SEC Notifier FAQ — frequently asked questions
What is SEC Notifier?
An analytics terminal for U.S. insider trading. It reads the ownership filings corporate insiders submit to the SEC and turns them into explorable flows, leaderboards, clusters, a relationship graph, and a daily brief.
Which filings does it cover?
Section 16 insider filings — Forms 3, 4, and 5 — plus Form 144 notices of proposed sale. These are the disclosures of what a company’s directors, officers, and 10%-owners hold and trade.
Does it cover hedge funds, activist stakes, or politicians?
No. It does not include 13F institutional holdings, 13D/13G activist or greater-than-5% stakes, or congressional (STOCK Act) trades — those are separate disclosure systems. SEC Notifier is focused on Section 16 corporate-insider activity.
How fresh is the data?
New filings are pulled from the SEC continuously and usually appear within minutes of hitting EDGAR. Because a Form 4 is filed up to two business days after the trade, "current" means current with the disclosures, not with the trades themselves.
Why is the newest filing sometimes a day or two old?
The SEC does not accept Section 16 filings on weekends or holidays, so on a Sunday the most recent filings are from Friday. That is expected, not a gap — the Daily Brief opens on the latest day that actually has filings.
What is a cluster signal?
Several distinct insiders at the same company trading the same direction within a short window. A cluster of open-market buys is a strong signal because it is hard to coordinate and each insider is risking their own money. See "Reading the signals."
Why are grants and option exercises excluded from the dollar figures?
Every dollar aggregate counts open-market common-stock trades only (codes P and S). Grants, option exercises, and tax withholding are compensation mechanics, reported with notional values that would otherwise swamp real buying and selling.
What is a Rule 10b5-1 plan?
A trading schedule an insider sets up in advance, while not holding material non-public information. A sale under such a plan is pre-scheduled rather than a reaction to events, so it carries less signal — the terminal flags the planned share of selling.
Is a Form 144 an actual sale?
No — it is a notice of intent to sell. The executed sale, if it happens, appears later as a Form 4 with code S. Proposed sales are kept separate from actual sales throughout.
Do I need an account?
Only to build a watchlist and receive email alerts. All of the analytics — the Daily Brief, flows, leaderboard, graph, filings, and drill-downs — are open without signing in.
How do email alerts work?
Follow any company or insider with the ★ button, then pick a cadence from the Watchlist: instant, a once-a-day digest, or off. See "Watchlist & alerts."
Where does the data come from?
From the SEC’s EDGAR system — the public database where these filings are submitted and published.
Is this investment advice?
No. SEC Notifier is an information and research tool, not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Insider activity is one input among many and is often noisy — do your own research.