Read insider trades like the people who file them.

Eight short lessons take you from "what is a Form 4" to using the Blue Collar Picks feed with confidence. Plain language, real examples, no investment advice.

New here I am brand new Start with Lesson 1. We will walk you through the basics in order. Start the path → Skip ahead Take me to Form 4 Already know the basics. Jump straight to the SEC Form 4 explainer. Open Form 4 lesson →

The four foundations

Every other lesson on this page builds on these four. Skim the titles, then start at the top.

  1. Step 1 What Is Insider Trading?
  2. Step 2 What Is SEC Form 4?
  3. Step 3 How to Read a Transaction Row
  4. Step 4 Which View Should I Use?

All lessons

Each lesson is short and links to the next one at the bottom. Track your progress by the lesson number.

  1. Lesson 1 of 8 4 min read

    Legal vs Illegal Insider Trading

    Insider trading has two very different meanings. Here is the plain-English difference between legal Section 16 reporting and illegal trading on material non-public information.

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  2. Lesson 2 of 8 7 min read

    What Is SEC Form 4?

    Learn what SEC Form 4 is, who files it, when it is due, what insider transactions it reports, and why traders watch insider buying and selling.

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  3. Lesson 3 of 8 6 min read

    How to Read an Insider Trade Row

    Walk through every field on a Blue Collar Picks row, from the ticker on the left to the SEC Form 4 button in the drawer. Annotated example built from the live feed.

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  4. Lesson 4 of 8 6 min read

    Transaction Codes Explained

    Form 4 uses one and two letter transaction codes to describe what happened. Here is the plain-English glossary for every code you will see in the Blue Collar Picks feed, with a does-this-matter verdict for each.

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  5. Lesson 5 of 8 3 min read

    What Qualified Buy Means

    Qualified Buy is a Blue Collar Picks label, not an SEC term. Here is exactly what it means, what filters it implies, and what it does not mean.

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  6. Lesson 6 of 8 4 min read

    What Is Cluster Buying?

    A cluster buy is when multiple insiders buy shares of the same company within a short window. Here is why it matters, when it doesn't, and how Blue Collar Picks defines it.

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  7. Lesson 7 of 8 4 min read

    What Is a 10b5-1 Plan?

    10b5-1 plans let insiders schedule trades in advance to avoid trading on non-public information. Here is what that means for how you read insider sales.

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  8. Lesson 8 of 8 4 min read

    Which View Should I Use?

    Blue Collar Picks has several feed views. Here is which one to start with as a beginner, and what each view is actually for.

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About the data

Every row on Blue Collar Picks comes from a public SEC EDGAR filing. We normalize the data for readability. If anything looks unclear, the original SEC filing linked from each row is the source of truth.

The lessons here lean on the SEC's own materials. Read the SEC investor bulletin on Forms 3, 4, and 5 (PDF) for the primary source on insider ownership reporting.

Blue Collar Picks is a research tool, not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer. Lessons describe how the feed works. They are not investment advice.