Every row in our daily activity table comes from a real SEC filing. This page explains what the raw codes mean — and what our own signal labels (Cluster Buy, Exercised & Held, etc.) are built on.
What is a Form 4?
A Form 4 is a disclosure that corporate officers, directors, and major shareholders (anyone owning 10%+ of a company) must file with the SEC within two business days of buying or selling their own company’s stock. It’s public record, sourced directly from SEC EDGAR.
Transaction codes, decoded
The SEC form uses single-letter codes that mean nothing to most readers. Here’s what the common ones actually represent:
– **P — Open market purchase.** The insider bought shares with their own money, at market price. This is the strongest signal on the form — a discretionary bet, not something required by their job.
– **S — Open market sale.** The insider sold shares. Common for tax planning, diversification, or scheduled trading plans — not automatically bearish.
– **M — Exercise of a derivative.** The insider exercised stock options they already held. On its own, this is administrative, not a new bet.
– **A — Grant or award.** Shares given as part of compensation, not purchased. Routine.
– **F — Tax withholding.** Shares withheld to cover taxes on vested stock. Purely administrative.
– **G — Gift.** Shares given away (sometimes to a trust, family member, or charity).
– **C — Conversion.** One type of security converted into another (e.g., preferred shares into common stock).
Direct vs. indirect ownership
Each transaction is marked **D** (direct) or **I** (indirect). Indirect means the shares are held through something else — a trust, an LLC, a spouse’s account — rather than in the insider’s own name. Indirect holdings are still legally attributed to the insider, just held one step removed.
Our own signal labels
Raw Form 4 data is noisy — most of it is routine paperwork, not a real signal. We classify every filing into one of these categories before it ever reaches our table:
– **🟢 Cluster Buy** — The same insider made multiple open-market purchases (code P) within a short window. This is the strongest pattern on the site: repeated, discretionary buying is a much stronger signal than a single transaction.
– **🟢 Insider Buy** — A single open-market purchase (P), not part of a larger pattern. Still a real, discretionary buy.
– **🔵 Exercised & Held** — The insider exercised options (M) and *kept* the shares rather than selling them immediately. Unlike a same-day flip, holding after exercising can reflect confidence in the stock.
– **⚪ Routine Exercise + Sale** — The insider exercised options (M) and sold the same shares the same day, in matching size. This is usually a pre-scheduled 10b5-1 transaction, not a discretionary decision — we flag it explicitly so it isn’t mistaken for conviction buying, even when the dollar value looks large.
– **⚪ Insider Sale** — A standalone sale (S), not linked to an option exercise. Worth noting, but not automatically a negative signal — see the note on code S above.
A note on amounts
Whenever you see a Congress-related filing elsewhere on this site, remember that members of Congress report trades in **dollar ranges** (e.g., $1,001–$15,000), not exact amounts — that’s a legal requirement of the STOCK Act, not something we’re able to narrow down further.
This is not investment advice
Everything on this page and in our daily table describes what was legally disclosed and when — not a recommendation to buy or sell anything. Past insider activity doesn’t predict future stock performance. See our [Terms of Use] for the full disclaimer.