Most insider-trading sites stop at the headline: a director bought $2 million of stock. That's where the useful questions start. Is that normal for this person? Were the other insiders selling? Was it planned months ago? And when insiders made buys like this before, how did they actually turn out?
Spy Mode answers those questions in one click. Press ✦ Spy next to any trade on InsiderPrint, on the Spy Mode page, or on any stock page.
The seven checks
- Find the SEC filing. The Form 4 behind the trade: who, their role, trade date, filing date, shares, price, and a link to the original.
- Read the filing's qualifiers. Pre-planned 10b5-1 sales, shares held through a trust or fund, late filings, amendments, prices that looked like typos.
- This insider's own history. Their earlier buys and sales in this stock. A first purchase after years of selling is a different story from a routine top-up.
- What the other insiders did. Everyone else buying or selling the same stock in the last 90 days, and how much of the selling was pre-planned.
- Similar past buys. Insider buys since 2020 with the same traits, how often they beat the S&P 500, the spread of results, and real best and worst cases.
- What happened after. The stock 7, 30 and 90 days after this filing, against the S&P 500, or "pending" until those days pass.
- Weigh the evidence. Plain sentences for and against, plus a list of what we couldn't check.
Each step lights up only after it has actually run on our data. There's no fake progress bar.
The case against is always there
Across 16,899 insider purchases since 2020, only 46% beat the S&P 500 over the next 90 days. Insider buying is a clue, not a guarantee. So every Spy report has a Reasons for caution card next to Worth a closer look, and a What we couldn't check card: why the insider traded (filings don't say), company news after the filing, and any private terms.
Each report also shows:
- Insider Twins: past buys with the same traits. You see the best, the worst, the most recent, and the full spread, not just an average.
- Behavior DNA: a timeline of every buy and sale this insider has filed in the stock, with this trade highlighted.
No black box
Spy Mode does not use an AI model to write reports. Every check is a calculation on public SEC data and our measured history, and every sentence comes from fixed rules described in our methodology. The same filing always gets the same report, and every claim links back to its source.
"Spy" is a nickname. Everything comes from filings anyone can read on SEC EDGAR.
Two more new tools
- Insider Time Machine: go back to any week since 2020. You see only what was public that week. Pick up to three insider buys, then fast-forward 90 days and compare your picks with every buy that week.
- Challenge My Thesis: tell us whether you think a stock's insider activity is a good sign or a warning. Spy Mode runs and puts the evidence against your view first.
And if you follow stocks (no account needed), My Stocks now shows what changed since your last visit: every new insider buy or sale, with a Spy button next to each.
Try it
Open Spy Mode and pick one of this week's biggest buys, or press ✦ Spy on any stock you're curious about. It's free, with no signup.
InsiderPrint shows facts from public SEC filings. It is not investment advice.