Summary

Corporate insiders can be called-out for moving through 2024 (to date) without taking any clear stance on stocks. They neither ran to the exits, nor did they act in a manner that suggested early-year investors would be enjoying well-above-average returns as Thanksgiving draws near. But with stocks having experienced an absolute moonshot last week, the current weekly insider-sentiment data from Vickers Stock Research shows that insiders are happy to take a little money off the table after a week in which the major stock indices popped by 4.6% to 5.7%. Drilling down, Vickers’ Total One-Week Sell/Buy Ratio is 7.30, pushing into the bearish territory that starts at 6.00. On an exchange basis, the NYSE one-week ratio is 6.19, bearish but not remarkably so; and the Nasdaq one-week tally is 8.49 and clearly a profit-taking response to the soaring share prices seen last week. One week is not a trend, so the above does not imply an imminent correction. But as stocks move higher and higher, insiders continue to book profits. On a sector basis, insider buying was the greatest in Energy over the last week, with shares valued at nearly $48 million bought, although this still trailed the level of selling in the sector, with over $1