Impact of insider trading behavior in investment strategy performance

Abstract

Since mid-2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has made corporate insider filings available in a structured way, allowing for wider access and research. Despite several studies aimed at assessing whether corporate insiders can earn excessive returns, it remains unclear as whether non-insiders can do it by solely looking at corporate insider behavior. Using structured data from corporate insider filings over the period 2003-2022, this study aims at understanding whether a real, replicable, profitable investment strategy can be derived from using both corporate insider purchases and sales, with additional help of some select filters.