SEC forms / Form 4
What is a Form 4? The insider trading form, explained
A Form 4 is the SEC filing that reports insider transactions — every time an officer, director, or greater-than-10% shareholder of a public company buys, sells, or otherwise changes their stake, they must report it within two business days. It is the official record of what insiders are actually doing with their own money, which is why Form 4 filings are among the most watched documents on EDGAR. Each filing lists the transaction date, the number of shares, the price, a one-letter transaction code identifying the type of trade, and the insider's resulting holdings.
Deadline
2 business days after the transaction
Who files
Officers, directors, and >10% owners
Cadence
Event-driven — hundreds per day
Siblings
Form 3 (initial stake) · Form 5 (annual catch-up)
Latest Form 4 filings
| Accepted | Company | |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 17, 21:58 | Langlois Sophia J. | View → |
| Jul 17, 21:57 | Yoskowitz Marc J | View → |
| Jul 17, 21:57 | Hirsch Scott | View → |
| Jul 17, 21:56 | Zinman Jon | View → |
| Jul 17, 21:56 | Efron Paul | View → |
| Jul 17, 21:56 | Donato Leslie E | View → |
| Jul 17, 21:55 | Dorton Katina | View → |
| Jul 17, 21:54 | Keenova Therapeutics plc | View → |
| Jul 17, 21:52 | Jaffe Jennifer Anne | View → |
| Jul 17, 21:51 | Kowalski Thomas Michael | View → |
| Jul 17, 21:50 | BREITMEYER JAMES B | View → |
| Jul 17, 21:50 | HERON ELAINE J | View → |
Straight from the live SEC EDGAR stream — every Form 4 as it is accepted, most recent first. Open the full live Form 4 feed →
What to look for in a Form 4
- The transaction code — P (open-market purchase) is the strongest conviction signal; S is a sale; A is a grant or award; M is an option exercise; F is shares withheld for taxes; G is a gift. Codes A, M, and F are usually compensation plumbing, not trading decisions.
- The footnotes — a sale executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan is disclosed there, and it reads very differently from a discretionary sale.
- Size against existing holdings — the form shows shares owned after the transaction, so you can see whether an insider trimmed 2% of their stake or exited half of it.
- Clusters — one insider selling is noise; several insiders buying in the same week is one of the most-studied bullish signals in market research.
Who has to file a Form 4?
Section 16 insiders: officers (CEO, CFO, and other policy-making executives), members of the board of directors, and any beneficial owner of more than 10% of a class of the company's registered equity. The obligation is personal — the insider files, not the company, though companies typically handle the mechanics.
What do Form 4 transaction codes mean?
The common ones: P is an open-market purchase, S is an open-market sale, A is an award or grant from the company, M is an option or derivative exercise, F is shares withheld to cover taxes on vesting, G is a bona fide gift, D is a disposition back to the company, and C is a conversion. P and S reflect actual trading decisions; most of the rest are compensation mechanics.
How quickly must a Form 4 be filed?
Within two business days of the transaction — one of the tightest deadlines in SEC reporting, set by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 (it was previously up to 40 days). This means the public record of insider trades runs at most a couple of days behind the trades themselves.
What is the difference between Form 3, Form 4, and Form 5?
Form 3 is the initial statement — filed within 10 days of becoming an insider, disclosing existing holdings. Form 4 reports changes as they happen, within two business days. Form 5 is the annual catch-up, due 45 days after fiscal year-end, for small or exempt transactions that were not required on a Form 4 during the year — gifts are the classic example.
Does insider selling mean bad news?
Usually not by itself. Executives sell for taxes, diversification, and planned liquidity — much of it on pre-scheduled 10b5-1 plans disclosed in the footnotes. Research consistently finds purchases more informative than sales: insiders have many reasons to sell but essentially one reason to buy. Watch for discretionary sales outside a plan, unusually large sales relative to holdings, and selling clusters across several insiders.
Related SEC forms
Form 4 JSON
Free JSON · no key · no loginGET https://app.edgar.tools/forms/form-4.json
{
"form": "4",
"name": "Form 4",
"deadline": "2 business days after the transaction",
"latest": [
{ "accession": "…", "cik": 320193, "company": "Apple Inc.", "accepted": "…" }
]
}The form's key facts plus the newest filings, machine-readable.