| B |
Open-Market Insider Buy as reported on a Form 4. The most significant Transaction Type for finding new long investments. |
| S |
Open-Market Insider Sale as reported on a Form 4. The most significant Transaction Type for finding new short investments. |
| AB |
Automatic Buy through the insider's 10b5-1 program. These are rare, but they exist. |
| AS |
Automatic Sale through the insider's 10b5-1 program. These so-called "automatic sales" are often dismissed as irrelevant, but insiders can and have halted these programs after their stocks have plummeted. Other 10b5-1 plans have so many nuances in their trigger prices for sales that they actually imbed an insider's value calls on their stock at the time the plan was set up. |
| JB* |
A supposedly Open-Market acquisition, but one that was done outside (usually lower) the price range traded that day. The transaction could also represent more shares than the exchange reports as having traded all day. In other words, it could not have been an open-market transaction. Yet it is still potentially significant. Private placements and other corporate actions my explain the non-open market nature of the trade. Including them in your analysis is suggested. |
| JS* |
A supposedly Open-Market Disposition, but one that was done outside the price range traded that day. The transaction could also represent more shares than the exchange reports as having traded all day. In other words, it couldn't have been an open-market transaction. Though not likely as significant as JB* transactions, you may still want to include them in your analysis. |
| OE |
Option Exercise (see exercise price in "Transaction Price" column). Immediate sale of exercised options for a risk-free profit is normal (perhaps 95% of the time) to see, and apparent by an OS transaction on the same day for the same number of shares. |
| OS |
Complete Sale of Options Exercised. Often dismissed as irrelevant, just remember: nobody made the executive flip the entire options grant for the risk-free profit. Even if the options were about to expire, it would be smart for the insider to only sell enough of the options to pay the exercise price and subsequent tax burden if they thought their stock was about to trade higher. |
| OB |
Options Exercised, and not sold at all. This represents a real accumulation of shares, and is often significant. |
| OE* |
Option Exercised and partially sold. Partial sale is usually apparent by an OS* transaction on the same day for a lesser amount of shares. This indicates a net accumulations of stock by the executive, which is often significant. |
| OS* |
Partial Sale of Options Exercised. This indicates a net accumulations of stock by the executive, which is often significant. |
| JB |
Non Open-Market Acquisition. This can represent grants of restricted share awards that cost the insider nothing to accumulate, amongst other non-open market possibilities. Transaction Price is also often unrelated to market price on the day, or even $0. There can be so many of these Transaction Types in an insider history that they create annoying eye clutter that obscures an otherwise significant pattern of trades by executives. Read our "Remove The Noise" FAQ to see why you may want to ignore them. |
| JS |
Non Open-Market Disposition. This can represent tax-related sales, amongst other non-open market possibilities. Price is also often unrelated to market price on the day, or even $0. There can be so many of these Transaction Types in an insider history that they create annoying eye clutter that obscures an otherwise significant pattern of trades by executives. Read our "Remove The Noise" FAQ to see why you may want to ignore them. |
| 3 |
Initial Filing as an Insider as reported on a Form 3. These transactions indicate who who just joined the company at a high level, or got promoted to a level of "insider" status by the SEC's definition. Form 3s must also be filed if and when a large investor first accumulates a large stake of at least 10% of a class of the firm's shares outstanding. |
