Insider Trades and Institutional Holdings on Signal8

The short version

Signal8 has two ownership research areas. The insiders pages are built from Form 4 filings, which officers, directors and holders of more than 10% of a company must file within two business days of trading its stock. The institutions pages are built mainly from 13F reports, which investment managers above a size threshold file each quarter listing their US equity holdings.

The two answer different questions. Form 4 tells you what people inside a company did with their own shares, recently and precisely. A 13F tells you what large managers held at the end of a quarter, filed up to 45 days later. Both are on every company page as well, in the Insider Trading and Shareholders cards.

The insiders hub

The main insiders page is a set of discovery panels and tables.

Discovery cards

• Most Active Insiders, with a 30, 90 or 180 day picker.
• Cluster Buying Alerts, with a 7, 30 or 90 day picker. Signal8 defines a cluster as three or more different insiders buying the same company's stock within 14 days. Hovering a row lists the insiders involved.
• Most Active Politicians, which links into the politician pages.

Top Insider Positions by P&L

A leaderboard of insiders' estimated positions with columns Company, Shares, Position, Unreal. P&L, P&L % and Net Flow. You can filter by ticker, sector, insider type (people only, entities only, or members of Congress), minimum position size and minimum P&L, and sort by largest gains or losses, largest position, largest net flow or most shares.

Recent Insider Transactions

The live table, with columns Date, Insider, Company, Type, Shares, Price and Value. A toggle switches between individual insiders, entities (funds and companies that file Form 4s) and all filers.

Insider Directory

Every insider, with Name, Roles, Companies, Transactions, Net Shares (12M) and Last Filing, filterable by role (Director, Officer, 10% Owner) and period.

Form 4 transaction codes

The transaction-type filter on an insider's page uses the codes from Form 4 itself:

Only P and S are trades the insider chose to make in the open market. An F, for example, is usually shares withheld automatically to pay tax when stock vests.

An insider's own page

Each insider has a page with a stats sidebar (primary company and role, total transactions, first and last trade, open-market buys and sells, the P:S ratio, and acquisition and disposition counts by code), a Transaction Breakdown chart, the companies and roles they hold, a Discretionary Trading PnL card (realized, unrealized and total), a Holdings table, and the full Transaction History.

The institutions hub

The institutions page opens with summary tiles, then Top Institutions by AUM and Most Active Institutions panels, then a full table with Name, Source, Type, CIK, AUM and Holdings, plus New, Increased and Decreased position counts where change data exists. The Source filter separates 13F Filers, SEC Registrants and Broker-Dealers. Data updates quarterly from 13F filings.

An institution's own page

• A Key Metrics sidebar with portfolio summary (holdings count, top 10 and top 20 concentration, derivatives count and notional), filing information, and quarter-over-quarter position activity.
• 13F Position Activity cards for New Positions, Increased, Decreased and Exit Positions. When there is no data, a card reads Not measured, which is different from zero.
• A Holdings table with Security, Shares, Value, Weight, Change and Period.
• A derivatives table of reported put and call positions, shown only when the filer disclosed any.
• The institution's SEC filings.

A 13F is a snapshot. It shows holdings on the last day of the quarter and does not show trades during the quarter, short positions, or most non-US holdings.

What needs an account

The pages are readable without signing in. Logged-out visitors see the tables, but share counts, prices and dollar values are replaced by a lock badge, and some lists are shortened. A free account unlocks those figures. Signal8 can change these assignments, so the lock icon on the page is the current answer.

How to use the ownership pages on Signal8

• Start with the insiders hub for market-wide activity, or the institutions hub for managers.
• For a single company, the Insider Trading and Shareholders cards on its page, for example AAPL, show the same data scoped to that ticker.
• Insider buys and sells, cluster buys and institutional position changes are all available as alert categories.

FAQ

What is the difference between Form 4 and a 13F?

Form 4 is filed by a company's officers, directors and 10% owners within two business days of trading that company's stock, with exact share counts and prices. A 13F is filed quarterly by investment managers above a size threshold, listing their US equity holdings at quarter end, up to 45 days later. Form 4 shows recent individual decisions; a 13F shows a delayed portfolio snapshot.

What does a cluster buy mean on Signal8?

Signal8 flags a cluster buy when three or more different insiders buy the same company's stock within 14 days. Several insiders buying independently in a short window is a pattern some traders watch, but it describes past purchases only and says nothing certain about what the stock does next.

Why does an insider show a large positive Net Shares figure but no purchases?

Net Shares (12M) counts every Form 4 code, including stock awards, option exercises and gifts, minus every disposition. Executives receive large stock grants, so the figure can be strongly positive with no open-market buying at all. Filter the transaction table to code P to see purchases the insider made with their own money.

Do I need an account to see insider trade values?

Without signing in you can see the tables, but share counts, prices and dollar values show as locked badges, and some lists are shortened. A free Signal8 account unlocks those values on the insider, institution and company pages.