# Fund discovery research log Running log of attempts, dead ends, and learnings for finding candidate funds (alpha-driven, portfolio-complementing) with the `fundlab` pipeline. Newest entries at the bottom of each section. Update as you go — this file IS the knowledge base. ## Sources & what works | Source | Status | Notes | |---|---|---| | Local stocks DB (`~/prog/fin/stocks/`, 8,250 syms) | ✅ primary | ~100 open-end alt families already present; `dbmine.py` mines by name pattern | | SEC full-index `Archives/edgar/full-index/YYYY/QTRn/company.gz` | ✅ **discovery workhorse** | lists EVERY filing; 497/497K filers = all active open-end funds. 4-quarter union = 1,668 CIKs, 33,188 series, 10,372 class tickers | | SEC full-submission `.txt` (per accession) | ✅ | ~10–50KB; line-based SGML cover with `` (UNCLOSED tag) + `` per class; often several series per filing | | Yahoo chart API (`query1.../v8/finance/chart/`) | ✅ | no crumb needed; meta has instrumentType/exchange/longName; `range=20y` gives history length | | `goget` (`~/go/bin/goget`) | ✅ | batch downloader, idempotent, ~2–5s/sym | | EDGAR FTS (`efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index`) | ⚠️ fragile | phrase queries w/ hyphens fail; AND-semantics; 100-hit cap per query → incomplete for common phrases. OK for rare phrases only | | SEC `browse-edgar` company listing | ❌ dead | now JS-rendered, no data in HTML | | SEC `/files/investment-company-tickers.json` | ❌ doesn't exist | 404 (misremembered) | | SEC `company_tickers.json` | ❌ for our purpose | only exchange-listed (ETFs/CEFs/stocks); open-end OTC funds absent | | Yahoo search/crumb API | ❌ throttled | IP-level "Too Many Requests" on `fc.yahoo.com`/`getcrumb`; chart API unaffected | | stockanalysis.com/funds/ | ❌ 404 | path guessed wrong, not pursued | ## Learnings (hard-won) 1. **Famous multi-strategy/macro funds are private/offshore** — Millennium, Balyasny, Schonfeld, ExodusPoint, Two Sigma, Winton, Marshall Wace, Brevan Howard, AQR Event-Driven: no US open-end class, no EDGAR 497, no Yahoo OTC ticker. Structural, not a search failure. 2. **Precision over recall for name→ticker resolution**: a guessed ticker that "looks right" is worse than no answer. Chart-API name gate + 2/3 token overlap rejected 23/24 memory-based guesses. 3. **Yahoo exchange name is a USELESS fund/ETF discriminator**: OTC mutual funds report `fullExchangeName="Nasdaq"`. Use `instrumentType` (MUTUALFUND vs ETF). 4. **497 SGML cover uses UNCLOSED tags, one per line** — `Foo Fund\nTNMAX\n`. Closed-tag regexes find nothing; `to_text()` (tag stripping) destroys the data. Parse line-based, BEFORE any tag stripping. 5. **Full-index columns drift** — don't trust fixed widths; the header line and data rows don't align. Regex the whole line. 6. **One quarter ≠ the universe**: each fund's annual base-497 re-filing lands in a random quarter; union of 4 consecutive quarters is the full active universe (1,209 in Q2 alone → 1,668 union). 7. **Accession paths in the index are relative to `/Archives/`**, not `/Archives/edgar/data/` — doubling the prefix 404s. 8. **Amendments (497A/497VPU) may lack the series cover** — base 497 / 497K carry it. (497A inclusion pending — see below.) 9. **Family CIKs repeat across the index** (e.g. AB under 2 CIKs, same series listed twice) — dedupe by series name, not CIK. 10. **Large-n BIC is knife-edge** (ΔBIC=2 ≈ ΔR²=0.0008 at n=2500) — the |t|>2 gate on added regressors is essential (decompose.py). 11. **The portfolio is 50% market-neutral (qspnx)** — MN/L-S-equity funds show the strongest alpha on screen (+12–17%/yr) but corr 0.35–0.76 with the portfolio. "Alpha" ≠ "diversifying for YOU". 12. **Near-duplicate sleeves make OLS knife-edge** — distinct-axis candidate sets (one rep per sleeve family) or the betas split arbitrarily between ivv/vti/vt. 13. **Wrong-fund objectives are worse than none** — all EDGAR resolution stages gate on name match before accepting. ## Pipeline stages (current) ``` full-index (4 qtrs) → per-CIK latest 497/497K .txt (cached, 4-thread) → parse_cover (line-based SGML) → [name filter — REMOVED in v2, kept as a tag] → Yahoo chart verify (instrumentType, 20y length) → share-class dedupe (longest history) → goget missing (batched) → screen_fund (sleeve OLS, BIC fwd-select, 5y alpha t, persistence, corr vs portfolio & benchmark) [0.3s/fund] → search_*.json → app Fund Lab "Alpha search" table ``` ## Overnight comprehensive screen (v2, started 2026-08-26) Goal: screen EVERY OTC open-end fund with ≥5y history from the 497 universe — no name pre-filter. Name match becomes a tag/cross-check, not a gate. ### Notes while running (live - the log() below appends automatically) - [x] survey: 10,372 class tickers in covers cache; 1,223 already local, 9,149 to verify on Yahoo; screen costs 0.3s/fund. - [x] 497A adds ZERO new CIKs over 497/497K (every 497A filer also filed a base in window) - no need to include. - [x] verify: 10,260/10,372 tickers with data (4-thread, ~10 min; 112 dead/never-listed tickers dropped). Cached in universe_cache/yahoo_meta.json. - [x] select: **2,384 funds** (407 local, 1,977 external). Only 54 match the alpha name pattern - the other 2,330 are exactly what the v1 name-filter would have missed. Worklist cached in universe_cache/selected.json. - [x] download: 1,960 symbols (resumed at 1,823 after the watchdog kill-test). Logs to fundlab/overnight.log + this file. - [x] screen: 2,384 funds -> search_all.json (1.2MB). - [x] finalize: verdict counts + "candidates v1 would have missed". ### RESULTS (run finished 2026-08-27 03:23, 5.2h, watchdog exited clean) - 2,384 screened: 250 CANDIDATE, 1336 sleeve mix, 707 weak, 42 alpha-but-correlated, 32 not-persistent, 17 no-5y-window. - Of the 250: ~37 are short-duration/floating-rate/money-market CARRY (model artifact - the 21-sleeve set has no short-duration axis, so carry shows up as a positive intercept). The rest mix: a) GENUINE idiosyncratic alpha: hmezx NexPoint Merger Arb (t5 7.1, tF 4.6, corr 0.14), mervx The Merger Fund, egrix Eaton Vance Global Macro (R2 0.07, +7.9%), wmnux Westwood Alt Income, dmszx Destinations Multi-Strat, anglx Angel Oak Multi-Strat, aguax Am Beacon Dev World Income (+6.5%, t5 3.7), femdx Franklin EM Debt Opps (+6.0%), rctix River Canyon TR Bond (t5 5.6), kmdnx Kinetics Multi-Disciplinary. b) MISSING-FACTOR exposures (sector not in the 21 sleeves, so sector exposure reads as "alpha"): munis (hicox, fhmix), preferreds (lpxax, dpiax), EM debt (femdx), securitized credit (scfzx), TIPS/real-return. - ~200 candidates have "boring" names the v1 alpha-name filter would have rejected - direct quantification of the v1 blind spot. - eniax SIIT Opportunistic Income: t5 10.1 but tF 1.44 -> alpha is RECENT (last 5y), not full-history. Good thing the screen keeps both stats. ### Next iterations 1. [x] **Add missing factors + cluster by return driver** (fundlab/factors.py + fundlab/cluster.py). 2. [x] **N-PORT holdings cross-check on the top candidates** (fundlab/xcheck.py) - results below. 3. CEF universe (485/N-2 filers) - separate pass; CEFs have premium/discount dynamics the NAV screen can't see. ### N-PORT cross-check (fundlab/xcheck.py, 2026-08-27) 21 of 22 top candidates resolved to their ACTUAL holdings (qcmmrx = money-market account, no holdings to parse). Pipeline hard-won facts: - The fund's NPORT is usually filed under the fund's OWN registrant (browse-edgar ticker->CIK), not the 497-cover family/trust CIK (EV: trust 1552324 vs fund 745463). covers.json of the own CIK gives the exact series name -> the ONLY reliable disambiguator between sibling funds ("...Absolute Return Fund" vs "...Advantage Fund" share 6 of 7 words; token-overlap alone can't tell them apart). - Big trusts file dozens of NPORT-Ps per quarter (one per fund); a flat newest-30 window misses the fund's own filing. Take all filings on the 4 most recent distinct dates. - The submissions API points at the XSL-RENDERED view (xslFormNPORT-P_X01/primary_doc.xml, a 5-20MB HTML page); the raw schema data (seriesName/invstOrSec/netAssets) sits at accession-root primary_doc.xml (5KB-1.5MB). Strip the xsl prefix. - The raw file is malformed XHTML (CSS in