Code P marks a purchase of the company’s stock, or of a derivative such as a warrant or call option, made in the open market or in a private transaction at a price the insider paid.
“Open market or private purchase of non-derivative or derivative security”
1,609 of the rows are in Table I (non-derivative securities) and 38 in Table II (derivative securities). 3.8% of code P rows are on filings with the Rule 10b5-1 plan box checked.
Sample: 50,023 transaction rows in 20,089 Form 4 and 4/A filings filed Jul 23 – Oct 21, 2026 by insiders of 2,099 companies with an AlphaScala stock page. Rows are counted as filed; see how the codes are counted.
SEC Form 4 filings as of Oct 21, 2026
P is the code for an insider choosing to buy. Grants (A) and option exercises (M and X) also add shares to an insider’s holdings, but there the company or the terms of an existing security set the price, so they are not purchases in the sense insider-buying screens use.
The SEC wording covers private purchases too, so a P row is not always an exchange trade: a 10% owner buying in a private placement can report P. P rows in Table II are purchases of derivatives, not shares. AlphaScala’s insider cluster screen counts only Table I P rows, and it drops same-day, same-price batches by several insiders, which is how employee and director purchase plans settle.
Since April 2023 Form 4 has a checkbox for transactions made under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, so a purchase scheduled in advance can be told apart from one decided on the day.
Recent Form 4 lines coded P, chosen from the newest filings in the sample, one company each. Figures are as filed; each links to the filing on sec.gov.
In AlphaScala’s sample of 50,023 Form 4 transaction rows filed Jul 23 – Oct 21, 2026, code P made up 3.3% of rows (1,647) and appeared on 4.9% of filings (987 of 20,089). It was the 5th most common of the 16 codes found.
No. The SEC defines P as an "open market or private purchase of non-derivative or derivative security", so it also covers shares bought in a private transaction and purchases of derivatives such as warrants. Share purchases appear in Table I of the form and derivative purchases in Table II.
General Instruction 1(a) says Form 4 "must be filed before the end of the second business day following the day on which a transaction resulting in a change in beneficial ownership has been executed". The filing shows both the transaction date and the filing date.
No. A Form 4 records the purchase and its price. It does not record why the insider bought, and a purchase is not a forecast of the share price.
Definition: SEC Form 4, General Instruction 8 (sec.gov). Examples and counts: AlphaScala's copy of SEC EDGAR Form 4 filings. See all 20 Form 4 transaction codes, insider cluster buys and our methodology.
Educational reference only, not investment advice. Insider transactions have many motives and a Form 4 does not record them. See our risk disclaimer.