We use the latest information from mandatory reports publically traded corporations file with the Security and Exchange Commission as well as other public data sources.

The SEC publishes all insider trade information reported during that day after 11PM E.S.T. Most corporations report insider trades the day or day after they occur.

Insider Trading is simply the act of a director or officer of a corporation buying or selling shares of their corporation's stock. It is only illegal if an insider uses specific non-public information about the corporation to benefit their stock position. Otherwise, insiders are completely free to buy and sell shares in their own companies (individual corporations can have their own rules regarding this). None of the reports or graphs produced by this system should imply or infer criminal wrongdoing by any individual or corporation..

The goal of InsideTheStreet it to provide you with the information you need to make the best possible decisions buying and selling shares in the Companies in which you invest. To this end, we use proprietary algorithms to try to separate insider trades which are voluntary vs. those which were pre-scheduled or occured because of some external event or plan. While both types can be useful in your research, the "voluntary" trades more represent the insider's "feel" of their company. Trades scheduled years of months before, or which are based upon a regular dividend or disbursement, do not. In any event, you are able to dig down to individual trades and explanations, and you can make your own determinations.

If an investor things a company's stock price is about to go down, they can schedule a "short sell", in which they agree to sell a number of shares (at today's price) on some day in the future. the investor will purchase the shares before the sell occurs on that date, and if the price has gone down they will net an immediate profit of the difference in the share price between the time the order was placed and executed. However, if the investor is wrong and the price of the stock goes up, then the investor immediately takes a loss.