The Research Desk · 10 field guides · Updated Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Required reading for the insider desk.

Field guides, methodology notes, and quarterly deep-dives — the reading that makes every scored filing legible.
SEC Form 4·STOCK Act · PTR·CFA-designed scoring
Today's feature

The quarter in review

Editor's pick
Quarterly · Q1 2026

Top Insider Purchases: Q1 2026

The quarter's highest-conviction buys, scored and annotated. Where C-suites put their own capital when the tape said otherwise.

12 min read·Greg Taylor, CFA·Read the piece →
Filings scored
8,412
Q1 2026
Strong tier
147
Score ≥ 75
§01 · The primitives

Core field guides

3 pieces
01

What Is SEC Form 4? A Complete Guide for Investors

Who files it, when it's required, and why every filing lands at InsiderBrief within fifteen minutes of hitting EDGAR.

8 min
02

How to Read Insider Trading Data

A practitioner's guide to the Form 4 table — what matters, what to skip, and the three columns that move first.

9 min
03

Insider Buying vs. Selling: What Each Signal Means

Why purchases carry more signal than sales, and how to read each transaction code in context.

7 min
§02 · Forty years of literature

Research & evidence

2 pieces
01

Does Insider Buying Predict Stock Performance?

Forty years of peer-reviewed evidence — from Seyhun (1986) to Cohen, Malloy & Pomorski — on when the alpha is real.

11 min
02

What Is a Cluster Buy? The Strongest Insider Signal

When two or more insiders buy the same ticker within days, the forward-return distribution shifts. Here's why.

8 min
Feature article

This week on the desk

14 min read
This week's feature · Earnings preview

Rocket Lab Into Q1 Earnings: The $45 Billion Question Behind the $600 Million Business

A $45B market cap on $602M of revenue. A $1.85B backlog and a Neutron debut riding on a single tank. What the May 7 print actually has to prove — and the three things to listen for on the call.

14 min read·Greg Taylor, CFA·Read the preview →
RKLB
NASDAQ
Reports Thursday, May 7 · after close
Guide: rev $185–200M · EPS ~−$0.07 · Adj. EBITDA loss $21–27M
§03 · Codes, plans, definitions

Reference tables

2 pieces
01

SEC Form 4 Transaction Codes Explained

P, S, A, M, G, F — the full lookup table for every code the SEC accepts on a Form 4 filing.

6 min
02

10b5-1 Trading Plans Explained

How pre-scheduled plans work, the 2023 cooling-off amendments, and why planned sales get weighted differently.

9 min
§04 · Under the hood

Methodology

1 piece
01

How InsiderScore™ Works

Inside the CFA-designed 7-factor rubric. Transparent weights, no black boxes, audited nightly.

10 min
§05 · The competitive landscape

Tools & comparisons

1 piece
01

Best Insider Trading Screeners in 2026

A comparison of the major platforms for tracking Form 4 and STOCK Act activity — strengths, gaps, and price.

8 min
§ End

Read the live tape

The desk

The guides above teach the instrument. The pages below play it — every Form 4 and every PTR, scored within fifteen minutes of filing.

Signals →Congress →Methodology →
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