FAQ & Glossary

DredgeCap is an independent SEC-filings analysis tool that produces risk profiles for publicly traded companies. Every claim is sourced from a specific SEC filing and tagged with its form type and filing date.

Directly from SEC EDGAR (the official US Securities and Exchange Commission filings database). DredgeCap does not use proprietary data, paid feeds, or analyst consensus. If a fact appears on a DredgeCap page, you can verify it by reading the cited filing on EDGAR.

Profiles reflect the most recent generation pass against the issuer’s SEC filings. When new material filings are available on EDGAR, the profile may be regenerated against the updated disclosure base. Always verify any specific number against the underlying filing before relying on it.

A ticker may not have a DredgeCap profile if it has no recent annual filing (10-K, 20-F, or 40-F) within the last 24 months, if its only filings are amendments or 8-Ks without an underlying base annual, or if it is a non-corporate instrument (ETF, trust, warrant) that does not fit the company-profile shape. The full universe of tradable tickers is searchable; profiled tickers have full risk analysis.

No. The risk score summarizes what filings disclose about a company’s financial fragility — it is not a prediction of stock performance. A 9/10 risk score does not mean the stock will fall; it means the disclosed financial profile is unusually fragile.

Profiles are generated by DredgeCap’s analysis engine using a structured prompt that requires citations on every factual claim. Output passes through a schema validator that catches common LLM failure modes before publication. That said, AI-generated content can contain errors. Always verify any claim with the source filing before acting on it.

Browsing tickers, risk scores, summaries, and the company directory is free. Some deeper analysis (multi-filing dilution timelines, full going-concern audit-language excerpts, credit-spend tools) is gated behind a small unlock fee.

Yes, with attribution and a link back to the specific DredgeCap page you reference. We don’t require permission for editorial use, but please cite SEC EDGAR as the underlying data source — DredgeCap is a layer on top of public filings, not the source of truth.

No. DredgeCap is not a registered investment advisor and does not provide buy/sell recommendations. The risk profiles are summaries of public disclosures. Consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.

If a DredgeCap claim contradicts the underlying filing, please report it via X / Twitter (@daboracle). Specific bug reports — citing the page URL, the specific claim, and the discrepancy — drive the validator’s rule additions.

A 10-K is the annual report a publicly traded US company files with the SEC. It includes audited financial statements, a description of the business, risk factors, and management’s discussion of operations. The 10-K is the most comprehensive single filing a company produces each year.

A 10-Q is the quarterly financial report a publicly traded US company files for each of the first three fiscal quarters. It contains unaudited financial statements and is shorter than the annual 10-K. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual 10-K.

An 8-K is a current-event filing the SEC requires when a material event happens between regular periodic filings. Common 8-K triggers include earnings releases, leadership changes, mergers, bankruptcies, and material agreements. Each 8-K covers one specific event.

A 20-F is the annual report foreign private issuers (non-US companies whose stock trades on US exchanges) file with the SEC. It serves the same role as a 10-K but follows different disclosure standards and is often filed later in the calendar year than US 10-Ks.

Going concern is an auditor’s judgment that a company has substantial doubt about its ability to continue operating for the next twelve months. When auditors flag going concern in a 10-K, it appears as a separate paragraph in their audit report. Going concern is a serious flag — it usually indicates the company expects to need new financing or face restructuring.

Dilution is the increase in a company’s share count, which reduces existing shareholders’ ownership percentage. Common dilution sources include new equity offerings, convertible debt that converts to shares, employee stock grants, and warrant exercises. High historical dilution + large outstanding convertible balances are a typical small-cap risk pattern.

Accumulated deficit is the total cumulative net losses a company has reported across its lifetime, after subtracting any cumulative profits. It appears on the balance sheet under shareholders’ equity. A large accumulated deficit means the company has historically lost more money than it has made — common for early-stage biotech and growth-tier OTC companies.

Dilution risk is the chance that a company will issue new shares (or that existing convertible securities will convert) and reduce existing shareholders’ ownership percentage. It’s typically elevated for companies with negative cash flow that depend on equity financing to fund operations.

Debt toxicity is a description applied to debt instruments whose conversion or repayment terms are particularly punitive to existing shareholders — for example, convertible notes with no floor on the conversion price (so as the stock falls, more shares get issued) or covenants that trigger default on minor events. DredgeCap reserves this term for instruments that meet specific structural tests, not as a general label for any debt.

A convertible note is a debt instrument that can be converted into common shares at a specified ratio. Conversion terms vary widely: fixed price, floating price linked to recent trading, or formula-based. When floating-price convertibles convert as the stock falls, they can produce rapid dilution — colloquially called a "death spiral," though DredgeCap requires evidence of the specific structural feature before using that term.

On DredgeCap ticker pages, the primary risk driver is a one-sentence description of the dominant disclosed risk for that ticker. It surfaces the single most consequential signal so the headline 0–10 risk score doesn’t collapse multiple distinct issues into one number.

A shell company is a public company with no significant ongoing business operations or assets, typically maintained as a vehicle for reverse mergers. Shells trade on OTC markets and can be acquired by private companies seeking a faster path to public listing than a traditional IPO.

OTC (over-the-counter) markets are the trading venues for stocks not listed on the major exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ). OTC tickers include legitimate small companies, foreign issuers, and many speculative or shell entities. OTC stocks are subject to less stringent listing requirements and disclosure standards than exchange-listed stocks.