This is the distinction that matters most, and the one the raw filings hide. A great many disclosures that look like an insider acquiring shares are not purchases in any meaningful sense: they are share awards vesting, options being exercised at a pre-set strike, shares issued in a placing, or scrip taken instead of a cash dividend.
None of those involve the insider deciding, at today's price, to put their own money at risk. A vesting award arrives whether the recipient wants it or not. An option exercised at a strike fixed years ago says something about the strike, not about today. Yet all of them are disclosed through the same channel, in the same format, and they are disproportionately the largest numbers.
The tell is the price. An open-market purchase is transacted at or around the market price on the day; an award or an exercise is transacted at a price that reflects the terms of a scheme rather than the market. Comparing the filed price against that day's closing price separates them mechanically, without having to trust how the announcement is worded.
That test is how every buy on this site is classified, and rows that can't be priced are left out of rankings rather than assumed genuine. A leaderboard that skipped this step would be topped by share allotments under a heading about buying.
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Information only, not investment advice.