How does my trading platform know reported EPS for an earnings report that still hasn't appeared in the edgar database?

Question

I closely monitored the J B Hunt sec/edgar filings page every few minutes today while keeping an eye on the post-market chart/tape.

Activity started picking up a little, but there was still no earnings filing on edgar.

Then I noticed that the earnings overlay over the chart showed that the announcement had already come and gone a few minutes earlier.

I thought all of the API's that sent earnings events were just backed by and triggered by edgar.

If the initial event that triggers a market reaction isn't the actual filing on edgar, then what is?

Answer 1

I don’t know much about your trading platform, but it is possible that it has already integrated that information into the price.

For instance it could be that the traders predicted that level of earnings and so the market reaction occurred earlier than when Edgar released the eps data.

There are three types of market efficiency, semi strong form is where all publicly available information is fully represented in the price. This relates to EPS info as EDGAR makes that info publicly available as soon as possible.

It also could be that inside trading is at play which has leaked to your platform and the traders within. This would account for the market change before it happens.