Insider Trading Data from SEC Form 3, 4, 5 Filings

To pull recent insider activity for one company, query the /insider-trading endpoint by the company's ticker (issuer.tradingSymbol should be the ticker, e.g. TSLA for Tesla or APA for Apache) or by its central index key (issuer.cik should be the CIK, e.g. 1318605 for Tesla). The most-recent-first behavior comes from sorting on the filing acceptance timestamp (filedAt in descending order), which is also the default sort.

Each result in the transactions array is a single Form 3, 4 or 5 with the company information on the issuer object and the trade details inside nonDerivativeTable.transactions or derivativeTable.transactions. Paginate with the from offset when more than 50 filings exist.

To track a single person across issuers, query the /insider-trading endpoint by the reporting person's CIK (reportingOwner.cik should be the person's CIK, e.g. 1494730 for Elon Musk) or by their name (reportingOwner.name should match the recorded name, e.g. Musk Elon). The CIK is the more reliable identifier because the same individual sometimes appears under slightly different name spellings across filings.

Filings the person is named on will be returned regardless of which company filed them. The issuer for each filing is on the issuer object so you can group results by issuer.cik or issuer.tradingSymbol to see all companies they have insider relationships with.

When you already have an accession number, look it up at the /insider-trading endpoint by matching the accession number field (accessionNo should equal the accession number you have, for example 0000899243-22-028189). The accession number uniquely identifies a single SEC submission, so the result will contain at most one entry in the transactions array.

The full document content — issuer, reporting owner, every non-derivative and derivative transaction or holding, every footnote and the remarks — is returned in that one record.

To restrict by date, query the /insider-trading endpoint and constrain either the date of the reported event (periodOfReport should fall between the start and end of the range, for example between 2024-01-01 and 2024-03-31 for Q1 2024) or the date the form was accepted by EDGAR (filedAt should fall in the same range). Use periodOfReport when you want trades that actually occurred in the quarter, and filedAt when you want filings that were submitted in the quarter.

Because the API caps any single query at 10,000 returned records, narrow date ranges are also the standard way to bulk-paginate large universes — for example, iterate one month at a time and page through each month with the from offset.

Open-market activity is encoded in the transaction code on each non-derivative transaction (nonDerivativeTable.transactions.coding.code). To get open-market purchases, query the /insider-trading endpoint with that code equal to P (open market or private purchase). To get open-market sales, use S (open market or private sale). All other codes — grants, gifts, tax withholding, option exercises — fall outside this open-market buy/sell distinction and should be excluded if you only want directional buying versus selling pressure.

Each matched transaction also carries the acquired/disposed flag (nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts.acquiredDisposedCode is A for acquired or D for disposed), so you can double-check that P rows are acquisitions and S rows are dispositions when aggregating.

The relationship to the issuer is captured by three booleans on the reporting owner (reportingOwner.relationship.isDirector, reportingOwner.relationship.isOfficer, reportingOwner.relationship.isTenPercentOwner). To get only director filings at the /insider-trading endpoint, the value of reportingOwner.relationship.isDirector should be true. For officer-only or 10%-owner-only views, set the corresponding flag to true. These are not mutually exclusive — a CEO who also sits on the board will have both isDirector and isOfficer set to true, and a founder may also have isTenPercentOwner set to true.

When the person has some other relationship not covered by those three, the catch-all flag (reportingOwner.relationship.isOther should be true) is set, and a free-text description appears in reportingOwner.relationship.otherText.

Rule 10b5-1 trading plans are flagged on the filing itself via aff10b5One, a top-level boolean added by SEC's 2023 Rule 10b5-1 amendments (Release No. 33-11138). The field is present on Form 4 and Form 5 only — Form 3 has no analog because it reports initial holdings, not transactions. At the /insider-trading endpoint, set aff10b5One to true to return filings where the reporting person affirmed the trade was made pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1(c) plan. Trades pre-scheduled this way are typically open-market sales (nonDerivativeTable.transactions.coding.code equal to S), so combining aff10b5One with the S code narrows the result set to discretion-free open-market sales.

Filings predating the 2023 amendments do not carry the affirmation field; for historical coverage, also search the footnote text (footnotes.text should contain 10b5-1). Each filing's footnotes array carries an id plus the explanatory text, and the IDs are referenced from the affected fields via *FootnoteId properties so you can tie the plan disclosure back to the exact transaction it covers.

The form type lives on the document-type field (documentType). Query the /insider-trading endpoint with documentType equal to 3 for an initial statement of beneficial ownership, 4 for a current-transaction report (the standard ongoing filing), or 5 for an annual statement that sweeps up transactions exempt from immediate Form 4 reporting.

Form 3 filings typically have no transactions and only a nonDerivativeTable.holdings block describing initial positions, while Form 4 filings populate nonDerivativeTable.transactions or derivativeTable.transactions. The periodOfReport field also carries different semantics by form: it is the date of the triggering event on Form 3, the date of the earliest transaction on Form 4, and the fiscal year end on Form 5.

Amendments use the /A suffix on the document type (documentType). To list them at the /insider-trading endpoint, the value of documentType should be 3/A, 4/A, or 5/A. Every amendment carries the date of the original submission it corrects (dateOfOriginalSubmission is the filing date of the prior submission, in YYYY-MM-DD format).

There is no direct accession-number back-link, so the practical join is to match the amendment to the original by issuer (issuer.cik), reporting person (reportingOwner.cik), and the original submission date (dateOfOriginalSubmission on the amendment should match filedAt's date on the original).

Tax-withholding dispositions use code F (payment of tax liability by surrendering shares incident to vesting) and option exercises use code M (exercise of a derivative security exempted under Rule 16b-3). To strip them from results at the /insider-trading endpoint, the value of nonDerivativeTable.transactions.coding.code should not be F or M. Conversely, to keep only economically meaningful open-market activity, restrict that field to P (open-market purchase) or S (open-market sale).

A common pattern in real filings is a same-day pair where an M line records an option exercise and an F line records the share withholding that funded the tax bill — neither reflects a discretionary buy or sell decision and both should be filtered out when measuring conviction.

Equity awards granted under Rule 16b-3 use code A (grant, award or other acquisition). To pull them at the /insider-trading endpoint, the value of nonDerivativeTable.transactions.coding.code should be A. Bona fide gifts use code G and can be included or excluded depending on whether you treat them as compensation events.

Grant-type transactions usually show a zero price (nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts.pricePerShare is 0) and the acquired/disposed flag (nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts.acquiredDisposedCode) is A. Restricted stock unit grants frequently appear in derivativeTable.transactions with the same code A, in which case the underlying common stock count lives on derivativeTable.transactions.underlyingSecurity.shares.

Derivative exercises and conversions are reported on the derivative table with three distinct codes (derivativeTable.transactions.coding.code). To find them at the /insider-trading endpoint, that value should be M (Rule 16b-3 exempt exercise), X (exercise of an in- or at-the-money derivative), or C (conversion of a derivative security).

The derivative line states the derivative being exercised in derivativeTable.transactions.securityTitle (for example Restricted Stock Unit, Phantom Stock Units, or a Conditional Grant), and the common-stock equivalent received is on derivativeTable.transactions.underlyingSecurity.title and derivativeTable.transactions.underlyingSecurity.shares. A matching non-derivative acquisition typically appears on the same filing under nonDerivativeTable.transactions with code M and acquired flag A.

Any filing that touches a derivative carries a derivativeTable object alongside (or instead of) the nonDerivativeTable. To target these at the /insider-trading endpoint, search the derivative security title (derivativeTable.transactions.securityTitle should contain a term like Restricted Stock Unit, Deferred Share Units, Phantom Stock Units, or Option) or use the underlying-security path (derivativeTable.transactions.underlyingSecurity.title is typically Common Stock or a similar class label).

The derivative entry also exposes its exercise price (derivativeTable.transactions.conversionOrExercisePrice), the exercise date (derivativeTable.transactions.exerciseDate) and the expiration date (derivativeTable.transactions.expirationDate), which together let you separate vested options from unvested grants and time-bound awards from perpetual instruments.

Indirect ownership is flagged on each transaction or holding by an ownership-nature code (ownershipNature.directOrIndirectOwnership should be I for indirect; D means direct). To filter for indirect positions at the /insider-trading endpoint, set that field to I on the appropriate table — either nonDerivativeTable.transactions.ownershipNature.directOrIndirectOwnership, nonDerivativeTable.holdings.ownershipNature.directOrIndirectOwnership, or the equivalent paths under derivativeTable.

The specific arrangement is described in plain text on the same object (ownershipNature.natureOfOwnership), with values like by Trust, In 401(k), By Reporting Person's IRA, By wife's IRA, By Profit Sharing Plan of Reporting Person's Employer, or By grantor trust. Combine the I filter with a text match against natureOfOwnership to isolate trusts, retirement accounts, or family-held positions.

Custodial-for-child arrangements show up as indirect holdings whose nature-of-ownership text identifies the custodian and beneficiary in plain English. At the /insider-trading endpoint, nonDerivativeTable.holdings.ownershipNature.directOrIndirectOwnership should be I and nonDerivativeTable.holdings.ownershipNature.natureOfOwnership should contain a phrase such as By wife as custodian for daughter or By wife as custodian for son.

These holdings often carry a disclaimer-of-beneficial-ownership footnote attached via nonDerivativeTable.holdings.ownershipNature.natureOfOwnershipFootnoteId whose footnotes.text clarifies the reporting person's limited interest, which is useful when distinguishing economic ownership from reporting obligation.

Swap involvement is encoded on the transaction's coding object (coding.equitySwapInvolved is a boolean). At the /insider-trading endpoint, set nonDerivativeTable.transactions.coding.equitySwapInvolved or derivativeTable.transactions.coding.equitySwapInvolved to true.

Cash-settled total return swaps are also typically described in the derivative section, so a second route is to search the security title (derivativeTable.transactions.securityTitle or derivativeTable.holdings.securityTitle should contain Swap) or the footnote text (footnotes.text should contain swap or Swap Agreement). The underlying-share economics — for example a notional 5,763,573 shares — appear on derivativeTable.holdings.underlyingSecurity.shares even when the position is cash-settled and confers no voting rights.

The post-trade balance is on each transaction (nonDerivativeTable.transactions.postTransactionAmounts.sharesOwnedFollowingTransaction, or the same path under derivativeTable.transactions). The pre-trade balance is not stored as its own field; it is the post-trade balance plus or minus the trade size, where the trade size is nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts.shares and the direction is given by nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts.acquiredDisposedCode (A adds, D subtracts).

At the /insider-trading endpoint, you can sort the resulting trades for a single insider by periodOfReport ascending to walk the position forward chronologically and compute percentage changes between the before and after share counts.

Each non-derivative transaction carries the execution price on nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts.pricePerShare and the share count on nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts.shares. To estimate the dollar value of an open-market trade at the /insider-trading endpoint, multiply those two values per row. Derivative trades expose the same shape under derivativeTable.transactions.amounts.pricePerShare and derivativeTable.transactions.amounts.shares.

Grant-type transactions (nonDerivativeTable.transactions.coding.code equal to A) commonly carry a price of 0 because no cash changes hands, and weighted-average pricing is signaled by a footnote ID on the price field (nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts.pricePerShareFootnoteId references an entry in footnotes that gives the executed price range).

Filing timeliness is on the transaction itself (nonDerivativeTable.transactions.timeliness and the same path under derivativeTable.transactions). At the /insider-trading endpoint, the value should be L for late, E for early, or empty when filed on time.

A late marker means the trade was filed past the two-business-day deadline mandated by Section 16. Form 5 amendments and ad-hoc sweep filings often surface late-marked rows when an issuer or insider catches up on prior periods.

Each filing returned by the /insider-trading endpoint includes a footnotes array, where each item has an identifier (footnotes.id, for example F1) and the footnote prose (footnotes.text). The same IDs are referenced from the fields they explain through *FootnoteId arrays — for example nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts.pricePerShareFootnoteId, nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts.sharesFootnoteId, nonDerivativeTable.transactions.securityTitleFootnoteId, derivativeTable.transactions.exerciseDateFootnoteId, derivativeTable.transactions.expirationDateFootnoteId, and ownershipNature.natureOfOwnershipFootnoteId.

To attach a footnote back to the specific field it describes, look at which *FootnoteId array contains the footnote's ID. The same footnote can be referenced from multiple fields, for example when one explanation covers both the price-per-share and the security-title columns.

The form-level free-text disclosure lives in remarks. At the /insider-trading endpoint, search this field for the phrase you care about, for example remarks should contain power of attorney, disclaims beneficial ownership, or any other narrative phrase used by filers.

Remarks frequently explain why a Form 4 was split into multiple submissions (for example when more than 30 transactions occurred on the same date and EDGAR's per-filing transaction limit forced a split), or who signed under power of attorney, which you can cross-check against ownerSignatureName.

Bona fide gifts use code G and inheritance/bequest transfers use code W. To list them at the /insider-trading endpoint, the value of nonDerivativeTable.transactions.coding.code should be G or W. To exclude them from a buy/sell aggregation, require the code to be neither of those two while keeping the open-market codes P and S.

Gifts are typically reported at a price of 0 (nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts.pricePerShare is 0) and the acquired/disposed flag (nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts.acquiredDisposedCode) is D from the donor's perspective, so they can otherwise look like a disposition even though no economic sale occurred.

Small acquisitions exempt under Rule 16a-6 carry code L. At the /insider-trading endpoint, nonDerivativeTable.transactions.coding.code should be L. The Rule 16a-6 exemption applies when the cumulative dollar value over a six-month period stays under a threshold, so individual L-coded transactions are typically modest in size.

These rows still report shares and price per share on nonDerivativeTable.transactions.amounts, so they can be aggregated the same way as other transaction types when you want to roll them up.

Officer titles are stored verbatim on the reporting owner (reportingOwner.relationship.officerTitle). At the /insider-trading endpoint, restrict the officer flag (reportingOwner.relationship.isOfficer should be true) and search the title for the role you want — for example reportingOwner.relationship.officerTitle should contain Chief Financial Officer (also seen as CFO, Sr V.P. and CFO, or Chief Financial Officer) or General Counsel. Combine with the issuer (issuer.tradingSymbol or issuer.cik) to scope the search to a single company.

Title strings are free-text as filed by the company, so the same role can appear in several spellings — President and CEO, Exec. Vice President, Claims President. Use partial-string matching to catch all variants.

Issuer identity is keyed by CIK (issuer.cik). At the /insider-trading endpoint, set issuer.cik to the company's CIK, for example 320193 for Apple, 1318605 for Tesla, or 6769 for Apache. The CIK persists through ticker changes, delistings, mergers and corporate-form conversions, which the ticker (issuer.tradingSymbol) does not.

Because the database is survivorship-bias free, lookups by CIK return filings even for issuers that no longer trade publicly, which is the right behavior for historical research where the ticker may no longer resolve.

By default the /insider-trading endpoint sorts on the SEC acceptance timestamp (filedAt). To order by the date of the underlying trade instead, sort on periodOfReport. On Form 4 this is the date of the earliest transaction in the filing, so it is the closest top-level proxy for “when did the trade happen”. For finer granularity, the per-row transaction date (nonDerivativeTable.transactions.transactionDate or derivativeTable.transactions.transactionDate) carries the exact date for each individual transaction in the same filing.

Set the sort order to ascending to walk a person or company's trades forward in time, or descending to start from the most recent.

Each call to /insider-trading returns at most 50 records. To page forward, increase the from offset by 50 on each successive call (0, then 50, then 100, and so on). The maximum reachable offset is 10000, which caps any one query at 10,000 total records regardless of how many actually match.

For result sets larger than 10,000, slice the query along a date dimension — for example restrict periodOfReport to one month at a time, page through that month to exhaustion, then advance to the next month. Pair this with a deterministic sort (filedAt or periodOfReport) so the pagination order is stable across calls.

Monthly bulk archives are served from a year/month-templated path: /bulk/form-4/YYYY/YYYY-MM.jsonl.gz returns a gzip-compressed JSONL file containing every Form 4 with a filedAt timestamp inside that calendar month. The same shape applies to Form 3 (/bulk/form-3/YYYY/YYYY-MM.jsonl.gz) and Form 5 (/bulk/form-5/YYYY/YYYY-MM.jsonl.gz).

Each line in the decompressed file is one full Form 3, 4 or 5 record using the same JSON structure returned by the search endpoint — accessionNo, filedAt, documentType, issuer, reportingOwner, nonDerivativeTable, derivativeTable, footnotes, and so on. New filings from the previous day are appended to the current month's archive between 1:00 AM and 4:00 AM Eastern.

Each form type has an index file: /bulk/form-3/index.json, /bulk/form-4/index.json, and /bulk/form-5/index.json. The index is an array of entries, where each entry has the relative path to the monthly archive (key, for example 2025/2025-03.jsonl.gz), the last refresh timestamp (updatedAt), and the file size in bytes (size).

Polling the relevant index lets a downstream process detect which monthly files have new data and prioritize re-downloads accordingly without scanning every archive.

Every response from /insider-trading includes a count object (total). When the count is exact, total.relation is eq and total.value is the precise number of matching records (always less than 10,000). When more than 10,000 records match, total.relation is gte and total.value is 10000, signaling that the true count is at least that high but not computed.

Use this object as a pre-flight check: if total.relation is gte, narrow the query before paginating — most commonly by tightening the periodOfReport date range — until total.relation flips to eq so the full set is reachable within the 10,000-record cap.