Reading 10-Ks. Print or Online?

To me the answer is obvious, print. Call me old fashioned but I feel like I understand content better when I can actually hold it in my hands, I still buy hardcopies of books opposed to getting a kindle and downloading them. Also, marking up the 10-K with notes is much easier when you print it out. However, some folks I've been talking to say they read it all online, which is madness. So what say you WSO community. Print or online?

17 Comments
 

I read it online and it’s maddening when you want to keep refering to a point/statement in previous pages. I keep scrolling up and down only to forget which page I was on. Maybe it’s just me but I definitely prefer a printed version since I can also mark things and add remarks quickly

 

I use a combination of printing and online. My original read through is in print and when I need to refer to pages above / below or if I want to find key things i.e use CNTRL + F then I use online.

 

This is pretty much what I do now. Once I feel like I've digested the K I'll save them as a PDF and CTRL F to reference back to certain parts of it later on.

"That was basically college for me, just ya know, fuckin' tourin' with Widespread Panic over the USA."
 

Online for me, I save them all as PDF's in each company's file and I take notes in word as I'm going through them. I will say however, that I have a strong preference for hard copies of books. If there's a conclusion to draw there it's probably that for anything high volume I prefer print, but i can get through a 200 page 10-K in digital form. I'll take note of the page number of anything specific I want to refer back to as I work through it, and for me it's easier to just type the page number into the top left than flipping through physical pages.

Plus CTRL F is a game changer with the digital version.

 

it'll take me a few hours of reading and taking notes until I feel good enough to move onto the next steps

"That was basically college for me, just ya know, fuckin' tourin' with Widespread Panic over the USA."
 

Better question might be why are you reading so many 10-ks?

I read the most recent K to understand how the company presents the business. I may go through other Ks for segment information or some other random data I can't find anywhere else.

I don't understand what 2016's K will say that 2017's doesn't have pretty well covered.. So much is boilerplate.

 
Most Helpful

Onscreen most of the time for me, but I rarely am reading a 10K cover to cover, I almost exclusively am in search of something specific, looking for business segment or subsidiary info, pulling agreements or contracts, etc.

Generally, everything before where the exhibits start should suffice for giving you a good overview of the company and is considerably less to print out. No need to print out say all those stock award certificates or credit agreements... unless you're specifically studying the company's incentives or you're looking deeper at their debt structure.

The List of Exhibits is your friend if you need to actually find a particular agreement or exhibit, even if it's not within the body of the 10K you're reading, but it'll give you the file date and form type that the exhibit resides in -very handy when you decide that you'll need to pull the charter or by-laws and they haven't changed in 10 years, LOL.

 

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