Insider Activity Analyzer
Open-market buys are the signal. Most Form 4s are not.
This is the other half of Learn section 5 — step 5 on How to Research a Stock and section 5 of the checklist. The scorecard is Framework 12. Framework 08 is the transaction list. You can pull Form 4s yourself. 08 is the same filter, written up.
When to run it
- After a headline that "insiders are selling."
- After a quarter when you want to know whether anyone actually bought the dip.
- When Framework 12 is finished and the only open question is the tape.
Do not run Framework 08 first and skip Framework 12. A single purchase does not make a management grade.
What the write-up is supposed to contain
A Framework 08 output should separate:
- Open-market purchases (P) vs open-market sales (S) vs option noise
- Size of the trade versus what that person already owns
- Whether more than one insider did the same thing in the same window
- Timing vs the last earnings release or 8-K
- What the absence of buying means — which is usually "nothing," not a secret crash warning
If the output is a raw table with no sentence about which rows are signal, the run failed.
What this framework cannot do
- It does not tell you to buy because an insider bought.
- It does not grade capital allocation. That is Framework 12.
- It does not write the thesis. That is Framework 05.
- It does not size the position. That is Framework 06.
- It cannot see trades that have not been filed yet.
Walkthrough: AMZN as a first 08
Notes a first Form 4 pass should produce
- Most Amazon-related Form 4s in a given month will be compensation plumbing. Count those as noise unless the filing is an open-market P or S.
- The question is not "did a name appear in the feed." The question is "did anyone spend their own cash, in size, relative to what they already hold."
- A quiet tape after a down week is not automatically bearish. Insiders miss dips too. Absence of buying is usually not a signal by itself.
- Cluster open-market buying would matter. One small P after a vesting event would not.
Still open: a full year of filings, filtered, sitting next to the last two earnings dates. "I have not pulled them tonight" is an honest 08. Pretending the brand answers the tape is not.
Handwritten version: How to Analyze a Stock, section 5.
Full published run: AMZN analysis.
Do it yourself, then run 08
Before a credit:
- SEC Form 4 search on the ticker, last 12 months.
- Keep P and S. Park option exercises and withholdings.
- Note size vs that person's existing stake, and the date vs last earnings.
- Write one sentence: signal buy / signal sell / noise / not enough filings to say.
Then run Framework 08 and see whether the write-up agrees which rows were noise.
Common questions
Insiders sold. Should I sell?
Not from that fact alone. Ask whether it was an open-market S, whether it was large vs their stake, and whether it was scheduled. Cluster selling after option vesting is often tax or diversification, not a view on the business. Then go back to the thesis (05), not the feed.
Insiders bought. Should I buy?
Same rule in reverse. A purchase is a data point for 12 and 05. It is not a ticket.
What do I run next?
Framework 12 if you still have no five-year sentence. Framework 05 or 06 if People is done. Stop after that.
Run Insider Activity Analyzer
Same filter as the DIY list. Live filings instead of a blank EDGAR tab. This is the optional faster pass — not a substitute for knowing which rows are noise.
Try AlphaLens Free → Use code REDDIT-FREE-TRIAL · No card required · Then $39/mo or $299/yrThen write the sentence. Or ignore the headline.