InsiderFlow › Glossary › What is the SEC?

What is the SEC?

The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is the authority overseeing US financial markets: the source of nearly all public data on funds and insiders.

Born in 1934 after the '29 crash, it forces listed companies to publish truthful accounts, funds to disclose positions (13F), insiders to report their trades (Form 4), and it prosecutes fraud and illegal insider trading.

For investors it's a free goldmine: the EDGAR database gathers every filed document — accounts, prospectuses, filings. All the transparency of US markets flows from here, and it's why apps like InsiderFlow can exist.

Concrete example

The GameStop saga, the Enron and Madoff investigations, the fines on Wall Street giants: every great story in US finance runs through the SEC.

How you see it in InsiderFlow

On InsiderFlow these concepts come alive on real data: what big funds and insiders are buying, explained every day.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a European SEC?

National authorities (like Italy's CONSOB) oversee local markets; ESMA coordinates at the EU level. The SEC remains the model for data transparency.

Are SEC documents free?

Yes, all of them: on sec.gov and EDGAR anyone can read every listed US company's filings.