FilingDelta Methodology

Last updated: 29 October 2026

Sources

Every card is built from one official source named in its source_url: an SEC EDGAR filing, a central bank's own release, or an official statistics release (BLS, BEA and the national statistics offices). Other filings used in a card are named in its citation text. Earnings-call remarks, news and press-wire copies are not used as sources. Figures are quoted as published. A figure we work out from published figures is marked as calculated, either with "(calculated)" after the figure or with a note that it "is calculated by FilingDelta" from the named published figures; for central-bank cards, change_bps is always calculated by FilingDelta from bank_rate and previous_bank_rate.

comparison_basis

Each SEC filing card says what it compares against in comparison_basis: mostly the year-ago period; where a card uses the prior quarter, the prior balance-sheet date or an earlier disclosure, comparison_basis says so. Items stated as of a date with no earlier figure say that there is no comparison period. Central-bank cards compare the decision with the bank's previous meeting (previous_bank_rate and change_bps).

Materiality grading

materiality (high, medium or low) is FilingDelta's own grade under house rules, not an SEC or central-bank definition. The highest level whose rule is met applies; if two rules disagree, the lower level wins unless the filing itself calls the item material. Thresholds are computed only from figures in the cited filing, and earnings-call statements never set materiality.

• SEC filing items, high: revenue, operating income, net income or operating cash flow moves 20% or more against the comparison basis, or the sign flips; a reportable segment's revenue or operating income moves 30% or more, or a segment is added, removed or renamed; a single charge, impairment, settlement or one-off gain of 5% or more of quarterly revenue or 25% or more of operating income; new or changed debt, buybacks, at-the-market or other equity issuance, or an acquisition or disposal worth 5% or more of total assets or market value as the filing states it; going-concern language, a restatement, a material weakness, an auditor change, a new material legal proceeding or a covenant breach; an 8-K under Items 1.01, 1.03, 2.01, 2.05, 2.06, 4.01, 4.02 or 5.02 (CEO, CFO or chair).
• SEC filing items, medium: moves of 5% up to the high thresholds in the same lines; guidance or outlook text changed in the filing itself; new risk-factor language naming a specific event; margin moves of 1 to 3 percentage points; customer or supplier concentration changes the filing discloses.
• SEC filing items, low: everything else that changed and is cited.
• Central-bank cards: we treat a decision as high materiality when the rate changes by any amount (bank_rate differs from previous_bank_rate, both from the bank's own releases), when two or more members dissent, or when the bank adds a policy tool or changes its framework or target; medium materiality when the bank holds with a dissent or a changed vote split, changes its guidance language, or moves its next meeting date; and low materiality when the bank holds unanimously with unchanged guidance. If more than one level applies, the highest wins. Where a bank publishes no vote, we judge it on the rate and its guidance only; rate fixings and corridor changes (e.g. China's LPR) count as decisions.
• Insider (Form 4) cards use the rubric stated in each card's comparison_basis.

These rules were written down on 23 October 2026; cards first published before then may not yet have been re-checked against them.

Update timing

A card changes only when its source does. /catalog gives each card's as_of (the source date), next_update (the next expected source date, UK time, with a note saying whether the date is confirmed by the source or estimated) and content_hash, so you can check for a change before buying again. /updates lists every change to cards and pages. /status shows the last check time and card freshness. We do not yet publish a measured delay between a source's publication and the card update.

Free teasers

The free filing sample shows one change in full and the others as teasers. A teaser's magnitude bucket and magnitude_basis are explained on /about; a field that cannot be worked out from the paid card's own figures is left out.

The free central-bank sample (/sample/policy/:id) shows the bank's previous meeting as a full card, with the same keys as the paid card, plus a latest field that gives only the current meeting's date, its content_hash and how to buy it. Nothing else from the current card is shown.

The free macro and CPI samples (/sample/macro/:id, /sample/cpi/:id) are headline-only: up to the first two items of the latest release, each shown as a headline with the release date and source link, with no figures and no verbatim quote. The paid card has every item with its figures and quote.

Contact

filingdelta@proton.me

Not investment advice.

FilingDelta. Free pages: /about, /catalog, /status, /llms.txt.