Actions speak louder than words, right?

Over the last month, executives with 10% or greater ownership of a company, sold roughly $27 billion in stock while buying a whopping $2 billion in stock.

Over the last 3 months, they sold $74 billion while buying $5 billion in stock.

If you’re thinking the bulk of this selling was contributed mainly by Big Tech, you’d be wrong.

Combining Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook, we’re shy of $4 billion sold. Add in Tesla, with Elon offloading over $16 billion, we’re still shy of $20 billion sold for Big Tech plus Tesla.

So, who’s selling roughly 3x Big Tech plus Tesla? Broader market executives, including but not limited to those with lock-in expirations of recently listed IPOs and SPACs.

Oh come on, the CEOs of Peloton and Coinbase combined didn’t shell out $200m for their homes from thin air, right?

Let’s continue.

Over the last 6 months, they sold $700 billion while buying $10 billion in stock.

Over the last 1 year, they sold $830 billion while buying $30 billion in stock.

Okay, you see the pattern.

Now you could argue that an executive buying stock is a stronger signal relative to selling. And in general, I’d side with you.

But given the sheer volume and intensity of this bout of selling, I’d argue this insider selling is not a weak signal by any means.

So stop paying attention to the media soundbites, twitter feeds, newspapers, tabloids and magazines. And start paying attention to the people and the facts that matter.

Stretched valuations, especially in the context of expected inflation and higher taxation regimes seem to be contributing factors.

After all, it seems there is a price for everything. But wait, we already knew that, right?