The SEC promotes theft every quarter.

I'm a big advocate of stealing from the best investment managers. And in case you haven't clicked that link yet, let me clarify that it's not about copying their ideas directly. The investing giants we're going to look at have to disclose their portfolio holdings with the SEC. And when they do, small but up-and-coming investors get to see what's changed, and figure out why things have changed. If you want to be the best, you have to learn from the best.

So we'll traverse the country and dissect the 13-F filings of the best portfolio managers out there. To start, we'll see what Wally Weitz, Charles Akre, and Mason Hawkins have been up to. And we'll continue exploring more pros into June.

In these articles, we'll find out who's selling News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSK) and who's buying EnCana (NYSE:ECA). We'll also see what's been going on with Inside Value selections Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) and Omnicare (NYSE:OCR). Are the pros moving in step with lead analyst Philip Durell, or are they zagging while he's zigging?

Sure, there are lots of other investors I could have highlighted. But these are the ones I have been studying for a while, and I wanted to share my findings with you. Remember, the objective is not to just copy these investors' moves. That's completely foolish, with a small f. Instead, we're looking to see what they've been doing lately, in hopes that we can figure some of it out and make it work for us, too.

Up this month:

The Motley Fool's Inside Value newsletter looks for the best companies at the best prices. To see how lead analyst Philip Durell is outperforming the market, sign up today for your free 30-day trial.

Retail editor and Inside Value team member David Meier does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned. You can view his TMF profile here. The Fool takes its disclosure policy very seriously.