> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.focusalpha.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Insider Trades (SEC Form 4)

> SEC Form 4 transactions by company officers, directors and 10% owners: purchases, sales and equity grants, one row per reported transaction.

Insider Trades provides SEC Form 4 transactions reported by a company's officers, directors and 10% beneficial owners. Each observation is associated with an issuer, a named reporting person, a transaction date and a filing date. Roughly the past two years of transactions are held per issuer.

<Info>
  **Plan:** Professional and above · **Credits:** 1 per call
</Info>

## What You Can Use Insider Trades For

Detect clusters of open-market buying or selling around a company event. Distinguish a discretionary purchase from a routine equity grant or a scheduled sale. Track a specific executive's position over time through `shares_owned_after_transaction`. Cross insider activity against [8-K events](/events/8k-events) or [company news](/news/company-news) to see what preceded it.

## Insider Trades Coverage

Coverage is US issuers whose insiders file Form 4 with the SEC. Roughly the past two years of transactions are held per issuer. Foreign private issuers do not file Form 4 and are absent.

## Key Insider Trade Fields

`ticker` and `issuer` identify the company. `name` is the reporting person, `title` is the role they reported, and `is_board_director` says whether they sit on the board.

`transaction_date` is when the trade occurred and `transaction_type` is the SEC transaction code — `P` for an open-market purchase, `S` for a sale, `A` for an acquisition such as a grant, among others. `transaction_shares`, `transaction_price_per_share` and `transaction_value` size it. `security_title` names the security.

`shares_owned_before_transaction` and `shares_owned_after_transaction` give the reporting person's holding either side of the trade.

## Insider Trade Date Convention

`transaction_date` is the date the transaction took place. `filing_date` is when the Form 4 reached the SEC, and it is the date the information became public. Form 4 is due within two business days of the transaction, so the two dates are usually close but never identical, and results are ordered by filing date — newest first.

## Insider Trade Sources

Transactions are read from Form 4 filings on SEC EDGAR. Transaction codes are the filer's own; nothing is reclassified.

## Query Insider Trades

Use the insider trades endpoint to retrieve a company's reported Form 4 transactions, newest filing first.

<ParamField query="ticker" type="string" required>
  The issuer's ticker.
</ParamField>

<ParamField query="limit" type="integer" default="10">
  Rows returned, between 1 and 1000.
</ParamField>

<Warning>
  Date-range, transaction-type and reporting-person filters are not yet available on this endpoint. Passing any of them returns a `400`. The unfiltered newest-first feed is the current scope; reach further back by raising `limit`.
</Warning>

This route returns a bare `insider_trades` wrapper key rather than the standard envelope, and uses the flat `{ error, message }` error body.

## Related Datasets

See also [13F Institutional Holdings](/ownership/13f) for manager-reported positions, [Proxy Ownership](/ownership/proxy-ownership) for beneficial ownership as reported in the proxy statement, and [Executive Compensation](/ownership/executive-compensation) for what these same people are paid.

<RequestExample>
  ```bash cURL theme={null}
  curl "https://api.focusalpha.ai/v1/insider-trades?ticker=NVDA&limit=3" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $FOCUSALPHA_API_KEY"
  ```
</RequestExample>

<ResponseExample>
  ```json Response theme={null}
  {
    "insider_trades": [
      {
        "name": "Johnson Suzanne M Nora",
        "title": null,
        "issuer": "Nvidia Corp",
        "ticker": "NVDA",
        "filing_date": "2026-08-10",
        "security_title": "Common Stock",
        "transaction_date": "2026-08-10",
        "transaction_type": "Company grant or award",
        "is_board_director": true,
        "transaction_value": 0,
        "transaction_shares": 1262,
        "transaction_price_per_share": 0,
        "shares_owned_after_transaction": 1262,
        "shares_owned_before_transaction": 0
      }
    ]
  }
  ```
</ResponseExample>