Glossary
Markets & macro

Insider transactions

Company officers buying or selling their own shares, disclosed by law.

Legal insider trading is disclosed: directors must report their transactions. Illegal insider trading is dealing on material non-public information, which is a criminal offence.

The asymmetry is useful. Insiders sell for many reasons (tax, a house, diversification), so selling tells you little. Insiders buy for essentially one reason, which is why cluster buying by several officers is a genuinely informative signal.

Figure

One investment is the fund

the oneeverything else

Most go to zero and that is not a failure of selection, it is the shape of the asset class. It is why a venture investor has no use for a company that will merely do quite well.

Why it matters

It is one of the few signals where the people acting have more information than you and must tell you they did it.

The mistake everyone makes

Reading too much into a single insider sale. Read a lot into several insiders buying at once.

Related terms

See Insider transactions on a real company

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