Insider Activity Tracker

On the LSE Regulatory News Service (RNS) under company announcements, and on the FCA National Storage Mechanism. Aggregators such as Investegate and London South East also collate them. AlgoKing's Insider Activity Tracker aggregates this data for you.

No. Insider buying is a positive signal but should be combined with fundamental analysis. Use it as a filter or confirmation, not the sole criterion. Also check the quality of the transaction (on-market vs option exercise, size, insider seniority).

No. Insiders sell for many benign reasons: diversification, personal expenses, tax planning, option exercises. What's concerning is cluster selling (multiple insiders), consistent selling at highs, or selling just before bad news.

Under UK MAR, PDMRs cannot deal during the 30 calendar days before interim or year-end results. This prevents dealing while inside information about performance may be held.

Check when you receive alerts for significant activity. Do a monthly review of your holdings, and check before making new investments. AlgoKing automates this with real-time alerts.

Look for on-market purchases (vs option/LTIP exercises), senior insiders (CEO/CFO vs lower employees), size relative to holding, and whether they hold or immediately sell. Exercise-and-hold is more meaningful than exercise-and-sell.

Generally: <10% is low risk, 10-25% moderate, 25-50% high risk, >50% critical. But context matters - compare to sector norms and the company's cash flow. A rising pledge/charge trend is more concerning than a stable one.

Aggregate insider activity across all stocks in each sector. Sectors with net insider buying may outperform. This can be a leading indicator - insiders collectively see sector trends before they're obvious.

Research suggests 3-12 months for the signal to fully reflect in prices. There's some immediate effect, but most outperformance accumulates over 6+ months. This is a medium-term signal, not for day trading.

Selling down via a placing or bookbuild is often pre-announced and may relate to free-float or diversification. This is less concerning than unexpected on-market sales. Context matters - check the reason.

Calculate net insider buying (weighted by insider seniority), normalise cross-sectionally and vs the stock's own history, apply decay for older transactions, and combine with cluster and pledge adjustments into a composite score. Backtest long top quintile, short bottom.

Strong features include: transaction size relative to holding, insider type/seniority, cluster indicator, time since the last transaction, plus stock features (momentum, valuation, volatility) and contextual features (results proximity, market regime).

Early warning signs: a rising pledge/charge trend, multiple PDMRs exiting, consistent selling at highs, delayed disclosures, and an increase in related-party transactions. Combine into a governance score and monitor for deterioration.

Limitations include: disclosure delay (up to 3 business days), thinner coverage for small caps and AIM, difficulty distinguishing related parties (PCAs), option/LTIP noise, and the fact that insiders can be wrong. Some may also structure transactions around thresholds.

Treat it as a separate factor with low correlation to traditional factors. Combine with value, momentum and quality. Weight based on backtest performance. Use as an overlay or tilt rather than the primary factor, and monitor for factor crowding.