A story article worth reading, if trading short term. Here is a brief passage from a Bloomberg article dated April 24th on the subject of rapidly rising Insider Selling. “While the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 28% from a 12-year low on March 9, CEOs, directors and senior officers at US companies sold $353 million of equities this month, or 8.3 times more than they bought, data compiled by Washington Service, a Bethesda Maryland based research firm, show. That is a warning sign, because insiders usually have more information about their companies’ prospects than anyone else, according to William Stone at PNC Financial Services Group Inc. ‘They should know more than outsiders would, so you could take it as a signal that there is something wrong if they are selling,’ said Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC’s wealth management unit, which oversees $110 billion in Philadelphia. ‘Whether it is a sustainable rebound is still in question. I would prefer they were buying.’ Insiders from New York Stock Exchange listed companies sold $8.32 worth of stock for every dollar bought in the first three weeks of April, according to Washington Service, which analyzes stock transactions of corporate insiders for more than 500 institutional clients. That is the fastest rate of selling since October 2007, when US stocks peaked and the 17-month bear market that wiped out more than half the market value of US companies began. The $42.5 million in insider purchases through April 20 would represent the smallest amount for a full month since July 1992, data going back more than 20 years show. That drop preceded a 2.4% slide in the S&P 500 in August 1992.” One might expect history to repeat itself, namely a severe stock decline soon to come! A peak in stocks might be forming, just like October 2007.
