CTOs and COOs produce the highest concentration of high-conviction insider trading signals, based on our analysis of 657,511 SEC Form 4 purchases. If you're deciding which insiders to follow, the insider's role (their seniority, their access to information, and their personal relationship with the business) is the first thing to check.

The conventional wisdom says to follow all insiders. When executives buy stock in their own company, it's a sign of confidence; Peter Lynch said insiders sell for many reasons but buy for only one: they think the price will rise. The data broadly supports this, but the average hides real differences between roles. A director's quarterly stock purchase doesn't carry the same weight as a CTO deploying six figures into their own company after a price drop.

We scored 657,511 open-market purchases across over a decade of SEC Form 4 filings to see which roles produce the strongest signals. It's the same model behind the scored insider purchases that returned over 7× the S&P 500 in our decade-long backtest. If you're an investor in Europe encountering this dataset for the first time, the pattern is worth understanding because it shapes which filings deserve your attention and which ones you can safely ignore.

The data

Our dataset covers 657,511 scored open-market equity purchases (transaction code P) filed with the SEC across 2015–2026, spanning 8,768 unique tickers. Every transaction is evaluated by our scoring model, which assesses how unusual a given purchase is relative to historical patterns, factoring in transaction size, insider role, buying context, and other variables.

The model assigns each trade to one of five tiers: Elite (the most unusual and high-conviction trades), Strong, Positive, Neutral, and Caution (the most routine). The key metric in this analysis isn't a single number. It's the percentage of each role's trades that reach Elite or Strong tier, because that tells you how often a given type of insider produces a genuinely unusual signal.

Results by role

Operational insiders (CTO, COO, CFO) produce the highest concentration of top-tier signals. Directors and 10% owners produce the lowest. The summary, ordered by concentration of high-conviction signals:

Here's why each role lands where it does.

Chief Technology Officers lead the ranking with the highest concentration of Elite and Strong trades: 11.8% of all CTO purchases land in the top two tiers. CTOs trade less frequently than other C-suite roles (3,936 purchases in our dataset), which partly explains the pattern. When a CTO buys, it tends to be deliberate. Their median transaction size of roughly $59,000 is modest compared to CEOs, but the informational content of their trades punches above its weight.

CTOs sit at the intersection of product development and strategic direction. They understand the technical roadmap and its commercial potential in a way that's difficult for outsiders, or even other executives, to fully assess. When a CTO buys, they're often acting on knowledge about the product pipeline that hasn't yet translated into financial results.

Chief Operating Officers come in second with 9.6% of trades reaching Elite or Strong tier. COOs are operationally close to the business and trade relatively infrequently (16,351 purchases), which makes their activity more notable when it occurs.

Chief Financial Officers see 7.8% of trades reaching the top two tiers. CFOs are particularly interesting because they have the most detailed knowledge of the company's financial position. Their median purchase of roughly $45,000 is relatively modest, which means when a CFO makes a large buy, it stands out. Across 41,672 purchases, CFOs buy less frequently than CEOs but with a slightly higher hit rate on strong signals.

Chief Executive Officers have 6.8% of their purchases reach Elite or Strong tier. With nearly 100,000 purchases, CEOs are one of the most active insider groups. Their average transaction value of $579,000 is the second-highest among officers, reflecting both their compensation levels and the size of their personal stakes.

CEOs have the broadest view of the company. They know the revenue trajectory, the competitive landscape, and the boardroom dynamics. The trade-off is that CEOs also have the most complex motivations for trading. Diversification, estate planning, and public signaling can all drive activity that doesn't reflect pure conviction.

10% Owners have just 5.9% of their trades in the top two tiers, despite deploying by far the largest average transaction value at $1.28 million. These are typically investment firms, activist investors, or founders. The sheer size of their trades is attention-getting, but the signal concentration is lower because large institutional holders trade more frequently and for portfolio management reasons that aren't always company-specific.

Directors have the lowest concentration among major roles: 4.8% reaching Elite or Strong tier. Directors account for the largest volume of insider purchases in our dataset (nearly 247,000), which dilutes the average. Many director purchases are small, recurring, and compensation-related. The signal is there, but it's buried under a lot of noise.

Vice Presidents (7.4% in the top tiers) and other officers (5.7%) fall in the middle. VPs and lower-tier officers trade frequently and often in smaller amounts tied to compensation events.

What the hierarchy means

The more operationally involved and strategically positioned the insider, the more informative their purchases tend to be. CTOs, COOs, and CFOs produce the highest concentration of Elite and Strong trades. Directors and 10% owners produce the lowest.

This makes intuitive sense. An independent director who attends four board meetings a year has a very different information set than a CTO who lives and breathes the product daily. The director may be buying because they believe in the company's long-term direction. The CTO buying after a selloff may be acting on specific knowledge about next quarter's pipeline.

But the hierarchy isn't absolute. Context modifies everything:

Transaction size matters. A director making a $5 million purchase is a very different signal than a director buying $20,000 on a quarterly schedule. The role sets a baseline; the size and context of the specific trade determine the actual signal strength.

Cluster buying amplifies any role. When three directors and the CEO all buy within the same week, the collective signal is much stronger than any individual purchase, regardless of role. The model accounts for this.

Frequency inversely correlates with signal quality. The roles that trade most often (directors, VPs) produce the lowest concentration of top-tier signals. The roles that trade least (CTOs, COOs) produce the highest. Rarity itself is informative.

The practical takeaway

Whether you're monitoring insider buying from New York or Amsterdam, not all filings deserve equal attention. A useful mental filter:

Start with the role. C-suite purchases (CEO, CFO, CTO, COO) warrant closer examination than director or VP purchases, all else being equal.

Then look at context. How large is the trade relative to the insider's existing position? Is it a one-off or part of a cluster? Did it happen during a price decline or at all-time highs?

Then look at the tier. An Elite or Strong classification means the trade is unusual relative to historical patterns for that type of transaction. The combination of a senior role and a top-tier classification is where the most informative signals concentrate.

Across 657,511 trades, the person's job title is the first filter, and it's a powerful one.

Related Reading

• Insider Buying by Sector: Where the Smart Money Is Going in 2026: Where these high-conviction roles have been deploying capital this year.
• How to Read an SEC Form 4 Filing (And What Most Investors Miss): The field-by-field guide to the filings behind this dataset.
• What Happens When You Invest $100 in Every High-Conviction Insider Signal for a Decade: The decade-long simulation built on Elite and Strong tier trades.

For informational purposes only. Not investment advice.