CEO open-market buy alerts

When a CEO writes a personal check to buy their own company's stock, that's a signal. When the buy is large enough to matter, it's a strong signal. Tickerbot filters insider buys down to the ones that actually do.

Why CEO buys are different

Most insider transactions aren't signals — they're scheduled. 10b5-1 plans let executives commit in advance to buying or selling on a fixed schedule, which removes the discretion. Option exercises are also routine compensation events. Neither tells you anything about what management actually thinks.

A discretionary, open-market buy is different. The CEO chose to write a check. The size of the check is information.

How Tickerbot does it

Tickerbot ingests SEC Form 4 filings and tags each transaction by insider role, plan type, and direction. You can filter on any combination — "CEO open-market buys above $1M, excluding 10b5-1 plans, on any stock under $5B market cap" is a single alert.

Stacking with valuation or price action

Variants worth setting up

• "Multiple CEO/CFO buys at the same company within 30 days" (cluster signal)
• "CEO buys above $1M on any stock under $2B market cap"
• "CEO buys on stocks that just had a recent analyst downgrade" (insider/analyst disagreement)
• "Director buys above $250K" (less prominent but still meaningful)