Smart Money / Insiders

Insider conviction,
surfaced.

Corporate insiders disclose their trades on SEC Form 4. Gunpowder scores them by materiality and flags the patterns that matter most — especially cluster buys and large executive purchases.

What you get

Materiality score (0–100)

Each Form 4 is scored on transaction size, insider seniority (CEO, CFO, director, 10%-owner), holdings percentage, behavior anomalies, and timing.

Cluster-buy detection

When multiple insiders buy the same company in a short window — the conviction pattern that single trades miss.

Executive purchases

Big open-market buys by executives and directors, distinguished from routine grants and planned sales.

Straight from Form 4

Parsed from public SEC Form 4 filings, above a materiality floor so the noise stays out. The transaction code on each filing separates open-market buys — the strongest signal, where an insider spends their own cash — from option exercises, tax-withholding, and pre-scheduled 10b5-1 plan sales, so routine housekeeping is never mistaken for conviction. New to the form? Read what a Form 4 is and what cluster buying signals.

Intelligence and analysis of public disclosures — not trading advice.

In the briefings

  • Insider cluster buys this week
  • Biggest executive purchases
  • Per-company insider activity
  • High-materiality moves roundup
Browse insider briefings →

How we score it

Every Form 4 gets a deterministic Materiality Score from 0–100 — no black box. Big, senior, high-conviction buys score highest; routine filings fall away.

The score leans on who is trading as much as how much. A CEO or CFO committing seven figures of their own cash outranks a small, routine director sale. Behaviour anomalies — a long-dormant insider suddenly buying, or a trade far larger than that insider’s own history — push it up, as do risk flags like pledged shares and non-planned, off-schedule trades. The result is a ranking that separates genuine conviction from the steady drip of automatic, pre-planned activity.

  • Transaction size up to 30
  • Insider seniority — CEO, CFO, director, 10%-owner up to 25
  • Share of holdings traded up to 20
  • Behavior anomaly — vs the insider’s own history up to 15
  • Timing factors — pledges, non-planned trades up to 10

Frequently asked questions

Why do buys matter more than sells?

Insiders sell for many reasons — taxes, diversification, scheduled plans. An open-market buy commits their own cash, so it is the cleaner conviction signal, and a cluster of buys more so.

What makes a cluster buy?

Several insiders at one company buying in a short window. Coordinated conviction is much harder to dismiss as noise than any single purchase.

Where does the data come from?

Public SEC Form 4 filings, parsed above a materiality floor so routine, low-signal filings stay out of the way.

Do you track insider selling too?

Yes — both buys and sells are scored. The briefings lead with open-market buys and clusters because selling is far noisier (taxes, diversification, scheduled 10b5-1 plans), but unusually large or anomalous sells still surface on materiality.