Summary
The volume of transactions made by corporate executives, directors, and beneficial owners is predictably starting to lessen as earnings season approaches and insiders are broadly prohibited from trading in advance. The weekly data from Vickers Stock Research shows that about 1270 insider transaction met the criteria for inclusion in Vickers’ Weekly Insider Report this week, down from 1606 last week, 2082 the week before that, and 2179 the week before that. But with the dwindling transaction count comes an unchanged message. Long-term (eight weeks of data) insider sentiment, as calculated by Vickers, remains neutral in the face of all-time highs for stock indices and significant volatility in the newsflow. Broken record here, but insiders are clearly not of the mind that stocks are poised to crash — but they also remain indifferent to acquiring additional shares in the current environment. So if a catalyst is needed for a pronounced move in any direction, perhaps earnings reports will do the trick and insiders will start to trade again (when they can) with a bit more passion. Turning to Vickers’ sector sentiment data, no sector is reporting a bearish one-week sell/buy ratio. Six of the 11 sectors are bullish, including Communication Services, Consumer Staples,