SEC Insider Trading Tracker

Track insider stock transactions filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by searching SEC EDGAR Form 4 filings. The actor queries the EDGAR full-text search index, downloads the raw Form 4 XML filings, and parses every transaction into clean, structured JSON -- covering purchases, sales, options exercises, grants, gifts, and all other reportable insider activity. Search by company name, ticker symbol, or CIK number, then filter by transaction type, date range, or minimum dollar value. No API key or SEC registration is required.

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Why use SEC Insider Trading Tracker

Corporate insiders -- officers, directors, and shareholders who own 10% or more of a company's stock -- are legally required to report their transactions to the SEC within two business days via Form 4 filings. These disclosures are among the most closely watched signals on Wall Street because insiders have privileged knowledge of their own company's operations, pipeline, and financial health. When insiders buy with their own money, it often reflects genuine confidence in the company's future. When they sell large blocks, it can signal concern or a simple need for liquidity.

Manually browsing the SEC EDGAR website to find and interpret these filings is tedious and time-consuming. Each Form 4 is filed as a raw XML document that requires careful parsing to extract the meaningful data -- who traded, what they traded, how many shares, at what price, and how much they still hold. This actor automates the entire pipeline from search to structured output, saving hours of manual work per research session.

Whether you are an individual investor screening for insider buying signals, a compliance team monitoring portfolio companies, a financial journalist investigating unusual activity, or a quant researcher building trading models, this actor gives you programmatic access to the same insider trading data used by institutional investors and hedge funds -- at a fraction of the cost of commercial data providers.

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Key features

• Direct SEC EDGAR access -- Queries the official EDGAR full-text search index at efts.sec.gov for Form 4 filings with zero third-party dependencies
• Complete Form 4 XML parsing -- Extracts both non-derivative transactions (stock purchases, sales, gifts) and derivative transactions (options exercises, conversions, expirations)
• Flexible search -- Search by company name ("Apple Inc."), ticker symbol ("AAPL"), CIK number ("320193"), or even an insider's name
• Transaction type filtering -- Narrow results to only purchases, sales, grants/awards, or options exercises
• Custom date ranges -- Specify start and end dates in YYYY-MM-DD format, or rely on the default 30-day lookback window
• Minimum value threshold -- Exclude small or insignificant transactions by setting a dollar floor
• Insider relationship detection -- Identifies whether the filer is a Director, Officer, 10% Owner, or Other, and extracts their specific title (CEO, CFO, General Counsel, etc.)
• Ownership classification -- Distinguishes between Direct holdings and Indirect holdings through trusts, family members, or entities
• SEC rate-limit compliance -- Built-in throttling at approximately 8 requests per second with exponential backoff retry on 429 responses
• No API key required -- All data comes from publicly available SEC EDGAR endpoints

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How to use

Using the Apify Console

1. Go to the SEC Insider Trading Tracker page on the Apify Store.
2. Click Try for free to open the actor in your Apify Console.
3. Enter a company name, ticker symbol, or CIK number in the Search Query field (e.g., AAPL).
4. Optionally select a Transaction Type to filter by -- Purchase, Sale, Grant/Award, or Exercise of Options.
5. Optionally set Date From and Date To fields in YYYY-MM-DD format.
6. Optionally set a Minimum Transaction Value in dollars to exclude small trades.
7. Adjust Max Results if needed (default is 25, maximum is 200).
8. Click Start to run the actor.
9. When the run completes, view results in the Dataset tab and export as JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML.

Using the Apify API

cURL:

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/ryanclinton~sec-insider-trading/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -X POST \
  -d '{
    "query": "TSLA",
    "transactionType": "purchase",
    "dateFrom": "2025-06-01",
    "dateTo": "2025-12-31",
    "minTransactionValue": 100000,
    "maxResults": 50
  }' \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"

JavaScript:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('ryanclinton/sec-insider-trading').call({
    query: 'TSLA',
    transactionType: 'purchase',
    dateFrom: '2025-06-01',
    dateTo: '2025-12-31',
    minTransactionValue: 100000,
    maxResults: 50,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("ryanclinton/sec-insider-trading").call(run_input={
    "query": "TSLA",
    "transactionType": "purchase",
    "dateFrom": "2025-06-01",
    "dateTo": "2025-12-31",
    "minTransactionValue": 100000,
    "maxResults": 50,
})

items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
for item in items:
    print(f"{item['insiderName']} - {item['transactionType']} - ${item['totalValue']:,.2f}")

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Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
query	String	Yes	--	Company name, ticker symbol, or CIK number to search for insider trading filings
transactionType	String	No	all	Filter by type: all, purchase, sale, grant, or exercise
dateFrom	String	No	30 days ago	Start date for filtering filings (YYYY-MM-DD format)
dateTo	String	No	Today	End date for filtering filings (YYYY-MM-DD format)
minTransactionValue	Number	No	--	Only include transactions with a total value above this dollar amount
maxResults	Integer	No	25	Maximum number of transactions to return (1--200)

Example input:

{
    "query": "AAPL",
    "transactionType": "purchase",
    "dateFrom": "2025-01-01",
    "dateTo": "2025-12-31",
    "minTransactionValue": 100000,
    "maxResults": 50
}

Tips for best input:

• Use ticker symbols (e.g., TSLA, AAPL, MSFT) for the most precise results
• Use a CIK number if your company name search returns filings for the wrong entity
• Widen the date range for smaller companies that file infrequently -- try 90 or 180 days
• Combine transactionType: "purchase" with a high minTransactionValue to isolate significant insider buying signals
• Leave transactionType as all for a complete picture of insider activity

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Output

Each item in the output dataset represents a single insider transaction extracted from a Form 4 filing.

Example output:

{
    "filingDate": "2025-08-15",
    "companyName": "Apple Inc.",
    "ticker": "AAPL",
    "cik": "320193",
    "insiderName": "WILLIAMS JEFFREY E",
    "insiderTitle": "COO",
    "relationship": "Officer",
    "transactionType": "Purchase",
    "transactionDate": "2025-08-13",
    "sharesTraded": 15000,
    "pricePerShare": 178.52,
    "totalValue": 2677800,
    "sharesOwnedAfter": 489322,
    "directOrIndirect": "Direct",
    "filingUrl": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/000121412825000123/wk-form4.xml",
    "secUrl": "https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=320193&type=4&dateb=&owner=include&count=40"
}

Output field descriptions:

Field	Type	Description
filingDate	String	Date the Form 4 was filed with the SEC (YYYY-MM-DD)
companyName	String	Full legal name of the issuing company
ticker	String	Stock ticker symbol
cik	String	SEC Central Index Key for the company
insiderName	String	Name of the reporting insider (Last, First format)
insiderTitle	String	Official title -- CEO, CFO, VP, General Counsel, etc.
relationship	String	Insider role: Director, Officer, 10% Owner, Other, or a combination
transactionType	String	Transaction label -- Purchase, Sale, Grant/Award, Exercise/Conversion, Gift, Tax Withholding, etc.
transactionDate	String	Date the transaction was executed (YYYY-MM-DD)
sharesTraded	Number or null	Number of shares involved in the transaction
pricePerShare	Number or null	Price per share at time of transaction in USD
totalValue	Number or null	Total dollar value (sharesTraded x pricePerShare)
sharesOwnedAfter	Number or null	Total shares held by the insider after the transaction
directOrIndirect	String	Direct for personally held shares, Indirect for shares held through trusts or entities
filingUrl	String	Direct URL to the original Form 4 XML filing on SEC.gov
secUrl	String	URL to browse all Form 4 filings for this company on EDGAR

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Use cases

• Investment research -- Screen for insider buying clusters as a bullish signal before earnings announcements or major catalysts
• Compliance monitoring -- Audit insider trading activity across portfolio companies to flag potential conflicts or suspicious timing
• Financial journalism -- Identify unusually large insider sales or purchases for investigative reporting
• Quantitative signals -- Build algorithmic trading models that incorporate insider transaction patterns as alpha factors
• Corporate governance analysis -- Track whether executives are increasing or decreasing their ownership stakes over time
• Venture and PE due diligence -- Check whether insiders at a target company are buying or selling ahead of a potential deal
• Academic research -- Gather structured insider trading datasets for financial economics studies and market efficiency research
• Alert and notification systems -- Feed results into Slack, email, or webhook pipelines to get notified when specific insiders trade
• Portfolio risk management -- Monitor insider selling activity across your holdings as an early warning indicator

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API & Integration

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("ryanclinton/sec-insider-trading").call(run_input={
    "query": "MSFT",
    "transactionType": "sale",
    "maxResults": 100,
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items:
    print(f"{item['insiderName']}: {item['transactionType']} {item['sharesTraded']} shares @ ${item['pricePerShare']}")

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('ryanclinton/sec-insider-trading').call({
    query: 'MSFT',
    transactionType: 'sale',
    maxResults: 100,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => console.log(`${item.insiderName}: $${item.totalValue?.toLocaleString()}`));

cURL

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/ryanclinton~sec-insider-trading/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -X POST \
  -d '{"query": "MSFT", "transactionType": "sale", "maxResults": 100}' \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"

Platform integrations

• Zapier -- Trigger workflows in thousands of apps when insider trades are detected
• Make (Integromat) -- Build visual automation scenarios with insider trading data
• Google Sheets -- Export results directly to a spreadsheet for collaborative analysis
• Slack -- Send real-time notifications when high-value insider trades are filed
• Webhooks -- Trigger downstream actions when a run completes
• Scheduled runs -- Set up daily or weekly monitoring of insider trading activity

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How it works

The actor follows a multi-step pipeline to search, retrieve, parse, filter, and output insider trading data from SEC EDGAR.

1. Search EDGAR -- Sends a paginated query to the SEC EDGAR full-text search index (efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index) filtering for Form 4 filings within the specified date range. Retrieves up to 3x the requested maxResults to allow for post-filtering.
2. Build XML URLs -- Extracts the accession number and filename from each search hit ID, then constructs the direct URL to the Form 4 XML filing on SEC.gov Archives.
3. Fetch Form 4 XML -- Downloads each raw Form 4 XML filing, respecting the SEC's rate limits with 120ms pauses between requests and exponential backoff on 429 responses.
4. Parse XML -- Uses fast-xml-parser to parse the XML into a structured JavaScript object, handling both single and multiple reporting owners, non-derivative transactions, and derivative transactions.
5. Extract transactions -- Pulls out every reportable transaction including shares traded, price per share, total value, post-transaction holdings, insider identity, relationship, and ownership type.
6. Apply filters -- Filters transactions by the requested transaction type (purchase, sale, grant, exercise) and minimum transaction value threshold.
7. Sort and limit -- Sorts results by filing date descending, then by total value descending, and trims to the requested maxResults count.
8. Output -- Pushes the final structured results to the Apify dataset for download or API retrieval.

Query (ticker/name/CIK)
           |
           v
  +-----------------+
  | EDGAR Full-Text |
  | Search Index    |
  +-----------------+
           |
     Form 4 hits
           |
           v
  +-----------------+
  | Build XML URLs  |
  | from accession  |
  +-----------------+
           |
           v
  +-----------------+
  | Fetch Form 4    |
  | XML (rate-      |
  | limited)        |
  +-----------------+
           |
           v
  +-----------------+
  | Parse XML &     |
  | extract trades  |
  +-----------------+
           |
           v
  +-----------------+
  | Filter, sort,   |
  | limit results   |
  +-----------------+
           |
           v
     Apify Dataset
     (JSON/CSV/Excel)

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Performance & cost

Metric	Value
Memory	256 MB
Typical run time (25 results)	15--45 seconds
Typical run time (100 results)	45--120 seconds
Typical run time (200 results)	2--4 minutes
Compute units (25 results)	~0.005 CU
Compute units (100 results)	~0.02 CU
Compute units (200 results)	~0.04 CU
Estimated cost (25 results)	~$0.005
Estimated cost (200 results)	~$0.04
Free tier capacity	~1,000 runs/month on Apify's $5 free credit

Run time depends primarily on the number of Form 4 filings fetched from SEC EDGAR and the SEC's rate-limiting behavior. The actor does not use a browser, so memory and CPU usage remain minimal.

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Limitations

• SEC rate limits -- The SEC imposes a 10 requests-per-second limit. The actor throttles to approximately 8/sec, but heavy EDGAR traffic or concurrent users may trigger 429 responses that slow processing.
• Form 4 coverage only -- This actor searches Form 4 filings specifically. It does not cover Form 3 (initial ownership statements), Form 5 (annual reports of changes), or 13D/13G (beneficial ownership filings).
• XML parsing edge cases -- A small number of Form 4 filings use non-standard XML structures, footnote-only values, or amended formats that may result in null fields for shares, price, or value.
• Search index latency -- While most filings appear in the EDGAR search index within minutes, some may take several hours to be indexed after submission.
• Name matching -- EDGAR full-text search does fuzzy matching, which can sometimes return results for similarly named companies. Use ticker symbols or CIK numbers for precise targeting.
• No historical backfill -- The EDGAR search index has practical limits on how far back paginated results extend. For deep historical analysis, consider using the EDGAR Filing Search actor.
• 200 result cap -- A single run returns a maximum of 200 transactions. For larger datasets, run multiple queries with narrower date ranges.

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Responsible use

• Public data only -- This actor accesses publicly available SEC EDGAR filings. It does not scrape private, authenticated, or restricted data sources.
• SEC fair access compliance -- The actor respects SEC EDGAR's rate limits and identifies itself with a proper User-Agent header, following SEC guidelines for automated access.
• Not investment advice -- Insider trading data is informational. It should not be treated as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Always do your own research and consult a financial advisor.
• Respect filing context -- Insider sales do not necessarily indicate negative sentiment. Many sales are pre-planned under Rule 10b5-1 plans, related to tax obligations, or part of portfolio diversification.
• Privacy considerations -- While Form 4 data is public, use insider names and transaction details responsibly and in accordance with applicable laws and your organization's policies.

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FAQ

Q: Does this actor require an API key or SEC registration? A: No. The actor queries the public SEC EDGAR full-text search index and parses publicly available Form 4 XML filings. No API key, registration, or authentication is needed.

Q: What is a Form 4 filing? A: Form 4 is the SEC filing that corporate insiders -- officers, directors, and shareholders who own 10% or more of a company's stock -- must submit within two business days of buying, selling, or otherwise transacting in their company's securities.

Q: What transaction types can I filter by? A: You can filter by Purchase (open-market buys), Sale (including tax withholding dispositions), Grant/Award (equity compensation grants), or Exercise (options exercises and conversions). Select "all" to see every transaction type including gifts, dispositions, and swaps.

Q: How current is the data? A: The actor queries the live SEC EDGAR search index, so filings appear as soon as the SEC processes them -- typically within minutes to hours of submission. By default, the actor searches the last 30 days.

Q: Why are some transactions missing price or value data? A: Some Form 4 filings report transactions at $0 (such as gifts, certain grants, or tax withholding at no cost) or omit price data entirely. The actor returns null for fields not present in the original XML filing.

Q: Can I search for a specific insider by name? A: Yes. Enter the insider's name in the query field. EDGAR's full-text search indexes insider names from Form 4 filings, so searching for "Elon Musk" or "Tim Cook" will return their filings.

Q: What is the difference between Direct and Indirect ownership? A: Direct ownership means the insider personally holds the shares. Indirect ownership means the shares are held through a trust, family member, partnership, LLC, or other entity where the insider has beneficial interest.

Q: How does the actor handle derivative transactions like options? A: The actor parses both the non-derivative table (common stock transactions) and the derivative table (options, warrants, convertible securities) from each Form 4 filing. Derivative transactions include the security title in the transaction type field (e.g., "Exercise/Conversion (Stock Option)").

Q: Can I schedule this actor to run automatically? A: Yes. Use the Apify platform's Schedules feature to run the actor daily, weekly, or at any custom interval. Combine with webhooks or Slack integration for automated alerts.

Q: What happens if the SEC rate limits the actor? A: The actor handles 429 (Too Many Requests) responses with exponential backoff -- waiting 2, 4, then 8 seconds between retries. It will automatically recover and continue processing without losing data.

Q: Why does the actor fetch more filings than my maxResults setting? A: The actor fetches up to 3x your requested maxResults from the EDGAR search index, then filters and deduplicates the parsed transactions. This over-fetching ensures enough results survive filtering by transaction type and minimum value.

Q: How is this different from the SEC EDGAR Filing Analyzer actor? A: The SEC EDGAR Filing Analyzer searches across all filing types (10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, etc.) and extracts filing metadata. This actor focuses exclusively on Form 4 insider trading filings and deeply parses the XML to extract individual transaction details including shares, prices, and values.

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