Management talks a good game in every press release. That’s the job, sell the story. What they actually do with their own money is a separate question entirely, and Canada happens to have a public database where you can go check.

It’s called SEDI. Free, public, and it’s where every director, officer, and major shareholder of a Canadian public company has to disclose their own trades. Most retail investors have never opened it either, same as SEDAR+. This is the second research tool worth building into your habits before you buy anything.

What SEDI Actually Is

SEDI stands for the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders. It’s run by the Canadian Securities Administrators, the same umbrella group behind SEDAR+, and it’s specifically for insider trading reports, not general company filings. Different tool, same regulator family.

The system actually has a rocky history. It first went live in 2001, hit technical problems, got pulled back, and didn’t fully launch until 2003. That transition period means the historical record for older companies can have some gaps or oddities. For anything current, it’s solid.

Who Actually Has to File

Not everyone who works at a company. The rules use a specific term, “reporting insider,” and it’s narrower than “employee” but broader than just the CEO.

Under National Instrument 55-104, a reporting insider generally includes the CEO, CFO, COO, and every director of the company, plus anyone responsible for a major business unit, plus anyone who otherwise has regular access to undisclosed material information and real influence over the company.

There’s also a separate category to know specifically: a “significant shareholder,” defined as anyone with beneficial ownership or control over more than 10% of the voting rights. That threshold matters. A shareholder who crosses 10% has to start disclosing every trade going forward, exactly the kind of detail to check on a small cap where a handful of large holders can move the stock significantly.

The Filing Deadlines, and Why They Matter

Reporting insiders have to file most trades on SEDI within five calendar days. A first-time filer gets ten days for their initial report. Both deadlines are short by design, the whole point of the system is that the public gets to see insider activity close to real time, not months later in an annual filing.

That speed is actually useful information on its own. A company where insiders file consistently within the window is behaving normally. A pattern of late filings, or filings that only show up after some prompting, is worth noticing the same way a slow material change report is worth noticing on SEDAR+.

How to Actually Search It

Search by company name or ticker, similar to SEDAR+. Once you’re on the right issuer, you can see a list of insiders and their filing history, or search by an individual person’s name if you want to track someone specific across multiple companies they’re involved with.

What you’re looking for in the actual reports: the transaction type (open market purchase, exercise of options, gift, disposition), the number of shares, the price, and the date. A single filing tells you one data point. The pattern across several filings over months tells you a lot more.

What Insider Buying Actually Tells You (and What It Doesn’t)

An insider buying shares on the open market, using their own money, at the current market price, is one of the more honest signals available in small-cap investing. Nobody buys stock with their own cash to make a company look good for the cameras. If they’re wrong, they lose real money right alongside everyone else.

That said, don’t oversell it either. Insiders sell for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with the company’s prospects, paying for a house, diversifying a concentrated position, a tax event. A single sale isn’t a red flag on its own. What’s worth actually paying attention to is the pattern: sustained buying across several insiders over time is a stronger signal than one purchase, and the same goes in reverse for sustained, coordinated selling.

Options exercises can also look like “insider buying” at a glance but mean something different. Someone exercising options at a low strike price and immediately selling isn’t the same signal as someone buying shares outright at the current market price. Check the transaction type before drawing a conclusion.

Key Takeaways

• SEDI is free, public, and separate from SEDAR+, it’s specifically for insider trading disclosure.
• “Reporting insiders” include the CEO, CFO, COO, directors, and anyone with more than 10% ownership, called a significant shareholder.
• Most trades have to be filed within 5 calendar days, which makes SEDI close to a real-time window into what insiders are actually doing.
• Open-market insider buying is an honest signal. A single sale usually isn’t meaningful on its own, look for patterns across time and across multiple insiders instead.

Related Reading

• SEDAR+ 101: How to Actually Read a Company’s Filings
• TSX vs. TSXV vs. CSE: Where Small-Cap Stocks Actually Trade
• Management and Insider Ownership: What “Skin in the Game” Should Look Like
• Red Flags Checklist: What to Look for Before Buying Any Small Cap

Sources

• Ontario Securities Commission: SEDI
• BC Securities Commission: Launch of the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders (SEDI), CSA Staff Notice 55-309
• BC Securities Commission: Requirements for Reporting Insiders
• CIRO: Guidance on “Insider” and “Significant Shareholder” Order Markers
• Canadian Securities Administrators: Insider Reporting (SEDI), National Systems

Editorial Disclosure

This article is based on publicly available information including National Instrument 55-104 and related Canadian Securities Administrators rules, provincial securities regulator guidance, and CIRO publications. It does not cover, endorse, or recommend any individual company, stock, or security, and does not identify or discuss the trading activity of any named individual insider. aktiego.com has not received compensation from any exchange, listed company, IR firm, or third party in connection with this article. No staff member or principal of aktiego.com holds a position influencing this content. Insider reporting requirements referenced in this article reflect the sources cited at the time of writing and should be verified against current SEDI rules before relying on them. This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only. aktiego.com is not a registered investment advisor. Nothing in this article constitutes financial, investment, legal, or professional advice. Investing in small-cap and early-stage companies carries significant risk, including potential total loss of capital. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. For more information, please see our full DISCLAIMER.