Two funds published a "fill rate" this month. They mean opposite things.

A framework this week rather than news. One number, and the trap inside it.

A fill rate is the share of something that actually got done. Both numbers below came out of SEC filings in the last few weeks, both are called a fill rate, and reading them the same way gets you exactly the wrong conclusion.

Fill rate as money coming IN

I pulled all 26 Form D filings from Grant Cardone's equity funds, 2017 to 2026, and added them up myself. Across 22 funds they have offered $2,460,500,000 and sold $817,955,440, across 4,387 investor positions, an average of $186,449 each.

That is a 33.2% fill rate, and here it measures appetite. Two thirds of what was put in front of investors was never bought. A sponsor can market as hard as anyone in this industry and still fill a third of the page.

Fill rate as people trying to get OUT

Apollo's Diversified Real Estate Fund makes a repurchase offer every quarter, capped at 5% of the fund. In the last three it bought back about 30%, 27% and 27% of the shares people asked it to buy.

Same words. Opposite meaning. A low number here is not weak demand, it is the reverse: so many holders queued to sell that everyone got cut down to roughly a quarter of their request. The full series reads 48% (Nov 2023), 50% (Feb 2024), 34% (Aug 2025), 30%, 27%, 27%.

A fill rate on an offering tells you how many people wanted in. A fill rate on a repurchase tells you how many wanted out and could not. Never quote one without saying which.

Practically: before you commit to a private fund, look for both. The first sits in the Form Ds, the second in the fund's own repurchase notices, which almost nobody reads. If nobody is buying, ask why. If everybody is selling and getting 27%, ask what your quarter looks like in the month you actually need the money.

Every Cardone equity fund, straight from the Form Ds →

The eleven-quarter Apollo repurchase series →

Which of those two would worry you more in a fund you already own? Hit reply and tell me, I read every one.

Jorge