March 2026 has been one of the most active months for CEO insider buying in recent memory. With the S&P 500 pulling back from February highs and volatility spiking on tariff uncertainty, C-suite executives have been using the dip to accumulate shares of their own companies.
Here's what we're seeing across all SEC Form 4 filings filtered for open-market CEO purchases this month.
March 2026 insider buying by the numbers
March is historically a high-activity month for insider buying — Q4 earnings are digested, trading blackouts lift, and executives have visibility into full-year guidance. But this March is running 23% above the 5-year seasonal average.
Why the spike matters
Elevated aggregate insider buying has historically preceded market recoveries. When insiders across multiple sectors and companies simultaneously increase their buying activity, it suggests broad confidence in near-term fundamentals despite whatever headline narrative is driving the selloff.
Research by Seyhun (1998) showed that when aggregate insider buying exceeds the 12-month average by more than 20%, subsequent market returns over the following 6 months are positive 78% of the time. We're currently above that threshold.
Sectors seeing the most CEO buying
The buying isn't evenly distributed. Three sectors stand out this month:
- Technology / AI infrastructure — Multiple CEOs and CFOs buying into the AI buildout theme. Data center operators, power infrastructure companies, and semiconductor-adjacent firms seeing concentrated buying activity.
- Financial services — Fintech and asset management CEOs buying after sharp pullbacks. Several cluster buys (multiple executives at the same company buying on the same day) detected in this space.
- Healthcare / biotech — CEOs buying ahead of clinical data readouts and FDA decisions. These are higher-risk, higher-reward signals where the information asymmetry is largest.
What makes a strong March signal
Not every March purchase is worth following. We filter for signals that combine multiple positive factors:
- Post-earnings buying — when a CEO buys after reporting Q4 earnings, they've seen the most recent data and are still confident enough to add.
- Buying on pullbacks — CEOs buying when their stock is down 15-30% from recent highs often indicates the selloff is overdone relative to fundamentals.
- First-time purchases — a CEO who has never previously bought on the open market suddenly deploying personal capital is a stronger signal than a serial buyer adding to an existing position.
- Large relative size — purchases representing more than 10% of annual base salary indicate meaningful conviction.
How to follow along
Every filing we scan gets scored across 6 factors: fundamental health (25%), financial strength (25%), technical setup (20%), conviction level (10%), CEO history (10%), and cluster buying activity (10%).
Signals rated BUY or STRONG BUY enter our tracked portfolio with a $100 position and a matched SPY benchmark. Every position — open and closed — is visible on our track record page with entry prices, current prices, target (+10%), stop-loss (-15%), and alpha vs S&P 500.
March isn't over yet. As more Q4 earnings blackout periods lift, we expect continued elevated buying activity through the end of the month. The next 2-3 weeks should produce some of the year's strongest signals.