Inside Scoop: What 5 Years of Canadian Insider Transaction Volume Reveals

• Data directly from the CSA offer a detailed look at insider activity, filing seasonality, sector concentration, and issuer trends
• TMX's Canadian Insider Transaction Feed helps users distinguish routine, compensation-related filings from potentially more informative open-market trades
• Quantitative traders, portfolio managers, and researchers can use the feed to track evolving insider activity and uncover trends across Canadian companies and industries

Company guidance has never been more important. In a financial world fraught with ever-shifting macro conditions and unsteady policy, investors are tuned in to what executives and insiders not only say about the fundamental business landscape, but also what C-level leaders are actually doing with their capital. Indeed, insider transactions may reveal a tidy sum for those paying attention.

Follow the Money

TMX Datalinx now provides access to over 20 years of Canadian insider trading in one data set. We've gathered key insights from recent years, such as seasonality, sector concentration, and the broader shaping of ownership disclosures. Every time a Canadian executive, director, or major shareholder buys or sells stock in their own company, the transaction is reported in a filing with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA).

Pulled together, these data provide an X-ray look at allocation trends among those who are most in the know. It's a valuable tool for quantitative traders, portfolio managers, and researchers.

Steady As She Goes

We look forward to gathering more data points as the quarters roll on, and we've already learned so much.

For instance, total Canadian insider transaction volume has been both formidable and remarkably steady since 2022. Annual transaction counts have held above 200,000 over the last four-plus years, with 2025 being marginally the most active year. This marketwide steadiness means that sector- or industry-specific spikes or declines are all the more telling.

200,000+ Records Annual (2026 Data Incomplete)

Source: TMX Datalinx

March Madness? Maybe Not.

Seasonality is another sticking point. Plotting all five years reveals a clear calendar trend. March is the busiest month for insider filings... by a wide margin. Typical volume during the final month of the first quarter is 40-70% above the year's baseline months. Sure, volatility can jump in March (see: bearish trends around the 2023 U.S. regional banking crisis, uncertainty leading into the April 2025 trade war saga, and volatility due to the 2026 conflict in Iran). It's not purely macro, however.

The larger driver is the typical Canadian fiscal year, which runs January through December. Thereafter, March is often when annual incentive plans typically settle. RSUs and DSUs vest, options are granted or exercised, and year-end compensation disclosures trigger reportable transactions. So, early-year spikes are not usually a signal of bullish or bearish trends to come, which makes adjusting for seasonality critical.

Insider Activity by Year: Natural March Burst

Source: TMX Datalinx

"Mining" the Data

Now, let's get down and dirty. If we break the filings down by industry classification, we find that gold and silver mining leads the pack. Moreover, smaller "junior" miners are near the top of the list. Other resource niches, such as oil and gas producers, round out the most-actives. These trends reflect the Canadian market, which is home to a disproportionate share of Materials- and Energy-sector firms. Many are small caps and insider-heavy by nature.

It's also important to recognize that the last few years in the metals and oil industries have been very volatile (and bullish), which may have added to buying and selling activity. Users of the data set should monitor the most-active list for new industries as clues to fresh price-action trends.

Resource Industries Are Most Active

Source: TMX Datalinx

Busy at the Top

Concentration is another characteristic that must not go unnoticed. We found that a small number of large, established issuers generate an outsized share of filings. In the 2026 data set, BCE Inc. alone accounts for 2,186 records, followed by IGM Financial (1,739), FirstService Corp. (1,442), and Martinrea International (1,157).

Looking holistically, each reflects dozens of insider transactions as routine, comp-linked trades rather than one-off events. On the other end of the spectrum, the majority of the roughly 2,800 issuers with any 2026 activity have just a handful of filings, many only one.

True Colors Are Shining Through

So, what's signal and what's noise? Well, a blue-chip with a larger insider bench will almost always out-file a thinly held small- or micro-cap, regardless of how the company shares are performing. The tell sits one layer down, in the transaction type field.

There, open-market purchases funded with an insider's own cash arguably show their true colors compared to, say, a routine option exercise or plan-related disposition. As our team builds out the dataset, this could be a future avenue to explore.

The Bottom Line

This raw CSA data feed may be valuable to asset allocators focused on corporate body language. Insider transaction trends are one of those areas that mesh with fundamental and technical data and may be a leading indicator of price trends.

Users don't rely on guesswork here, but on a direct data feed from the CSA. Once certain factors are isolated, such as the March compensation cycle and natural sector volume trends, along with the handful of issuer filings that move the needle, the data can be used to spot red, yellow, and green flags at the single-stock level. With the data feed at your fingertips, you no longer have to read about insider activity long after the fact.

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