Insider & Institutional Activity
Who is buying and selling among the people who know the company and the people who own most of it.
Insiders report transactions within two business days on Form 4; institutions report quarterly positions on Form 13F; large holders report on Schedules 13D and 13G. Together these form the market's ownership record. Reading it requires knowing what each form does and does not capture — a Form 4 is fast and specific; a 13F is slow, incomplete, and long-only.
In detail
This theme is high-signal and easy to misread, which is exactly why the filings matter. A Form 4 arrives within two business days and carries a transaction code that distinguishes an open-market purchase from an option exercise, a vesting event, a gift, or a sale under a pre-arranged plan. Most Form 4 volume is compensation mechanics, not conviction. The rule change requiring disclosure of 10b5-1 plan reliance and adoption dates made the distinction checkable rather than inferable.
Form 13F is a different instrument entirely: quarterly, filed 45 days after quarter end, covering only certain US-listed long positions of managers above an asset threshold. It does not show shorts, it does not show most derivatives, it does not show non-US holdings, and it is six weeks stale on arrival. It is a useful census and a terrible timing signal, and the difference is a fact about the form.
What a filing-driven feed shows that headlines don't: transaction codes, which separate a purchase from a vest; 10b5-1 checkbox and adoption dates, which separate a scheduled sale from a decision; Form 144 notices of intent that precede the sale; cluster buying across multiple insiders, which is only visible if you read every filing rather than the ones a screen surfaces; 13G-to-13D conversions; and the two-business-day timeliness of Form 4 against the six-week staleness of 13F, which most coverage treats as interchangeable.
Signals: Form 4 · Form 3 · Form 5 · Form 144 · 13F-HR · SC 13D/A · SC 13G/A
We report what was filed. We don't tell you what to do about it, and nothing here is investment advice.