undamentalytics Newsletter

Wexford Capital LP: insider trades

Director, 10% owner at 2 companies we cover. 2 open-market purchases and 13 sales not made under a pre-set plan, reported from July 9, 2013 to June 21, 2022.

Would copying Wexford Capital LP’s purchases have beaten the S&P 500?

Too few purchases to judge. None of their purchases has 12 months of prices after the report; we judge insiders once they have 20. The figures below can swing a long way on a handful of trades. After their sales, the shares moved +1.4% against the index over 12 months on average (a negative figure means selling was the right call); 39% trailed it. None of their purchases could be priced, so there is no copy portfolio.

With 296 insiders tested, some will look skilled or unskilled by chance alone: when we replaced each insider’s stocks with random companies bought on the same days, about 5.7 cleared the bar ahead and 23.3 behind. One record on its own proves little.

Trade by trade

Wexford Capital LP: trades against the S&P 500 afterwards
MeasuredTrades countedAverage vs S&P 500MedianWent the right wayYearst-statisticp-valueEvidence
Purchases, 3 months after the report 0 — — — — — — Not enough years
Purchases, 6 months after the report 0 — — — — — — Not enough years
Purchases, 12 months after the report 0 — — — — — — Not enough years
Purchases, 12 months after the trade 0 — — — — — — Not enough years
Sales, 3 months after the report 13 +5.3% +7.1% 39% 4 0.45 0.68 No reliable evidence
Sales, 12 months after the report 13 +1.4% +9.6% 39% 4 −0.35 0.75 No reliable evidence
Sales, 12 months after the trade 13 +3.0% +8.6% 31% 4 −0.29 0.79 No reliable evidence

“Average vs S&P 500” is the stock’s return including dividends minus the index’s over the same dates, from the close on the first trading day after the report, or from the close on the trade date. Only windows that have finished are counted. For sales, a negative figure means the stock lagged after it was sold, so selling was the right call (green). “Went the right way” is the share of purchases that beat the index, or of sales that trailed it. The t-statistic uses one average per year of reports, because one person’s trades bunch into the same stock and weeks, and needs trades in at least four different years; the p-value comes from the t distribution with that number of years (with four years, a t of 2 has p = 0.14). “Some evidence” means p under 5%, “strong evidence” p under 1% over at least six years.

Companies traded

CompanyTitle on the latest filingPurchasesSalesFirst reportLatest report
Diamondback Energy FANG —011July 9, 2013December 10, 2015
Mammoth Energy Services, Inc. TUSK —22July 3, 2018June 21, 2022

Trades and what followed

Moves are against the S&P 500; green means the trade went the insider’s way.

ReportedTradedCompanyTradeValue3 months after report12 months after report12 months after trade
June 21, 2022June 16, 2022 TUSK Purchase $97,079 not yetnot yetnot yet
November 15, 2019November 13, 2019 TUSK Purchase $48,829 not yetnot yetnot yet
August 1, 2018July 30, 2018 TUSK Sale $10,111,648 −30.7%−89.9%−90.1%
July 3, 2018June 29, 2018 TUSK Sale $105,074,844 −21.3%−87.9%−89.8%
December 10, 2015December 9, 2015 FANG Sale $753,740 −0.2%+22.6%+27.3%
September 22, 2015September 18, 2015 FANG Sale $4,800,600 −10.5%+22.3%+17.9%
September 17, 2015September 15, 2015 FANG Sale $22,991,539 −5.2%+17.9%+23.0%
March 24, 2015March 20, 2015 FANG Sale $17,455,325 +1.3%+2.5%+8.5%
March 9, 2015March 5, 2015 FANG Sale $22,641,111 +15.3%+10.4%+9.6%
March 4, 2015March 2, 2015 FANG Sale $78,909,336 +7.1%+9.6%+6.7%
March 17, 2014March 13, 2014 FANG Sale $2,167,158 +33.1%−3.7%−3.3%
March 3, 2014February 27, 2014 FANG Sale $7,407,501 +16.3%−4.6%−4.1%
November 29, 2013November 26, 2013 FANG Sale $1,047,200 +22.6%−2.1%+8.6%
November 15, 2013November 13, 2013 FANG Sale $39,894,172 +21.7%+11.4%+5.1%
July 9, 2013July 5, 2013 FANG Sale $19,564,539 +19.2%+109.5%+119.7%

Open-market purchases and sales of at least $10,000 in companies we cover, from SEC Form 4 filings; sales made under a pre-set Rule 10b5-1 plan are not shown. “Not yet” means the window has not finished or the share price was under $5 at entry. These are the shares’ moves after each trade: they say nothing about why Wexford Capital LP traded and do not suggest the use of non-public information. How every insider compares · the insider trading backtest.