Insider Transactions provider: data accuracy and download limits
Author: coppola
Creation Date: 8/25/2014 1:10 PM
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coppola

#1
hi,

when playing around with the fundamental data in WL, I detected some issues:

1)insider transactions (extension InsiderCow)

a)i detected here, that the data does not seem totally accurate.
for example i printed out (from a new strategy) some data of the stock caterpillar (cat).
here is the relevant part of the output:


5/7/2014 RAPP EDWARD J Sold 15000 Proceeds 1559790.00 Transaction date 5/6/2014
5/7/2014 RAPP EDWARD J Sold 15000 Proceeds 1559790.00 Transaction date 5/6/2014
7/31/2014 BUDA JAMES B Sold 2306 Proceeds 242130.00 Transaction date 7/30/2014
7/31/2014 BUDA JAMES B Sold 2306 Proceeds 242130.00 Transaction date 7/30/2014
7/31/2014 BUDA JAMES B Sold 2306 Proceeds 242130.00 Transaction date 7/30/2014
7/31/2014 BUDA JAMES B Sold 2306 Proceeds 242130.00 Transaction date 7/30/2014
7/31/2014 BUDA JAMES B Sold 2306 Proceeds 242130.00 Transaction date 7/30/2014
8/7/2014 RAPP EDWARD J Sold 15000 Proceeds 1515150.00 Transaction date 8/5/2014
8/7/2014 RAPP EDWARD J Sold 15000 Proceeds 1515150.00 Transaction date 8/5/2014

when checking this with information on the internet (for example in yahoo), there seems to be a missing transaction of
Buda James selling 68k shares at july 29!

dooes somebody know what the problem is? how accurate is their (InsiderCow) data normally?

b)It seems their data is for about 10 years of stock data.
is there any way to receive more data?

c)I assume this (InsiderCow) is the only provider of Insider Information.
true?

d)it would also be good to know how much the insiders own of a company (share as part of the float).
is this information somewhere available?

2)short sale information:
this information (shorted shares, short ratio, etc) seems not be available at least in the free offers.
i have seen on the YCharts website that they seem to offer it in the advanced package.
when checking in WL, this information (short ratio etc) seems not to be selectable (for example from the chart window).

so the questions would be:

a)is the short sale anywhere available besides YCharts?
b)with the advanced package in YCharts, will this work in WL?


regards
coppola
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Eugene

#2
1 -

a) Yahoo is not as accurate as InsiderCow is for two reasons: InsiderCow only includes meaningful transactions (no gifts, grants, etc.) and the dates we take from it are actual i.e. filed (vs. trade date in Yahoo). For more information please check out the provider's online guide in the Wiki.

b) The provider downloads as much data as returned by the feed. As a rule, with the free data you get what you paid for. ;)

c) You're welcome to suggest better sources of data.

2 -

The YCharts provider currently does not offer any short sale data (list of available items). The items like "Percent of Float Short" and "Short Interest" are available to paid subscribers, and probably could be added upon request.
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coppola

#3
hi,

thanks for the reply!

QUOTE:
"a) Yahoo is not as accurate as InsiderCow for two reasons: InsiderCow only includes meaningful transactions (no gifts, grants, etc.) and the dates we use are actual i.e. filed (vs. trade date in Yahoo). For more information please check out the provider's online guide in the Wiki. "


i checked different providers including this:

http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/cat/insider-trades

all report this missing transaction.

so i really think its an error on InsiderCows part!

b)so 10 years it is?!

QUOTE:
"c)You're welcome to suggest better sources of data."


and if this is the case, would this be integrated in WL?

d)?

QUOTE:
"The YCharts provider currently does not offer any short sale data (list of available items). The items like "Percent of Float Short" and "Short Interest" are available to paid subscribers, and probably could be added upon request."


i think this is very important data! so i would (and maybe others too?,) really like this.
what is needed to make this happen?

thanks
coppola

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Eugene

#4
Please use the QUOTE tag (the button is right next to CODE) when quoting replies, thanks.

QUOTE:
all report this missing transaction.


There is no missing transaction. As I already said, Nasdaq and Yahoo include non-meaningful transactions whereas IC doesn't. See attached screenshots and sum up the numbers in red. Non open market and option execute are also non-meaningful transactions:

InsiderCow:



Nasdaq:



As you can see, the sum is 70828 shares in both cases.

QUOTE:
so i really think its an error on InsiderCows part!


You may disagree with me on this point. If you believe there is an error, please feel free to report it to the feed's tech support. We're not affiliated with the data vendor. I foresee that their reply will reflect what is told above re: non-meaningful transactions.

QUOTE:
and if this is the case, would this be integrated in WL?


Many data feeds were integrated by customer requests (for example, I satisfied one such request just today). Ultimately, it will depend on feasibility from a technical standpoint and user demand as well as other important criteria: current workload, data quality, and if provider isn't duplicating an already available one.

QUOTE:
what is needed to make this happen?


Since we don't maintain a YCharts premium account, we'll need the login (i.e. email address) & password of a customer's account for development and testing purposes during the brief period of implementation. Naturally, the account should not run out of its download quota. These details can be passed to us privately via the support portal, and when our job is finished the password can be reset.
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coppola

#5
hi,

this sounds overall great!
so there is an ongoing support and further development of these dataprovider extensions. i think this is very important!

about the missing data in InsiderCow:
your screenshot from InsiderCow (where was this taken from?) does not match my printout from the strategy...
strange?!




thanks!

coppola
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Eugene

#6
QUOTE:
so there is an ongoing support and further development of these dataprovider extensions.


You bet. To make sure, you can check out the change log for any popular extension e.g.

MS123 Extra Fundamental/News Providers

QUOTE:
your screenshot from InsiderCow (where was this taken from?) does not match my printout from the strategy...
strange?!


It was taken off the IC website and as you see, it matches the fundamental items on the chart on that day:



Here's the PrintDebug output of this code:

31.07.2014 BUDA JAMES B Sold 14651 Proceeds 1541910.00 Transaction date 29.07.2014
31.07.2014 BUDA JAMES B Sold 53871 Proceeds 5669540.00 Transaction date 29.07.2014
31.07.2014 BUDA JAMES B Sold 2306 Proceeds 242130.00 Transaction date 30.07.2014

Your relevant part of the output looks odd. Did you execute the script in Single-Symbol mode? Have you tried reloading (i.e. updating) the fundamental data?
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coppola

#7
solved!
the problem was, that at the critical bar (31.07) were 3 transactions.
i accessed only one insider transaction before at the bar level with GetFundamentaIItem (without using the GetNextFundamentaIItem).
so the other 2 were missed ...

so the InsiderCow data seems in this case ok.

and besides:

i have seen, that InsiderCow offers a membership. maybe they have not these download limits then.
i contacted them about this and report back here, when i get an answer.



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Eugene

#8
In a deleted duplicate thread, coppola asked:

(Let's maintain discussion continuity unless explicitly asked to start a new thread for an open question on a specific solution. The world just doesn't need a 4th topic on the very same "InsiderCow" project. Thanks.)

QUOTE:
hi,

since there are download limits for InsiderCow, i contacted them directly about this issue.
they offer a subscription where data can be accessed with ftp or email.
probably (will get definitive answer soon) it will not have access limits.

eugene, could this then be integrated in the extension?

thanks


Most everything is already known from your reply #7 above. Please get back to us with this question when you have more information like API details and specifications. Obviously, I can not promise anything until I see the actual details.

But to tell the truth, it's unlikely that I would take this project at all. And if I do, it would be assigned lowest priority. The main reason is in added complexity. It's not an extension of an already existing data extraction technique by handling authentication. Introducing other download facility like FTP (email can not be seriously considered) is a change of protocol. This means it would take building a totally new client from scratch for the same feed just to overcome a download quota which is a time consuming process. There has been no community interest in it and we cannot properly serve all of our customers by dedicating resources to single-user solutions, which this undoubtedly is, so it will get placed at the bottom of the queue. (Believe me, there already are other single-user solutions waiting for their chance.)
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coppola

#9
hi eugene,

what is the current API you use for accessing the insiderCow data?
i could then check with them if they maybe also offer this probably unlimited access with this API.
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Eugene

#10
There is no API, the provider is parsing the webpages. Please ask them if a paid customer of InsiderCow could remove the limitation by simply logging in before requesting data on the web (there is a login form on their website). That would be ideal and probably only a moderate effort.
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Eugene

#11
In a duplicate topic, fairone99 asked:

QUOTE:
Hi!

Recently, I figure out the reason why every time when I download the Insider trading information from the InsiderCow, the data is always not complete.

The reason is that InsideCow limits the daily usage quota per user.

Does anyone know that do I have to sign up for their website in order to get the complete set of data or is there anything that I can do in order to get the complete set of data?

Or, could somebody here have the recent complete set of data and is kindly enough to provide?

The data is under:

C:\Users\your username\AppData\Roaming\Fidelity Investments\WealthLabPro\1.0.0.0\Data\In
siderTransactionsProvider>

Any help is greatly appreciated.


Alex
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Eugene

#12
Alex,

We've accumulated lots of answers that could be found by searching the forum. Please consider finding existing threads before starting a new one. Thanks.

As sharing third party data using the forum would most likely violate their terms of usage and redistribution policy, this is not endorsed. But there might be a better way: just follow my advice in post #10 and let us know what they answer. Currently, signing up will get nothing as the provider does not support InsiderCow authentication. But this may change depending on their answer.
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fairone99

#13
Thank you, Eugene and I have contacted them. Let's wait and see...


Alex
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