Text-based SEC filing search lets you find documents by searching for specific words or phrases inside the filing content. Instead of browsing through hundreds of documents manually, you query the exact language companies use in their disclosures.
Investors and analysts search filings by text because they need to track specific risks, contractual terms, or business events. A single keyword like "goodwill impairment" or "cybersecurity incident" can surface material information buried in lengthy 10-Ks or 8-Ks. Manual review is slow and error-prone. Reading through a 200-page annual report to find mentions of a supplier or legal proceeding wastes hours and often misses critical details.
This guide shows you how to use SEC filing APIs to automate text search. You'll learn how APIs index and parse filings, structure search queries, filter results by date and form type, and apply these techniques to real analyst workflows.
By the end, you'll be able to pull targeted filing excerpts in seconds instead of spending hours on manual document review.
Why Text Search Beats Metadata Filters
• Company filters miss cross-references: Searching by ticker only returns filings where that company is the filer. You won't find mentions of that company in competitors' risk factors or acquisition discussions in other firms' 8-Ks.
• Form type filters don't catch context: Filtering for 10-Ks gives you annual reports, but it won't tell you which ones discuss supply chain disruptions, regulatory fines, or executive departures. You still have to read each document.
• Keywords surface hidden risks: A text search for "material weakness" across all filings reveals internal control problems that don't show up in metadata. Same for phrases like "going concern" or "restructuring charges."
• Trend analysis needs content, not labels: Tracking how often companies mention "inflation" or "interest rate exposure" over time requires searching the actual text. Metadata filters can't measure disclosure frequency or sentiment shifts.
• M&A and partnership intel lives in prose: Strategic moves often appear first in the business description or MD&A sections. A search for "joint venture" or "exclusive license" finds these deals before they hit press releases.
How SEC Filing APIs Handle Text Search
SEC filing APIs work by indexing the full text of EDGAR documents after they're filed. The indexing process extracts readable content from HTML and XBRL formats, strips out boilerplate headers and tables that add noise, and stores the cleaned text in a searchable database.
When you send a query, the API parses your keywords and matches them against the indexed content. Exact match search looks for your term as-is, including capitalization and word boundaries. Phrase search treats multi-word queries like "related party transaction" as a single unit, so the words must appear together in that order. Some APIs also support stemming, which matches variations like "acquire," "acquiring," and "acquisition" from a single root term.
Relevance scoring ranks results based on how well they match your query. The most common approach counts term frequency how often your keyword appears in a document and weighs it against inverse document frequency, which reduces the score for terms that show up in many filings. A filing that mentions "litigation" five times scores higher than one with a single mention, but if half of all 10-Ks contain "litigation," the scoring algorithm adjusts to avoid over-weighting common terms. Location also matters. Keywords in the risk factors section often receive higher relevance scores than the same words buried in footnotes.
This scoring helps you prioritize which filings to review first when your search returns hundreds of matches.
API Query Structure for Text Based Search
• Base endpoint - Most SEC filing APIs use a /search or /filings/search endpoint. You send an HTTP GET or POST request with your parameters.
• Keyword parameter - The query string goes in a field like q, query, or text. Wrap phrases in quotes for exact matching: q="goodwill impairment".
• Boolean operators - Use AND, OR, and NOT to combine terms. Example: q="acquisition" AND "due diligence" or q="lawsuit" NOT "settled".
• Pagination - Set limit to control results per page (common values: 10, 25, 50). Use offset or page to navigate through large result sets.
GET /api/v1/filings/search?q="cybersecurity breach"&limit=25&offset=0
• Sorting options - Most APIs let you sort by relevance (default) or date. Relevance ranking shows the best matches first. Date sorting returns the newest filings first, useful for monitoring recent disclosures.
GET /api/v1/filings/search?q="share repurchase"&sort=date&order=desc
• Response format - Results typically include filing metadata (CIK, company name, form type, filing date) plus a text snippet showing where your keyword appears. Some APIs return direct links to the full document on EDGAR.
{
"results": [
{
"cik": "0000320193",
"company": "Apple Inc.",
"form_type": "10-K",
"filing_date": "2024-11-01",
"excerpt": "...identified a material weakness in internal controls..."
}
]
}
Filtering Results by Filing Type and Date
| Filter Type |
Parameter |
Common Values |
Purpose |
| Filing Form |
form_type or formType |
10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, DEF 14A, S-1 |
Narrow search to specific disclosure types such as annual reports, earnings updates, material events, proxies, and IPO registrations |
| Date Range |
start_date, end_date or filed_after, filed_before |
2024-01-01, 2024-12-31 (YYYY-MM-DD) |
Limit results to filings within a defined period, useful for quarterly analysis or event studies |
| Fiscal Period |
period_end or fiscal_period |
2024-Q1, 2024-Q2, 2023-FY |
Focus on filings tied to a specific reporting period to compare quarter over quarter or year over year disclosures |
| Company Filters |
cik, ticker, sic |
0000789019, MSFT, 7372 |
Combine company or industry identifiers with text search to refine scope |
| Amendment Flag |
is_amendment or exclude_amendments |
true, false |
Exclude amended filings to avoid duplicates or isolate amendments to track disclosure corrections |
How date filters reduce noise - A broad search for "restructuring" returns thousands of filings. Adding filed_after=2024-01-01 cuts the list to recent announcements, which is more relevant for current portfolio decisions.
How filing type filters improve accuracy - Searching all forms for "earnings guidance" pulls irrelevant results from registration statements and proxy filings. Restricting to form_type=8-K targets the material event reports where guidance updates actually appear.
Real Use Cases for Analysts and Teams
• Risk monitoring - Set up automated searches for terms like "default," "covenant breach," or "delisting notice" across 10-Ks and 8-Ks. This flags credit risks or regulatory issues in portfolio companies before they escalate.
• Earnings research - Search 10-Qs and earnings releases for "revenue recognition change" or "non-GAAP adjustment" to spot accounting policy shifts that affect comparability. Combine with date filters to track quarterly trends.
• Compliance checks - Legal and compliance teams search for "related party transaction" or "conflicts of interest" in proxy statements (DEF 14A) to verify disclosure quality and identify governance red flags.
• M&A due diligence - Query target companies for "pending litigation," "environmental remediation," or "tax contingency" in their latest 10-K. Pull historical filings to see how these disclosures evolved over time.
• Market trend analysis - Track how often an industry mentions "supply chain" or "raw material costs" quarter by quarter. Search by SIC code and date range, then count keyword frequency to quantify narrative shifts.
• Executive compensation research - Search proxy filings for "clawback provision" or "performance-based equity" to benchmark compensation structures across peer groups.
Getting Started with Quantillium API
Quantillium's SEC Filings API gives you full-text search across all EDGAR documents with structured output and historical coverage. The setup takes a few minutes.
Authentication basics
• Sign up for an API key at quantillium.com. Free trial accounts include limited requests per month.
• Pass your key in the request header: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY.
• All endpoints use HTTPS. Rate limits apply based on your plan tier.
Quick setup steps
• Review the API documentation for endpoint details and parameter options.
• Test your first query using a simple keyword search in Postman or curl.
• Start with a narrow date range and single form type to keep initial result sets small.
• Build filtering logic into your scripts to automate recurring searches.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I search for multiple keywords at once?
Yes, use boolean operators like AND, OR, or combine phrases with quotes to build complex queries in a single API call.
How far back does historical filing data go?
Most APIs index EDGAR filings back to the mid-1990s when electronic filing became mandatory, though older documents may have OCR errors.
Does text search work across exhibits and attachments?
It depends on the API. Some index only the main filing body, while others parse exhibits like material contracts or financial statement schedules.
How do I handle common words that appear everywhere?
Use phrase search with quotes ("material weakness" instead of just "material") or combine with form type and date filters to narrow context.
Can I get the exact page or section where a keyword appears?
Many APIs return text snippets with character offsets or section labels, but extracting exact page numbers requires parsing the source HTML or PDF directly.
Is real-time search available for same-day filings?
Most APIs update within minutes to a few hours of EDGAR publication, depending on their indexing pipeline and your subscription tier.
What's the difference between relevance and date sorting?
Relevance ranks by keyword match strength and frequency, while date sorting shows the most recent filings first regardless of how well they match your query.
Text-based SEC filing search lets you find documents by searching for specific words or phrases inside the filing content. Instead of browsing through hundreds of documents manually, you query the exact language companies use in their disclosures.
Investors and analysts search filings by text because they need to track specific risks, contractual terms, or business events. A single keyword like "goodwill impairment" or "cybersecurity incident" can surface material information buried in lengthy 10-Ks or 8-Ks. Manual review is slow and error-prone. Reading through a 200-page annual report to find mentions of a supplier or legal proceeding wastes hours and often misses critical details.
This guide shows you how to use SEC filing APIs to automate text search. You'll learn how APIs index and parse filings, structure search queries, filter results by date and form type, and apply these techniques to real analyst workflows.
By the end, you'll be able to pull targeted filing excerpts in seconds instead of spending hours on manual document review.
Why Text Search Beats Metadata Filters
• Company filters miss cross-references: Searching by ticker only returns filings where that company is the filer. You won't find mentions of that company in competitors' risk factors or acquisition discussions in other firms' 8-Ks.
• Form type filters don't catch context: Filtering for 10-Ks gives you annual reports, but it won't tell you which ones discuss supply chain disruptions, regulatory fines, or executive departures. You still have to read each document.
• Keywords surface hidden risks: A text search for "material weakness" across all filings reveals internal control problems that don't show up in metadata. Same for phrases like "going concern" or "restructuring charges."
• Trend analysis needs content, not labels: Tracking how often companies mention "inflation" or "interest rate exposure" over time requires searching the actual text. Metadata filters can't measure disclosure frequency or sentiment shifts.
• M&A and partnership intel lives in prose: Strategic moves often appear first in the business description or MD&A sections. A search for "joint venture" or "exclusive license" finds these deals before they hit press releases.
How SEC Filing APIs Handle Text Search
SEC filing APIs work by indexing the full text of EDGAR documents after they're filed. The indexing process extracts readable content from HTML and XBRL formats, strips out boilerplate headers and tables that add noise, and stores the cleaned text in a searchable database.
When you send a query, the API parses your keywords and matches them against the indexed content. Exact match search looks for your term as-is, including capitalization and word boundaries. Phrase search treats multi-word queries like "related party transaction" as a single unit, so the words must appear together in that order. Some APIs also support stemming, which matches variations like "acquire," "acquiring," and "acquisition" from a single root term.
Relevance scoring ranks results based on how well they match your query. The most common approach counts term frequency how often your keyword appears in a document and weighs it against inverse document frequency, which reduces the score for terms that show up in many filings. A filing that mentions "litigation" five times scores higher than one with a single mention, but if half of all 10-Ks contain "litigation," the scoring algorithm adjusts to avoid over-weighting common terms. Location also matters. Keywords in the risk factors section often receive higher relevance scores than the same words buried in footnotes.
This scoring helps you prioritize which filings to review first when your search returns hundreds of matches.
API Query Structure for Text Based Search
• Base endpoint - Most SEC filing APIs use a /search or /filings/search endpoint. You send an HTTP GET or POST request with your parameters.
• Keyword parameter - The query string goes in a field like q, query, or text. Wrap phrases in quotes for exact matching: q="goodwill impairment".
• Boolean operators - Use AND, OR, and NOT to combine terms. Example: q="acquisition" AND "due diligence" or q="lawsuit" NOT "settled".
• Pagination - Set limit to control results per page (common values: 10, 25, 50). Use offset or page to navigate through large result sets.
GET /api/v1/filings/search?q="cybersecurity breach"&limit=25&offset=0
• Sorting options - Most APIs let you sort by relevance (default) or date. Relevance ranking shows the best matches first. Date sorting returns the newest filings first, useful for monitoring recent disclosures.
GET /api/v1/filings/search?q="share repurchase"&sort=date&order=desc
• Response format - Results typically include filing metadata (CIK, company name, form type, filing date) plus a text snippet showing where your keyword appears. Some APIs return direct links to the full document on EDGAR.
{
"results": [
{
"cik": "0000320193",
"company": "Apple Inc.",
"form_type": "10-K",
"filing_date": "2024-11-01",
"excerpt": "...identified a material weakness in internal controls..."
}
]
}
Filtering Results by Filing Type and Date
| Filter Type |
Parameter |
Common Values |
Purpose |
| Filing Form |
form_type or formType |
10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, DEF 14A, S-1 |
Narrow search to specific disclosure types such as annual reports, earnings updates, material events, proxies, and IPO registrations |
| Date Range |
start_date, end_date or filed_after, filed_before |
2024-01-01, 2024-12-31 (YYYY-MM-DD) |
Limit results to filings within a defined period, useful for quarterly analysis or event studies |
| Fiscal Period |
period_end or fiscal_period |
2024-Q1, 2024-Q2, 2023-FY |
Focus on filings tied to a specific reporting period to compare quarter over quarter or year over year disclosures |
| Company Filters |
cik, ticker, sic |
0000789019, MSFT, 7372 |
Combine company or industry identifiers with text search to refine scope |
| Amendment Flag |
is_amendment or exclude_amendments |
true, false |
Exclude amended filings to avoid duplicates or isolate amendments to track disclosure corrections |
How date filters reduce noise - A broad search for "restructuring" returns thousands of filings. Adding filed_after=2024-01-01 cuts the list to recent announcements, which is more relevant for current portfolio decisions.
How filing type filters improve accuracy - Searching all forms for "earnings guidance" pulls irrelevant results from registration statements and proxy filings. Restricting to form_type=8-K targets the material event reports where guidance updates actually appear.
Real Use Cases for Analysts and Teams
• Risk monitoring - Set up automated searches for terms like "default," "covenant breach," or "delisting notice" across 10-Ks and 8-Ks. This flags credit risks or regulatory issues in portfolio companies before they escalate.
• Earnings research - Search 10-Qs and earnings releases for "revenue recognition change" or "non-GAAP adjustment" to spot accounting policy shifts that affect comparability. Combine with date filters to track quarterly trends.
• Compliance checks - Legal and compliance teams search for "related party transaction" or "conflicts of interest" in proxy statements (DEF 14A) to verify disclosure quality and identify governance red flags.
• M&A due diligence - Query target companies for "pending litigation," "environmental remediation," or "tax contingency" in their latest 10-K. Pull historical filings to see how these disclosures evolved over time.
• Market trend analysis - Track how often an industry mentions "supply chain" or "raw material costs" quarter by quarter. Search by SIC code and date range, then count keyword frequency to quantify narrative shifts.
• Executive compensation research - Search proxy filings for "clawback provision" or "performance-based equity" to benchmark compensation structures across peer groups.
Getting Started with Quantillium API
Quantillium's SEC Filings API gives you full-text search across all EDGAR documents with structured output and historical coverage. The setup takes a few minutes.
Authentication basics
• Sign up for an API key at quantillium.com. Free trial accounts include limited requests per month.
• Pass your key in the request header: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY.
• All endpoints use HTTPS. Rate limits apply based on your plan tier.
Quick setup steps
• Review the API documentation for endpoint details and parameter options.
• Test your first query using a simple keyword search in Postman or curl.
• Start with a narrow date range and single form type to keep initial result sets small.
• Build filtering logic into your scripts to automate recurring searches.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I search for multiple keywords at once?
Yes, use boolean operators like AND, OR, or combine phrases with quotes to build complex queries in a single API call.
How far back does historical filing data go?
Most APIs index EDGAR filings back to the mid-1990s when electronic filing became mandatory, though older documents may have OCR errors.
Does text search work across exhibits and attachments?
It depends on the API. Some index only the main filing body, while others parse exhibits like material contracts or financial statement schedules.
How do I handle common words that appear everywhere?
Use phrase search with quotes ("material weakness" instead of just "material") or combine with form type and date filters to narrow context.
Can I get the exact page or section where a keyword appears?
Many APIs return text snippets with character offsets or section labels, but extracting exact page numbers requires parsing the source HTML or PDF directly.
Is real-time search available for same-day filings?
Most APIs update within minutes to a few hours of EDGAR publication, depending on their indexing pipeline and your subscription tier.
What's the difference between relevance and date sorting?
Relevance ranks by keyword match strength and frequency, while date sorting shows the most recent filings first regardless of how well they match your query.
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