Tutorial: Insider Trading

Finance

Data source: SEC EDGAR (Form 4)

Overview

Insider Trading wraps SEC EDGAR (Form 4), handling authentication, pagination, and rate limits for you. This tutorial covers all 3 tools with working code examples you can copy and run.

Prerequisites

Sign up at https://context.gnist.ai/signup for a free API key (100 calls/day).
Choose your integration method: MCP protocol or REST API.

Connect via MCP

Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.):

MCP Config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gnist-insider-trading": {
      "url": "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/insider-trading/",
      "headers": {
        "Gnist-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools (3)

`get_insider_trades`

Get recent insider buy/sell transactions for a public company. Parses SEC Form 4 filings to extract individual transactions by corporate insiders (officers, directors, 10%+ owners). Shows who traded, what they traded, how many shares, at what price, and their remaining holdings. Transaction codes: - P = Purchase (open market buy) - S = Sale (open market sell) - M = Exercise/conversion of derivative (e.g. stock option) - A = Grant/award - F = Tax withholding Examples: get_insider_trades("AAPL") → Recent Apple insider transactions get_insider_trades("TSLA", limit=10) → Last 10 Tesla Form 4 filings Returns: Company info and list of transactions sorted by date (newest first), each with owner details, shares, price, and post-transaction holdings.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`ticker_or_cik`	string	required	Ticker symbol (e.g. "AAPL", "TSLA") or numeric CIK (e.g. "320193").
`limit`	integer	optional	Maximum Form 4 filings to parse (default 20, max 50). Each filing may contain multiple transactions. (default: `20`)

curl -X POST "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/insider-trading/" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Gnist-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "tools/call", "id": 1, "params": {"name": "get_insider_trades", "arguments": {"ticker_or_cik": "AAPL"}}}'

import httpx

resp = httpx.post(
    "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/insider-trading/",
    headers={"Gnist-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
    json={'id': 1,
 'jsonrpc': '2.0',
 'method': 'tools/call',
 'params': {'arguments': {'ticker_or_cik': 'AAPL'},
            'name': 'get_insider_trades'}},
)
print(resp.json())

`get_insider_summary`

Get aggregated insider trading activity for a company. Analyzes recent Form 4 filings and summarizes: - Net buying vs selling sentiment (are insiders buying or selling?) - Total shares bought and sold across all insiders - Per-insider breakdown: name, title, shares bought/sold, net position Useful for gauging insider confidence in a company's prospects. Heavy insider buying often signals management confidence; heavy selling may indicate concern (though selling for diversification or tax reasons is common). Examples: get_insider_summary("AAPL") → Apple insider buy/sell summary get_insider_summary("NVDA") → NVIDIA insider activity overview Returns: Overall buy/sell sentiment, total shares bought and sold, and per-insider summary with relationship and activity.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`ticker_or_cik`	string	required	Ticker symbol (e.g. "AAPL") or numeric CIK (e.g. "320193").

curl -X POST "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/insider-trading/" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Gnist-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "tools/call", "id": 1, "params": {"name": "get_insider_summary", "arguments": {"ticker_or_cik": "AAPL"}}}'

import httpx

resp = httpx.post(
    "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/insider-trading/",
    headers={"Gnist-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
    json={'id': 1,
 'jsonrpc': '2.0',
 'method': 'tools/call',
 'params': {'arguments': {'ticker_or_cik': 'AAPL'},
            'name': 'get_insider_summary'}},
)
print(resp.json())

`report_feedback`

Report a bug, feature request, or general feedback for this data source. Use this when something doesn't work as expected, when you'd like a new feature, or when you have suggestions for improvement. Args: feedback: Describe the issue or suggestion. feedback_type: One of 'bug', 'feature_request', or 'general'.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`feedback`	string	required
`feedback_type`	string	optional	(default: `general`)

curl -X POST "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/insider-trading/" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Gnist-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "tools/call", "id": 1, "params": {"name": "report_feedback", "arguments": {"feedback": "example"}}}'

import httpx

resp = httpx.post(
    "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/insider-trading/",
    headers={"Gnist-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
    json={'id': 1,
 'jsonrpc': '2.0',
 'method': 'tools/call',
 'params': {'arguments': {'feedback': 'example'}, 'name': 'report_feedback'}},
)
print(resp.json())

Common Patterns

Pagination
Several tools support limit, offset, or page parameters. Start with small limits during development, then increase for production queries.

FAQ

What data does Insider Trading provide?

Corporate insider buy/sell transactions — Form 4 filings parsed for officer, director, and 10%+ owner trades. It exposes 3 tools: get_insider_trades, get_insider_summary, report_feedback.

What do I need to get started?

A Gnist API key (free tier: 100 calls/day). Sign up at https://context.gnist.ai/signup.

What format does the Insider Trading API return?

JSON, via either MCP protocol (JSON-RPC 2.0) or REST API.