Whale Tracking 101
"Whales" are institutional investors with over $100 million in assets under management. By law, they must report their holdings quarterly via SEC Form 13F. We parse these filings — along with Form 4 insider transactions — to show you where smart money is flowing.
SEC Form 13F
Filed quarterly (within 45 days of quarter end) by institutional investment managers with >$100M in AUM. Contains all long equity positions. Does NOT include short positions or derivatives.
What to look for: Net changes in shares held by top holders. If BlackRock, Vanguard, and Berkshire all increased their positions — that is a strong accumulation signal.
SEC Form 4 (Insider Trading)
Filed within 2 business days of any transaction by company officers, directors, and beneficial owners of >10% of shares.
Red flags: Cluster selling by CEO/CFO. Green flags: Open-market purchases by multiple insiders within a short window.
Smart Money Sentiment
We aggregate 13F deltas and Form 4 activity into a single sentiment indicator:
- Accumulate: Net institutional buying + insider buying or neutral
- Neutral: No significant directional change
- Distribute: Net institutional selling or heavy insider selling