A CEO just dropped $148 million of his own money on his company’s stock. In this market, that’s either genius or insanity.

The market is ugly right now. All you have to do is look at how we closed last week. The VIX and oil are soaring, and geopolitical tensions are sky-high.

Most executives are staying quiet or selling.

Not The Trade Desk’s CEO. He just bought $148.1 million worth of his own stock on the open market.

If that doesn’t scream conviction, I don’t know what does.

Here’s why this matters more than you think.

Insiders can sell for a dozen reasons – tax purposes, estate planning, divorce, you name it. But when they go into the open market and buy? That’s pure conviction.

Especially in tech. These guys get so many options handed to them, they don’t need to buy stock. When a tech CEO bypasses his free options to drop $148 million in cash, you pay attention.

The Setup

TTD has been in a brutal six-month slump. Slowing ad-tech growth, macro uncertainty, competition from Google and Amazon, valuation worries – the usual suspects.

We haven’t reached blood-in-the-streets territory yet. But that rarely happens all at once these days. What we typically see is certain sectors getting slammed while the overall market holds up. We saw it recently in software after the SaaSapocalypse.

When this happens, I start crunching numbers. I’ll look at historical data like P/E ratios, fundamental metrics like cash and debt, you name it.

But one of the best signs a stock chart is bottoming out? Insiders are putting their own money where their mouth is.

Hype vs. Reality

There are rumors OpenAI wants to use The Trade Desk’s ad platform to sell ads inside ChatGPT. Maybe true, maybe not.

Doesn’t matter. The CEO just gave you his vote of confidence with his wallet. That’s reality.

Your Action Plan

I currently have no position in TTD, but I’m watching how it trades this week. If you’re looking for buy signs in tech, it’s when insiders are buying stock in the open market with their own cash.

That’s exactly what we’re seeing in TTD right now.

Tracking insider moves like this is what we do in The War Room. If you want to see how we spot these opportunities before they move, click here.