Form4insider filings, from the source

Training

Learn to read insider filings

Everything on this site is built from three SEC forms, and the forms are learnable in an afternoon. These guides explain the rules the filings follow and the habits of reading them well — then the live feeds are where you practice. For how this site itself computes its numbers, see the methodology.

The guides

  • What is SEC Form 4? — SEC Form 4 explained: who must file it, the two-business-day deadline, what Tables I and II report, and how insider buys and sales become public record.
  • How to read a Form 4 — A walkthrough of a Form 4 insider filing: the relationship boxes, every Table I and Table II column, the footnotes, and the Rule 10b5-1 checkbox.
  • Form 4 filing deadlines — When a Form 4 is due: the two-business-day rule from Sarbanes-Oxley, EDGAR’s 10 pm cutoff, the narrow exceptions, and what actually happens to late filers.
  • Form 3 vs Form 4 vs Form 5 — The three Section 16 ownership forms compared: Form 3 when you become an insider, Form 4 within two business days of a trade, Form 5 as the annual catch-up.
  • Transaction codes — What each SEC Form 4 transaction code means — P, S, A, M, F, G and the rest — and which ones are real open-market trades.
  • Rule 10b5-1 trading plans — What a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan is, the 2023 cooling-off and disclosure amendments, the Form 4 checkbox, and how to read planned versus discretionary trades.
  • What is insider trading? — Insider trading is legal when insiders report their trades and illegal when anyone trades on material non-public information.
  • Reading insider buying — Which insider-buying patterns carry information according to the published research — cluster buys, purchase size versus stake, the buyer’s role — and which are noise.

Then go look at real filings