In a move intended to make SEC filings more user-friendly for investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission introduced the "successor to the agency's 1980s-era EDGAR database, which will give investors far faster and easier access to key financial information about public companies and mutual funds."

The IDEA behind the Interactive Data Electronic Applications system is to make it so that investors can compare data between multiple SEC filings more easily, without having to open up new tabs.

While it's certainly a step in the right direction for investor-friendliness, it's actually bad news for sophisticated investors: the people who find undervalued stocks by seeking out mispricings caused by investors who don't analyze/understand the businesses they're looking at.

Look at what's happened in the foreclosure market: savvy investors used to be able to make million there but, as online databases have made searches of distressed properties possible in seconds, the deals aren't what they used to be.

As new rules and disclosures increase, so will market efficiency -- that's good for the market but bad for some of its participants.

MGL Asset Management Group's press release purporting to offer $7.25 per share for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (NYSE: KKD) was pretty quickly debunked as illegitimate and, very probably, an effort to hype the stock for a quick buck. Jon Ogg reported on the mysterious offer on our sister site, BloggingBuyouts.

The stock jumped on the news of the offer, but quickly gave up all the gains and then some after media and analyst reports dismissed the offer. But anyone who jumped on the stock at the sight of the press release got burned.

How can you prevent this from happening to you? A good rule of thumb: When you're looking for information on material developments, look to the SEC filings. The offer was made solely through a press release -- something that anyone with a few hundred bucks to pay the wire fee could send into the hands of millions of investors in a few minutes. Until you see something about the "offer" in the SEC's Edgar Database, it should be regarded as a rumor. I wrote about a similarly non-materializing offer at Trans World Entertainment (NASDAQ: TWMC) back in November.

Another solution is to leave the "in-play" trading to the pros -- it's all about information and you're unlikely to have an edge. If you see a news item that a company has received an offer, don't jump in.

Innophos Holdings (NASDAQ: IPHS) is the largest North American producer of specialty phosphates. Last year, the firm generated sales of $541.8 million and EBITDA of $30.9 million.

Now, the company has filed with the SEC to issue 5 million shares in a follow-on offering. That comes to about $77.6 million.

But the cash won't go the company. Instead, it will fall into the pockets of the private equity firm, Bain Capital. As of now, Bain has a 48.5% equity stake.

Interestingly, it was back in November that Innophos had its IPO. Much of the money was used to pay down debt. There was also a $13.2 million payment to Bain to terminate its advisory agreement.

Since its IPO, the shares of Innophos have had a decent performance -- going from $12 to $15.36

The underwriters on the follow-on offering include Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) and UBS Investment Bank (NYSE: UBS).

You can find the the filing at the SEC website.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.