Every investor wants to know what the most intelligent people in the market are buying. Billionaires, hedge fund managers, and company insiders often have access to insights, data, and experience that most of us simply don’t. They see industry shifts before they show up in the numbers, and they have the capital and conviction to act early. When these investors start building positions, it’s rarely a coincidence, as it’s usually a bet based on deep research, private conversations, and forward-looking confidence.
Tracking those moves can give everyday investors a potent edge. It’s not about copying trades, it’s about spotting conviction early, understanding the thesis behind it, and using that knowledge to guide your own research. The challenge, of course, is that the data lives everywhere: Form 4 filings, quarterly 13Fs, news feeds, fund reports, and social media chatter. Without the right tools, you can spend hours chasing incomplete information and still miss the most important part, the context.
That’s why a small set of tools has become indispensable for modern investors. They don’t just show who’s buying; they help you see why it might matter. In this guide, we’ll walk through the five best free resources for tracking what billionaires and insiders are buying and show how TIKR sits at the center of this workflow, connecting those signals to valuation, fundamentals, and long-term opportunity.
1. TIKR (Best Overall Starting Point)
TIKR is the all-in-one platform that ties together all the other tools on this list. It consolidates data from global financial statements, valuation history, analyst estimates, and institutional ownership into a single, easy-to-navigate dashboard. That means you can move from “Who’s buying?” to “Is it justified?” in one clean workflow.
Whether you’re tracking a billionaire’s latest 13F filing or a CEO’s open-market buy, TIKR turns static filings into a living context, giving you the financial backdrop that shows whether the move makes sense.
The real power of TIKR is interpretation. Most investors can see what a hedge fund or insider bought, but few can tell whether the business fundamentals support it. TIKR’s valuation and ratio charts let you spot whether those new positions are being built into strength (a positive signal) or during periods of compression (a contrarian signal). You can instantly compare margins, returns, leverage, and cash-flow strength to see if that “smart money” trade lines up with the numbers.
2. SEC Edgar – The Original Source of Truth
Every analysis starts with data, and in the U.S., that means the SEC’s EDGAR database. It’s where every insider and institutional investor legally discloses their trades. EDGAR houses both Form 4 (insider buying/selling) and 13F-HR (institutional holdings), which together form the foundation of all the “smart money” data you see online. It’s completely free and updated within days, often before the financial media even notices a new filing.
The advantage of EDGAR is authenticity. No summaries, no delays, no interpretations, just primary filings with the exact transaction details, including trade date, number of shares, price, and ownership before and after the sale or purchase. Learning to read these filings ensures you never rely on secondhand data or misinterpreted headlines. Once you understand the codes, like “P” for purchase and “S” for sale, you can separate real insider conviction from noise like option exercises or tax withholding.
Filings tell you what happened, but they don’t explain why. That’s why professional investors use TIKR alongside EDGAR, and connect insider moves to performance data. If multiple executives are buying after margins expand and free cash flow improves, it’s often an early vote of confidence in a stronger cycle. If they’re selling into stretched valuations, that context matters too.
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3. OpenInsider – The Fast Insider Tracker
If EDGAR is the raw data warehouse, OpenInsider is the radar screen. It’s a real-time feed that compiles Form 4 filings as soon as they’re published, sorting them by company, insider title, transaction size, and price. For investors scanning for CEO or CFO open-market buys, the most telling kind of insider activity, OpenInsider is unmatched for speed.
The real insight comes from patterns, not single trades. If you see a lone director buying 500 shares, it might mean nothing. But when multiple executives start accumulating stock within days of each other, that’s when the odds tilt in your favor. OpenInsider helps you spot those clusters early, long before they show up in media headlines. Then, with a quick shift to TIKR, you can see whether the fundamentals have recently turned a corner, rising FCF, expanding margins, or stabilizing revenue, to confirm the buying thesis.
To make OpenInsider efficient:
- Filter for Open Market Buys (P) and insiders with CEO/CFO titles.
- Sort by dollar value or % ownership change to identify conviction.
- Cross-check each company in TIKR for financial performance and peer comparison. Used together, these tools bridge the gap between “what insiders are doing” and “what the business deserves.”
4. Dataroma – Following the Superinvestors
Dataroma is where long-term investors go to see what the legends are buying. The site tracks quarterly 13F filings from some of the world’s most respected value and growth investors, including Warren Buffett and Bill Ackman, as well as smaller boutique funds with strong track records. Each filing is standardized, showing new positions, increases, reductions, and top holdings in one easy-to-read layout.
If several high-quality investors are quietly increasing exposure to semiconductors, defense stocks, or energy names, it often hints at a multi-year opportunity rather than a short-term trade.
Use Dataroma for thematic discovery:
- Browse top managers’ portfolios.
- Look for new or increased positions across multiple funds.
- Plug those tickers into TIKR to evaluate valuation, margins, and balance sheet quality. Over time, you’ll notice patterns that reveal what institutional conviction looks like at scale.
From Billionaires to Business Models: Turning Themes Into Ideas
When you notice several elite funds building exposure to the same industries, that’s your signal to dig deeper. Use TIKR to see whether those companies share improving returns, expanding margins, or cleaner balance sheets.
It’s one thing to know Buffett bought it; it’s another to understand why he could be right.
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5. WhaleWhisdom – Tracking Institutional Trends in Depth
WhaleWisdom complements Dataroma by offering more granular fund analytics. It aggregates thousands of 13F, 13D, and 13G filings, providing performance metrics, sector exposure, and overlapping positions across funds.
For anyone who wants to understand how hedge funds behave as a group, this is the tool to use.
Unlike Dataroma, which emphasizes elite long-term investors, WhaleWisdom offers a broader institutional lens, including quant funds, activist funds, and sector specialists. You can identify which managers are entering or exiting specific industries, how concentrated their portfolios are, and which stocks are seeing the most cross-fund accumulation. These trends can reveal momentum beneath the surface, even if you don’t know the individual thesis behind each position.
When using WhaleWisdom:
- Sort by the latest 13F filings or new positions.
- Look for multiple funds increasing exposure to the same name.
- Pivot into TIKR to validate whether fundamentals or valuation justify the trend. This combination helps you separate durable institutional conviction from transient crowding, a distinction that makes all the difference in timing your entry.
The 3-Step Workflow (Use This Every Time)
- Start with TIKR: Begin in TIKR’s Ownership section to see which companies have recent insider activity or growing institutional positions. You can watch for clusters of insider purchases, multi-quarter accumulation by top funds, or sudden changes in ownership percentages, these are early conviction signals.
- Confirm the filings: When you spot an interesting trade, use TIKR’s built-in SEC links to open the original filing (Form 4 for insider trades or 13F for hedge fund holdings). Verify that the transaction was an open-market purchase (code “P”) or a genuine position increase rather than a compensation award or passive adjustment. Accurate filings keep your research grounded in facts, not speculation.
- Analyze the story: Once verified, stay in TIKR to interpret the “why.” Jump into the valuation and detailed financials tabs to see whether those insider or fund buys align with improving fundamentals or undervalued conditions. If strong financial momentum meets insider conviction, you’re likely looking at the kind of asymmetric opportunity professionals seek.
TIKR Takeaway
What makes TIKR stand out is its ability to turn external signals into contextual insight. When you see a hedge fund adding a new position or a CEO buying shares, you can immediately open TIKR to check valuation history, balance sheet strength, and operating performance. Instead of reacting to the news, you’re analyzing the economics that drive it. That’s how professionals think, and TIKR gives individual investors that same edge.
With its combination of global coverage, clean design, and deep financial accuracy, TIKR bridges the gap between “smart money” behavior and business fundamentals. The result is a research process that’s faster, smarter, and grounded in real data, exactly what modern investors need to turn information into conviction.
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FAQ Section:
How current is the data in these tools?
Form 4 insider trades must be filed within two business days, so EDGAR and feeds like OpenInsider update fast, which means the data is pretty current. 13F filings are quarterly and delayed, so Dataroma and WhaleWisdom show longer-term trends rather than short-term moves.
Should I copy billionaire or insider buys?
No, you should not copy billionaire or insider buys. Treat them as idea filters, a starting point. Always check valuation, cash flow, and balance-sheet health in TIKR before acting. Smart money can be early or wrong; context protects you.
What’s the fastest way to go from “signal” to “decision”?
Scan OpenInsider for CEO/CFO “P” buys –> verify on EDGAR –> evaluate in TIKR using valuation history, FCF/ROIC trends, and peer comps as a straightforward way to go from signal to decision. If it holds up, place it on your watchlist for follow-up.
Are there drawbacks to these sources?
Yes, these sources do have drawbacks. 13F data lags by up to 45 days and doesn’t include shorts or intra-quarter trades. Insider sales can be tax or plan-driven. That’s why pairing filings with TIKR’s fundamentals and valuation charts is critical.
Can I do all of this for free?
Yes, you can do much of this for free, as TIKR has a free tier, and EDGAR, OpenInsider, Dataroma, and WhaleWisdom (core) are all free to use at a basic level. Combined, they give you an institutional-quality workflow at zero cost.
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Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
