Buy what insiders buy, by the rules.
6 Shameless Cloning strategies built from open-market insider purchases since 2014, bought only once each Form 4 was public and measured against the S&P 500.
Small-Cap Insiders
Our flagship. Follows insiders putting their own money into small, overlooked companies that are already moving the right way.
See its chart and holdings ↓- Annual return
- +15.5% S&P 500 +11.7%
- Since 2022
- +13.1% S&P 500 +10.1%
- Years ahead
- 9 of 12 Worst drop -37.2%
Stress-tested: 12 of 12 nearby variations of its rules also beat the S&P 500 both before and since 2022 (median +14.9% a year, weakest +13.7%), so its result does not hinge on one lucky setting.
4 of 6 beat the S&P 500 both before and after 2022
- Conviction Breakouts +17.1% a year vs +11.7% · since 2022 +16.3% vs +10.1% · ahead in 8 of 12 years
- Executive Edge +16.6% a year vs +11.7% · since 2022 +11.3% vs +10.1% · ahead in 8 of 12 years
- Small-Cap Insiders +15.5% a year vs +11.7% · since 2022 +13.1% vs +10.1% · ahead in 9 of 12 years
- Clean Uptrend +13.8% a year vs +11.7% · since 2022 +10.5% vs +10.1% · ahead in 7 of 12 years
Testing many strategies means some will win by luck. Trust the ones that beat the index by a clear margin in both periods, with many positions and a reason to work; treat a narrow or one-period win as noise.
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Sort by any column, filter by family, and click a strategy for its growth chart against the S&P 500, yearly results and current holdings.
Small-Cap InsidersBeat S&P in both periods
Our flagship. Follows insiders putting their own money into small, overlooked companies that are already moving the right way.
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| Strategy | Family | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Both ✓ | Conviction | +17.1% | +16.3% | +5.4% | 8/12 | -46.5% | 0.75 | 55% | 1,023 |
| Both ✓ | Conviction | +16.6% | +11.3% | +4.9% | 8/12 | -35.2% | 1.10 | 61% | 940 |
| Both ✓ | Flagship | +15.5% | +13.1% | +3.8% | 9/12 | -37.2% | 1.21 | 57% | 1,247 |
| Both ✓ | Momentum | +13.8% | +10.5% | +2.1% | 7/12 | -40.0% | 0.85 | 54% | 7,489 |
| Baselines | +10.4% | +7.3% | -1.3% | 3/12 | -46.7% | 0.60 | 55% | 14,928 | |
| Baselines | +7.7% | +1.4% | -4.0% | 2/12 | -47.7% | 0.47 | 51% | 20,368 |
How the backtest works: each strategy follows open-market purchases (code P) reported on original Form 4s from the SEC's quarterly insider transactions data sets since 2014, topped up with the latest filings. A Form 4 can be accepted after the market closes, so positions open at the close on the first trading day after the filing date. Each strategy has its own rules for which purchases it follows, how it sizes positions and when it sells; those rules are Shameless Cloning's own. Joint filings of the same trade count once, purchases under $1,000 or below $2 a share are left out, and so are symbols that now belong to a different company and price histories with obvious errors. Every change in a position costs 0.1% of the amount traded; spreads on small, thinly traded stocks can cost more. Returns use daily closes without dividends, for the strategies and the S&P 500 alike. Companies that later vanished without price history cannot be priced and are skipped, which flatters results most for the smallest companies. Past results are a backtest, not a promise, and nothing here is investment advice.