Getting Started with Document Search

Tracktacle's Document Search tool offers comprehensive real-time access to US and Canadian corporate filings, press releases, and news from various sources. It provides you with powerful filtering options to display only the most relevant information based on your specific investment interests, whether you focus on micro-cap stocks or sectors like biotech.

This article provides a comprehensive overview of all the features of Document Search, helping you make the most of its powerful tools.

This is what your Document Search screen looks like when you first use it.

The three boxes at the top of the search screen ensure that you receive only the documents and news relevant to your focus. If you're only interested in news releases, check the 'News' box. If you want filings submitted to the SEC, select the 'SEC' box. This filtering becomes even more valuable as we add more sources, such as transcripts and LSE filings. For details on upcoming features, check our roadmap.

1. Using Filters

In this example, we focus on companies that file with the SEC and aim to conduct basic research by reading filings to discover compelling investment opportunities within our preferred hunting ground.

As you can see we now got only SEC documents, but as we're an investor that is used to invest into US small cap companies and is not familiar with Biotechs, Banks and Mining, we need some advanced filters.

First, we exclude the industries that are not relevant to us. Make sure you select the correct option—'Show only' is useful when you want to focus on a specific industry where you consider yourself an expert.

After ensuring we've applied the 'Country' filter to show only U.S. stocks in line with our U.S.-only approach, we now add a market cap filter. Since we want to focus on small caps, we set the 'Market Cap' filter to a range of 400 to 2,000 million.

As you can see, the search screen now displays all the filters you've applied. Clicking on any filter expands it, showing the selected values. If you need to remove a filter, simply click the recycle bin icon to the right.

Although we're now only displaying stocks from our preferred market segment, there's still a lot of noise in the results. Since our goal is to generate a new investment idea, we need to refine the document types shown. For example, 8-K filings are often used to announce recent company changes, which can present opportunities. To focus on these potential catalysts, let's apply a filter to display only 8-K filings.

Now that only 8-K filings are displayed alongside your other filters, the results are more refined. You might also find the 'Date' and 'Market Cap' filters useful to further structure your view of the results.

Now that we've set up a proper filter combination for our preferred hunting ground, we can save this search for future use. Simply click the 'Saved Searches' button to store the filter combination, so you can easily access it again without having to set it up each time.

2. Displaying Filings

Now that we've gathered our first set of filings, we can start with our actual research. By clicking on a row, the corresponding filing will open, allowing us to review the document in detail.

By clicking the Link-Button at the top of the screen, a new tab will open, allowing you to open multiple documents for comparison or use full-screen mode for reading. Additionally, clicking the "Switch to PDF" button toggles between HTML and PDF views, giving you flexibility in how you view the filings.

To provide more space for the document on your screen, simply adjust the left border of the document screen by dragging it further to the left. This will allow you to maximize your viewing area for easier reading.

Another feature is Document Chat, an AI assistant that can clarify complex points or provide a neutral perspective to help you understand the potential implications for the company you're analyzing.

3. Using Search Terms

We now have documents from our preferred market segment and understand how to open and analyze them using AI. This is useful when conducting a broad search for investment cases. However, as seasoned investors, we know exactly what we're looking for—that’s where search terms become essential.

Clicking the info icon in the search bar reveals helpful tips on using the search function to refine your results even further.

This time, we’re focusing on small-cap company news that includes the phrase 'Business combination' to identify cases where the market may be underestimating the synergies and significance of an acquisition or merger.

Clicking on a document takes you directly to the section where the specific phrase appears.

You’ve now learned the basic concepts of Document Search, which will help you generate investment opportunities.