Question 1

What is a corporate distress cascade?

Accepted Answer

A distress cascade occurs when a company files a WARN Act notice (advance warning of mass layoffs), then discloses restructuring costs via an SEC 8-K Item 2.05 filing, and ultimately files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy — often within 30 to 90 days of each other. WARN Firehose cross-references all three federal datasets daily using fuzzy company name matching so you can track the full cascade in one place.

Question 2

How does WARN Firehose cross-reference WARN notices with SEC filings?

Accepted Answer

WARN Firehose uses normalized company name matching to link filings across the WARN Act database, SEC EDGAR 8-K submissions, and federal bankruptcy court records. When the same company name (or a close variant) appears in multiple datasets within a configurable time window, those filings are linked and assigned a composite risk score. The system runs daily and processes all 50 states plus SEC EDGAR's full submission feed.

Question 3

What is SEC 8-K Item 2.05?

Accepted Answer

SEC 8-K Item 2.05 is the 'Costs Associated with Exit or Disposal Activities' disclosure. Public companies are required to file an 8-K when they commit to an exit or disposal plan that triggers material restructuring charges. This typically occurs within weeks of — or simultaneously with — a WARN Act mass layoff filing. Together, they confirm that layoffs are not a minor workforce adjustment but a material restructuring event.

Question 4

How far in advance does the distress cascade signal appear?

Accepted Answer

WARN Act notices are legally required 60 days before a mass layoff executes. SEC 8-K restructuring disclosures typically follow within days to weeks of the WARN filing, and bankruptcy petitions often come 30-90 days later. This means the full cascade can give 60-90 days of advance visibility into a company's trajectory — well before earnings calls, analyst downgrades, or credit rating changes.

Question 5

Can I get API access to the cross-referenced signal data?

Accepted Answer

Yes. WARN Firehose provides REST API endpoints for risk signal scores (/api/risk-signal), company-level cross-dataset lookup (/api/risk-signal/company/{name}), SEC 8-K filings (/api/sec-filings), and bankruptcy filings (/api/bankruptcies). Pro and Enterprise plans include webhook alerts for new signals matching custom criteria. All data is updated daily and returned as JSON.

Connected Signals

Cross-Dataset Distress Signals

5 Proprietary Signal Indexes

API & AI Integration

DC Distress Cascade

TD Talent Displacement

ID Industry Domino

MC Metro Contagion

WV WARN Velocity

Live Risk Signals

Track Company Risk Signals

What is a corporate distress cascade?

What is SEC 8-K Item 2.05?

How far in advance does the signal appear?

Can I access this via API?