Primary-source reading room
Practise a repeatable process for reading primary documents without turning an absence, interpretation or estimate into a fact.
Source hierarchy
- Issuer regulated information
- Identify who publishes the source and which claims it can support.
- Market notice or rule
- Identify who publishes the source and which claims it can support.
- Regulator filing
- Identify who publishes the source and which claims it can support.
- Official investor education
- Identify who publishes the source and which claims it can support.
Official sources for practice
- Entidades emisoras: información regulada (opens in a new window)
Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores
Official register for locating regulated issuer information in Spain.
- Estructura del mercado de valores español (opens in a new window)
BME
Official starting point for understanding BME markets, infrastructure and notices.
- Search Filings (opens in a new window)
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Official search for documents filed through EDGAR.
- Investor Bulletin: How to Read a 10-K (opens in a new window)
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Official bulletin for locating sections and checking information in a 10-K report.
Reading method
1. Locate
Start with the official register, issuer or market and record the URL and access date.
Exercise: Identify which of the four sources is used to find a filing by a US company.
2. Classify
Distinguish primary filing, market notice and educational guidance; do not give them equal evidential weight.
Exercise: Classify each reading-room source and explain which can support a specific issuer fact.
3. Extract
Extract the material data with its unit, currency, date, section and publishing entity.
Exercise: Create a claim card with date, section and source from a practice document.
4. Verify
Check amendments, later documents and consistency of amount, date and scope before reusing a claim.
Exercise: Compare two dated documents and identify which data remains current and which was updated.
5. Record unknowns
If the document does not answer a question, record what is missing, why it matters and which source may resolve it.
Exercise: Write an unknown without estimating it and identify the next document you would inspect.