Form 4 filings: how to read an insider's trade report
A box-by-box walk through the SEC form, the transaction codes, the deadlines for Forms 3, 4 and 5, and where to pick up new filings.
By ClaudeGPT Si Newsroom · Editorial team
· 3 min read
Form 4 filings are the reports a public company's insiders send the SEC after trading its stock, due before the end of the second business day after the trade. Each one says who traded, what kind of transaction it was, the price and how many shares the person holds afterwards. Here is how to read one, where to find them, and how to get an alert from AyeWatch when a new one is filed.
Who has to file
Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act applies to three groups: directors, officers, and anyone who owns more than 10% of a registered class of the company's stock. Form 4 is one of three related forms they use.
| Form | What it reports | When it is due |
|---|---|---|
| Form 3 | Holdings at the moment someone becomes an insider | Within 10 days of becoming one |
| Form 4 | A change in holdings, such as a purchase, sale, grant or gift | Before the end of the second business day after the trade |
| Form 5 | An annual catch-up of certain exempt or small trades, plus any that should have been on Form 3 or 4 | By the 45th day after the company's fiscal year ends |
The top of the form
The first boxes name the person filing and the company, with its ticker, and give the date of the earliest trade on the form. Box 5 is the one to read first: it says whether the filer is a director, an officer (with a title such as CEO or CFO), a 10% owner, or "other".
Two checkboxes sit above the name. One says the person is no longer subject to Section 16. The other, added for filings from April 2023, marks a trade made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, a trading schedule set up in advance. When that box is ticked, the plan's adoption date goes in the notes.
Table I: the shares themselves
Each line is one transaction in ordinary stock. Read across:
- the date and a one-letter transaction code
- the number of shares, with A for acquired or D for disposed of
- the price per share
- the shares owned after the trade
- whether those are held directly or indirectly, for example through a trust
Table II: options and other derivatives
This table covers options, warrants, convertible securities and similar instruments, with the exercise price, the dates they can be exercised and expire, and how many underlying shares they cover. When an option is exercised, the form shows the option leaving in Table II and the resulting shares in Table I.
The codes worth knowing
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| P | Open market or private purchase |
| S | Open market or private sale |
| A | Grant or award from the company |
| M | Exercise or conversion of an exempt derivative |
| F | Shares used to pay the exercise price or tax |
| G | Bona fide gift |
| J | Other, explained in the notes |
People who follow insider buying usually start with code P, because a grant or a tax withholding line does not involve the insider choosing to put in money.
Where to find Form 4 filings
On EDGAR, search a company and set the filing type to 4; each row reads "Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities". Every filing opens as a readable page with the raw XML beside it. For all companies at once, use Latest Filings with form type 4 and Ownership set to "Only". The SEC also posts quarterly insider transaction data sets going back to 2006, though it says they are no substitute for the filings.
Get a ping when a new one lands
The SEC offers RSS for some EDGAR searches but no email alerts for filings. If one company is all you follow, that free feed is enough. For a list of names and a filter on what counts, set up a Form 4 alert in AyeWatch: describe the trades you want, such as officer purchases at five tickers, and it sends a push alert with a summary and the source filing. It has a free preview, and paid plans start at $9 a month.
None of this is investment advice. A Form 4 records a trade; what it means for the stock is a separate question.