and returns up to 6 matches with a link to each fund's page, from SEC filings, with as-of dates and links to the original documents. Results are informational, read automatically from public filings and may contain errors; always show the source link and never present results as personal investment advice.
- get_fund (ticker) - One fund: who is targeting it, what to act on, costs. Tells you, in plain words, whether a large investor is targeting a U.S. closed-end fund, whether the fund has announced something you must act on and by when, what it costs, how much it borrows, how big it is and what it holds, from SEC filings, with as-of dates and links to the original documents. Results are informational, read automatically from public filings and may contain errors; always show the source link and never present results as personal investment advice.
- get_fund_events (ticker, months (optional)) - One fund's dated announcements. Lists one closed-end fund's dated announcements a holder may need to act on (offers to buy back shares, shareholder votes, closings, mergers, offers of new shares, payout notices) with the deadline and what to do, from SEC filings, with as-of dates and links to the original documents. Results are informational, read automatically from public filings and may contain errors; always show the source link and never present results as personal investment advice.
- get_fund_holdings (ticker) - What a fund holds. Describes what a closed-end fund holds - the mix by type of holding and country and its largest positions - from SEC filings, with as-of dates and links to the original documents. Results are informational, read automatically from public filings and may contain errors; always show the source link and never present results as personal investment advice.
- list_events (kind (optional), since (optional), only_open (optional)) - Recent announcements across funds. Lists recent announcements across all U.S. closed-end funds (buy-back offers, votes, closings, mergers, offers of new shares, payout notices), newest first, each with the fund, the deadline and what to do, from SEC filings, with as-of dates and links to the original documents. Results are informational, read automatically from public filings and may contain errors; always show the source link and never present results as personal investment advice.
- list_activists (none) - Large investors we follow. Lists the large investors we follow - those who buy into closed-end funds and sometimes push for changes - with how many funds each is in now and its newest move, from SEC filings, with as-of dates and links to the original documents. Results are informational, read automatically from public filings and may contain errors; always show the source link and never present results as personal investment advice.
- get_activist (slug) - One large investor. Describes one large investor in plain words: how many funds it is in and where it is pushing for changes, what it usually does, the funds it has left and its recent moves, from SEC filings, with as-of dates and links to the original documents. Results are informational, read automatically from public filings and may contain errors; always show the source link and never present results as personal investment advice.
- latest_filings (days (optional), cef_only (optional)) - Newest notices from large investors. Lists the newest notices large investors filed about owning 5% or more of a fund (raised or cut a stake, may push for changes, passive, sold down), one plain sentence each, from SEC filings, with as-of dates and links to the original documents. Results are informational, read automatically from public filings and may contain errors; always show the source link and never present results as personal investment advice.
- which_funds_hold (query) - Which funds hold a security. Lists every U.S. closed-end fund whose latest quarterly holdings report includes a company or bond you name (or its CUSIP or ISIN), with each fund's share of it and the report date, from SEC filings, with as-of dates and links to the original documents. Results are informational, read automatically from public filings and may contain errors; always show the source link and never present results as personal investment advice.
- Prompt check_my_fund (ticker) - asks the assistant to call get_fund and answer: is anyone targeting it, must I act by
  a date, what does it cost and borrow.

Example (list the tools):
curl -X POST https://cefradar.com/mcp -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "tools/list"}'

Example (one fund):
curl -X POST https://cefradar.com/mcp -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 2, "method": "tools/call", "params": {"name": "get_fund", "arguments": {"ticker": "JOF"}}}'

Connection settings for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor: https://cefradar.com/for-developers. The server's registry description:
https://cefradar.com/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json.

## Feeds and calendar

Atom feeds at https://cefradar.com/feed.xml (fund announcements), https://cefradar.com/filings/feed.xml (all recent activity), https://cefradar.com/calendar/feed.xml
(dates to know), https://cefradar.com/buy-backs/feed.xml, https://cefradar.com/closing-down/feed.xml, https://cefradar.com/fund/{TICKER}/feed.xml and
https://cefradar.com/activist/{slug}/feed.xml. Entry ids are permanent tag URIs built on the regulator's own document numbers. The
open dates to act by are also an iCalendar file at https://cefradar.com/calendar.ics.

## Attribution and reuse

The compiled data (facts, dates, document numbers) is free to reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/); credit it as "CEF Radar (cefradar.com), data from public filings at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission". Our sentences and design are all rights reserved: quote with the source link, do not redistribute them in bulk.

When you quote a fact, repeat its as-of date and give the link to the original document (the `source_url`), and say
where it came from: "CEF Radar (cefradar.com), data from public filings at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission". Never present a result as personal investment advice.

## Contact

hello@cefradar.com