The 13F Flow Quarterly · what the world’s best stock pickers actually did
Stand where the money is already going.
Every 45 days after a calendar quarter ends, every institutional investor managing more than $100 million in US equities files a 13F with the SEC. The filing discloses every long position. Hedge funds, pension funds, endowments, family offices, sovereign wealth funds. All of them. Public, free, by law. We have used this signal for two decades to inform what we hold and when we move.
The 13F Flow Quarterly is our public-facing record of what that data said in the most recent quarter. We publish it the week after each filing window closes (Feb 14, May 15, Aug 14, and Nov 14). Each issue surfaces what the world's best stock pickers accumulated, what they reduced, where capital rotated at the sector level, and how the signal is shaping our next AA rebalance. The framing is observational, not prescriptive. The data is what it is. The methodology decides what to do with it.
What this report is, and what it is not.
What this report IS: a measured reading of a public, persistent, regulated data set. The 13F filings are imperfect (45-day delay, long-only, no short positions, no derivatives detail) but they are the only direct view we have of where the largest, most-resourced active managers in the world are putting their own dollars. When the same names appear quarter after quarter on the buy side of that ledger, it is information.
What this report IS NOT: a buy list. A 13F flow signal is necessary but not sufficient. A name being accumulated by smart money does not mean it clears our quality screen, our valuation discipline, or our risk-management posture. Plenty of the names we flag in this report never appear in an AA portfolio because they fail one of those other gates. The report tells you what the data said. It does not tell you what to do with the data.
The connection from this report to our portfolios is the methodology. The flow signal informs which sectors and which specific businesses we evaluate at each rebalance. The quality and valuation work decides what actually enters the portfolio. The two layers compound. Without flow, our research is fundamental work that may or may not have a near-term buyer. Without research, the flow signal is herd behavior in expensive clothing.
Q2 2026 data will be reported in the August issue, the week after the August 14 filing deadline. Until then, this introductory issue stays at the top of the archive as the franchise primer.
Sector-level rotation is one of the most useful reads in any quarter's data. Where capital is flowing tells you more about positioning sentiment than any single name does. A quarter where flow concentrates into one sector tells a different story than a quarter where flow spreads broadly. We will publish both signals each issue.
Sector rotation also informs Sector Alpha, our free model portfolio. Sector Alpha mirrors Core 20's sector posture, executed in the eleven SPDR sector ETFs. When the flow data argues for a sector tilt at the Core 20 level, Sector Alpha updates accordingly. Free for all signed-in members. The connection between the flow data and the free product is direct.
Each quarterly issue closes with a section on how the flow data is shaping our next rebalance window. AA rebalances four times a year, between the 20th and 25th of February, May, August, and November. The filing windows land six weeks before each rebalance. That gives us time to interpret the data, run the quality and valuation screens, and arrive at the rebalance with conviction rather than reaction.
The public version of this section names themes, not specific trades. Members who want the trade list itself receive the Pro Weekly the following Thursday and the trade alert on the rebalance morning. The framing is consistent: we publish the methodology in public, the implementation behind the paywall.
We have published 13F-informed research for two decades. We have never published it as a single recurring franchise that members could anchor to. The 13F Flow Quarterly fixes that. Four issues a year, on a regulatory cadence, anchored in public data, framed by our methodology.
If you find the framing useful, the Sunday Brief lands every Sunday morning around 8:30 AM ET with the broader market read. The Pro Weekly lands every Thursday with the portfolio-level commentary. The Hall of Fame on the Track Record page shows the closed-position results from running this methodology. The 13F Flow Quarterly is the public read of the input that drives all of it.
Get every issue when it lands.
The 13F Flow Quarterly publishes four times a year, the week after each filing window closes. Free for subscribers. Pairs with the Sunday Brief and the Pro Weekly.
Subscribe freeEducational research from Advising Alpha. We are a publisher under Section 202(a)(11)(D) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, not a registered investment adviser. The flow data discussed here is sourced from public SEC 13F filings. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Full disclaimer at advisingalpha.com/disclaimer.