Arkolith/Glossary/CIK (Central Index Key)
SEC filings & market data

CIK (Central Index Key)

Also: CIK · Central Index Key · EDGAR CIK

What is a CIK (Central Index Key)?

A CIK (Central Index Key) is the unique number the SEC assigns to every filer in EDGAR — each company, fund, or individual — used to retrieve all of that filer's submissions.

Every entity that files with the SEC gets one CIK, and it never changes, which makes it the stable join key for a filer's entire history of 13Fs, Form 4s, 10-Ks, and more. Tickers and names drift; the CIK does not.

Because a single asset manager can file under several CIKs (different legal entities, funds, or subsidiaries), grouping CIKs back into one economic "manager" is an entity-resolution step that raw EDGAR does not do for you.

Example

Berkshire Hathaway's filings live under CIK 0001067983 — fetch that CIK from EDGAR and you get every filing it has ever submitted.

Why it matters for Arkolith

Arkolith keys fund pages on CIK so a manager's holdings stay stable across name and ticker changes — and rolls related CIKs up to one manager.

Arkolith turns this into live, sourced data your agent can query — SEC filings, insider activity, and market data behind one key, every datapoint traceable to its origin.