Why InsiderFlow
Transparency for the rest of us.
Corporate insiders and members of Congress are required by law to disclose their trades — but those disclosures live in dense SEC filings and scanned PDF reports that almost nobody reads. We exist to change that.
InsiderFlow collects, parses, ranks and visualizes SEC Form 4, Form 144 and U.S. Congressional Periodic Transaction Reports so that a retail investor gets the same clear, real-time picture as a desk that pays thousands for it — for free.
We collect
Straight from the source — SEC EDGAR filings and House & Senate disclosures. No middlemen, no opinions.
We make sense of it
We parse messy forms, normalize tickers and amounts, and rank every filing by a proprietary Impact Score.
We show you
A real-time dashboard with P&L, benchmark alpha and clean charts — built for humans, not analysts.
The deal is simple
InsiderFlow is free. In return, all we ask is your support on X. Following @InsiderFlowApp is what unlocks the dashboard in the first place — but it goes further than that.
Every like, repost and reply helps a small, independent project reach the next retail investor who has no idea this data even exists. If a post saved you time or taught you something, sharing it is the best thank-you we could ask for — and genuinely, thank you to everyone who already has.
Follow @InsiderFlowAppLearn the signals
A quick guide to the concepts behind the numbers you see on the dashboard.
What is the Impact Score?
The Impact Score is our proprietary 0–10.0 rating of how meaningful a single filing is. The dollar amount alone is misleading, so the score goes further and weighs several things together:
- Executive rank — a CEO or CFO trade outweighs a director's, which outweighs a 10%+ owner's.
- Relative size — the trade measured against the insider's existing position, not just its absolute size.
- Market cap — a $1M buy means far more in a mid-cap than in a mega-cap.
- Discretionary vs. automated — a freely-timed trade scores higher than a pre-scheduled 10b5-1 plan (see below).
- Direction — a buy is usually a stronger conviction signal than a sell, because insiders sell for many reasons but buy for only one.
What does “Ann. Alpha” mean?
Alpha is the return a trade earned over and above the S&P 500 over the same period, marked to today's price. For a buy it's the upside since the purchase; for a sell it's the downside avoided after the exit — a sale looks skilled when the stock then lags the market. You can view it for buys, sells, or both, so it answers one question: would you have done better simply holding the index instead of following this person?
Annualized means we scale that return to a one-year equivalent so trades held for different lengths of time can be compared fairly. A 5% gain held for one month is far more impressive than a 5% gain held for two years. To keep the math honest we floor very short holds at 30 days and cap the annualized figure at +1,000%, so a lucky one-day pop doesn't distort the leaderboard.
In short: Ann. Alpha = annualized return of the trade − annualized return of the S&P 500. Positive means they beat the market.
What is a 10b5-1 plan, and why does it matter?
A Rule 10b5-1 plan is a pre-arranged trading schedule an insider sets up in advance — while they do not hold material non-public information. Once it's in place, the trades execute automatically on the set dates regardless of what the insider later learns. In return, the plan gives them a legal defense against insider-trading accusations.
Why it matters to you: a 10b5-1 sale was very likely scheduled months earlier and tells you little about what the insider thinks today. A discretionary trade — one they chose to make right now — is a much stronger signal. That's exactly why the Impact Score discounts automated 10b5-1 activity. (Since 2023, SEC rules also require a cooling-off period before plan trades can begin.)
What must corporate insiders report? (Form 4 vs. Form 144)
Under Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act, a company's officers, directors and holders of more than 10% of its stock must disclose their trades to the SEC.
- Form 4 reports a transaction that already happened — it's due within two business days, which is why it's such a timely signal.
- Form 144 is a notice of intent to sell restricted or control shares under Rule 144 — a planned sale that may or may not be executed in full.
Because Form 144 is planned and Form 4 is realized, the two describe the same shares from two angles — so on the dashboard we overlay them rather than adding them together.
What must members of Congress report? (The STOCK Act)
The STOCK Act of 2012 requires members of the U.S. House and Senate (and senior staff) to publicly file a Periodic Transaction Report (PTR) for any securities trade over $1,000.
- They must file within 30 days of being notified of a trade, and no later than 45 days after it happened.
- Amounts are disclosed in broad ranges (e.g. $1,001–$15,000), not exact figures — so our politician dollar values are midpoint estimates.
Disclosure lag matters: a fast, compliant filing is more useful than one that arrives near the 45-day limit. That's why we color-code each filing's reporting lag against the STOCK Act deadlines.
Where does the data come from?
Everything comes straight from official, public sources — never a third-party aggregator. Insider filings are pulled directly from SEC EDGAR, and Congressional trades from the U.S. House Clerk and Senate Electronic Financial Disclosure systems.
We monitor a broad universe — the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, S&P MidCap 400 and Russell 1000, plus the full U.S. Congress — and surface each filing within minutes of it going public.
Is it free — and is this financial advice?
The dashboard is completely free — you sign in with your X account and follow @InsiderFlowApp to get access.
InsiderFlow is an information and education tool, not financial advice. Disclosed trades are a starting point for your own research, not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always verify the original filing on SEC.gov, the House Clerk or the Senate EFD before acting on anything.
Found a bug? Got an idea?
We're a young, independent project and we're improving it constantly. If something looks off, a number seems wrong, or you'd love to see a feature — please tell us. Your feedback genuinely shapes what we build next.
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