What is SEC Form 4?
Form 4 is the filing a company's officers, directors and owners of more than 10% of its stock must send to the SEC within two business days of buying or selling that stock. It gives the date, the number of shares, the price and the insider's holdings afterwards, and it is public the moment it is filed.
In brief
- Who files: officers, directors and owners of more than 10% of a class of the company's shares.
- Deadline: before the end of the second business day after the trade.
- It reports exact shares and prices, unlike congressional reports.
- Trading by insiders is legal when it is reported and not based on secret information.
- Since March 18, 2026, officers and directors of foreign companies listed in the U.S. file too.
What is Form 4?
Form 4 is a short public filing called a "statement of changes in beneficial ownership". When a person closely tied to a public company trades that company's shares, they must report it to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Form 4, and the SEC publishes it at once on its EDGAR system.
It has two siblings. Form 3 is filed once, when someone first becomes an insider, and lists what they already own. Form 5 is an annual catch-up for a few items that did not need a Form 4. This site reads Form 4 only.
Who has to file one?
Three groups, under Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act: a company's officers (its senior executives), its directors (board members), and anyone who owns more than 10% of a class of its shares. That last group is mostly funds and founders, and it accounts for a large part of the dollars on Form 4. See 10% owners and joint filings.
Until this year, insiders of foreign companies listed in the United States were exempt. A law passed in December 2025 ended that: since March 18, 2026, their officers and directors file the same forms (SEC rule).
How quickly must it be filed?
Before the end of the second business day after the trade. That makes Form 4 far faster than congressional disclosure, where the limit is 45 days.
This site flags a Form 4 as late when it was filed more than 4 calendar days after the trade, a deliberately cautious reading of "two business days" that allows for weekends and holidays.
How do I read one?
A Form 4 has two tables. Table I lists ordinary shares bought, sold or otherwise changed. Table II lists derivatives: stock options, warrants and similar instruments. Each row has:
- A transaction code, a single letter that says what kind of event it was. P is a purchase, S is a sale; most other letters are not market trades at all. The full list is in Form 4 transaction codes.
- The date, share count and price.
- Shares owned afterwards, which lets you see whether a sale was a small trim or most of a holding.
- Direct or indirect ownership. Indirect means the shares sit in a trust, a family member's account or a fund the insider controls.
A checkbox near the top says whether the trade was made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, a schedule set up in advance.
Is this the illegal kind of insider trading?
No. The phrase covers two different things. Illegal insider trading is buying or selling while using important information that the public does not have, in breach of a duty of trust (the SEC's definition). Legal insider trading is an executive or director buying or selling their own company's stock in the open and reporting it. Form 4 is the report.
A Form 4 therefore tells you that a trade happened, not that anything was wrong with it.
Which insider filings are on this site?
Form 4 filings for a tracked set of companies: about 70 large or heavily traded U.S. stocks, plus every stock that appears in a congressional trade report. That is 1,265 tickers and 137,417 transactions today, not the whole market. Each row links to the filing on EDGAR.
The Insiders page lists the newest filings and the trade map shows where the dollars went.
Three kinds of page hold the detail, and they link to one another:
- A stock's page lists the insiders who filed for that ticker and the members of Congress who traded it, each with the number of rows, open-market purchases and sales, and the latest date. A folded table breaks the rows down by Form 4 code. "Related stocks" are the tickers traded by the same people, ranked by the number of filers in common.
- An insider's page shows the same person's rows by code and by year, then every transaction, the filings, and the other insiders at the same company.
- A company's page adds federal contracts and lobbying filings under the company's exact name, the members of Congress who traded its stock, and related companies.
In every trade table a flag such as "late" or "10b5-1 plan" is a link to the guide that explains it, and each of these pages ends with the guides that cover what is on it. "Related" lists describe overlap in public filings and nothing more. A Follow button beside the name on all three adds the page to your free watchlist; see how to follow.
Questions and answers
What is a Form 4 filing?
Form 4 is the SEC filing that a company's officers, directors and owners of more than 10% of its stock must make within two business days of trading that stock. It shows the date, shares, price and holdings afterwards.
Is insider trading reported on Form 4 legal?
Yes. Form 4 reports lawful trades by company insiders in their own company's stock. Illegal insider trading means trading on important information that is not public, in breach of a duty of trust.
How soon after a trade must an insider file Form 4?
Before the end of the second business day after the trade.
Who counts as a corporate insider?
For SEC reporting, a company's officers, its directors, and anyone who owns more than 10% of a class of its shares.
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Not investment advice. This guide explains public records and how this site presents them. It makes no recommendation to buy or sell anything. All guides · All questions · Report an error