SEC Ownership Evidence Funnel Across 20,834 Form 3/4/5 Candidates
Only 1,503 of 20,834 extracted position candidates were simple direct non-zero positions
The reviewed Forms 3, 4 and 5 extraction parsed 7,359 of 7,375 targeted filings and produced 20,834 position candidates. Parsing was nearly complete, but only 7.2% of candidate rows landed in the simplest non-zero direct-position state. Footnote review alone accounted for more than half of all candidate assessments.
The selected-profile evidence funnel narrowed at several different boundaries
This is not a single conversion funnel from every billionaire to a current holding. Each step answers a different question: exact SEC identity, relevant filing metadata, Forms 3/4/5 eligibility, successful extraction, candidate production and then the narrowest direct-position assessment.
| Stage | Profiles or rows | What the stage establishes |
|---|---|---|
| Current billionaire roster | 3,409 profiles | The population used to identify profiles needing additional SEC evidence work. |
| Profiles selected for SEC identity review | 2,881 profiles | Profiles selected for exact SEC identity re-evaluation or new discovery work. |
| Exact SEC identities resolved | 212 profiles | 7.4% of the selected group reached an exact identity match. The remaining 2,669 stayed unresolved rather than being fuzzily matched. |
| Ownership filing metadata found | 211 profiles | Exact identity plus relevant ownership-filing metadata, not a share count or holding. |
| Forms 3/4/5 extraction scope | 198 profiles · 7,375 filing rows | Filings eligible for this Forms 3/4/5 extraction. Other ownership source families were analyzed separately. |
| Position-candidate profiles | 187 profiles | 94.4% of Forms-eligible profiles produced at least one conservative position candidate. |
| Simple direct candidate profiles | 121 profiles | At least one extracted row reached the simplest direct non-zero candidate state. Further review was still required. |
More than half of extracted candidates required footnote review
The assessment states partition the 20,834-position-candidate population. Unlike the overlapping review reasons in the separate sale-footnote study, each candidate appears once in this table.
Candidate assessment states
Schedule 13 evidence stayed in its own source-family review
The SEC evidence review found 211 profiles with relevant ownership filings across source families. The Forms extraction covered 198 of them. The remaining 13 profiles and 591 filing-metadata rows belonged outside Forms 3/4/5, principally Schedule 13D/G evidence. They were excluded by design rather than counted as extraction failures.
Methodology
- Start with the September 9 billionaire roster and select profiles needing additional exact SEC identity or ownership-filing review.
- Resolve reporting-owner identity only when an exact SEC identity match can be supported. Ambiguous or unmatched profiles remain unresolved.
- Keep ownership evidence separate by source family. Send only Forms 3, 3/A, 4, 4/A, 5 and 5/A through this filing extraction.
- Review the complete eligible Forms set. Preserve fetch or parse failures explicitly instead of dropping them from the denominator.
- Classify each extracted position candidate conservatively. A parsed balance can remain in footnote review, conflicting balances, indirect-holder review or numeric review.
- Publish aggregate funnel and assessment counts only. Do not redistribute filing bodies or person-level review records in the public research dataset.
SEC identity review measured September 9, 2026. Forms extraction measured September 10, 2026.
Primary SEC source semantics
Forms 3, 4 and 5 report beneficial-ownership information for covered insiders under Section 16. Grizzly Bulls reviews that filing evidence conservatively, but filing presence by itself does not prove a complete or current billionaire public-equity position.
Download the aggregate study data
JSON includes the funnel summary, aggregate assessment states, source notes and limitations. CSV contains the six aggregate candidate-assessment rows only. Neither download contains filing bodies or person- or issuer-level identifiers.
Citation and reuse
When citing the 1,503-of-20,834 result, preserve that this is a selected-profile billionaire SEC review and a conservative Forms 3/4/5 extraction, not a representative sample of all SEC ownership filings. Simple-direct candidates are evidence requiring further review, not verified current holdings.