Dark Matter

Dynex Capital's CEO just put $267K of their own money into the stock

Plus: $1.5M of insider buying at Fb Financial and an insider cluster at Adarx Pharmaceuticals.

DarkMatter Research
In 30 seconds
▸Dynex Capital's CEO put $267K into the stock.
▸A director at Fb Financial put $1.5M into the stock.
▸Insiders at 29 companies filed open-market purchases in the last four days.
▸Macro engine: 57/100, mixed. Growth, liquidity and positioning support risk; volatility and credit are balanced.
Macro engine  57/100  Mixed
Growth
▲
Liquidity
▲
Volatility
•
Positioning
▲
Credit
•

Growth running at a 3.4% pace, money supply up 5.3% on the year and the VIX at 17.3.

▲ supports risk   ▼ weighs on it   • balanced

Insider buying

DX  Smriti Laxman Popenoe, Dynex Capital's CEO, spent $267K on the open market, 22,180 shares at about $12.05 each.

Who bought
Smriti Laxman Popenoe
Co-CEO, president
$157K
$13.05 · Oct 20
Byron L Boston
Co-CEO, chair
$100K
$10.89 · Oct 20
Michael Andrew Sartori
CFO
$11K
$10.70 · Oct 20

The stock is at $11.05 now, 8% below that price. The purchase grew their stake by 3%. 2 other insiders bought alongside.

DX is down 9% over the past month and 25% below its 52-week high of $14.74 (the low was $10.56).

Insiders part with stock for all kinds of reasons: taxes, a house, diversification. They put their own cash in on the open market for essentially one.

Spent
$267K
Paid
$12.05
Now
$11.05 (-8%)
Dynex Capital price, past month
What to watch
DX is at $11.05, 8% below what they paid.
Your call
Will DX close higher or lower than $11.05 on Friday, October 23?
HigherLower
One click to vote. We publish the results and the answer in Friday's issue.
How you called it

Will ACOG close higher or lower than $8.61 on Friday, October 23?

No votes were cast. We score it on Friday, October 23.

Also on the tape
Insider buyingMedium
FBK  A Fb Financial director adds $1.5M of stock

Orrin H Ingram II paid about $52.88 a share on the open market, growing their stake by 31%. The stock is at $52.10 now, 1% below that price.

Fb Financial price, past month
Insider clusterLow
ADRX  5 Adarx Pharmaceuticals insiders bought $87.7M of stock in one day

5 insiders bought $87.7M in 1 days. They paid about $17.00 a share; the stock is at $17.13, about where they paid.

Adarx Pharmaceuticals price, past month
In the news
Nasdaq declares $0.31 dividend
Seeking Alpha
Procter & Gamble gains as sales hold up amid 'geopolitical and economic' challenges
Seeking Alpha
France protests: Macron condemns 'stupid' comments from Trump, others as bond-market pressure builds
CNBC
Crowd mood

S&P 500 chatter: 13% of 2,535 posts negative, 12% positive, about usual for the last month.

Nasdaq-100 chatter: 17% of 1,439 posts negative, 14% positive, gloomier than on 29 of the last 30 days.

Share of StockTwits, Reddit and news posts on each index that scored positive or negative today, against its own last 30 days. It describes the chatter; it is not a forecast.

Number of the day
$313K
spent by Empire Petroleum's director
The signal board

New on the scan, not covered above

The scan found 55 signals across insider filings, CFTC positioning, FINRA dark-pool data, every engine's own history, congressional disclosures and Reddit. These are the new ones the story above does not cover.

Reddit attention 4
METAMeta Platforms (Facebook)
350 Reddit mentions in a day, up from 54
Low
IBMIBM
95 Reddit mentions in a day, up from 6
Low
LRCXLam Research
71 Reddit mentions in a day, up from 14
Low
MUMicron Technology
215 Reddit mentions in a day, up from 99
Low
Risk-on or risk-off?
Mixed
The Dark Matter macro engine scores conditions 57 out of 100: conditions mixed / transitional. The economy is in an overheating phase, where growth and inflation are both running hot. 3 of 5 factor groups support risk-taking; none weighs on it.
 ▼ 57
Risk-offLeaning offMixedLeaning onRisk-on
Growth 64/100
Is the economy growing?
Real-time estimates put growth at a 3.4% annual pace.
Economic surprise index: surprise -2.0.
Credit in China is shrinking (-1.6% of GDP).
Supports risk
Liquidity 58/100
Is money flowing through the system?
Liquidity in the financial system is expanding.
Money supply is up 5.3% from a year ago.
10-year yields sit 0.33 points above 2-year yields.
Fed rate path: -2.1 cuts priced.
Supports risk
Volatility 50/100
How nervous are options traders?
VIX at 17.3, higher than on 55% of days in the past year.
Options insurance costs more than usual.
Options price a 24.6% chance of a 5% S&P 500 drop in the next week.
Balanced
Positioning 59/100
Are trades crowded, and are markets trending?
Most markets are range-bound, not trending.
Supports risk
Credit 50/100
Are lenders and bond markets calm?
Financial conditions are balanced.
Corporate default risk is very low.
Balanced

Source: Dark Matter macro engine (the Oracle regime score), built from the terminal's growth, liquidity, volatility, credit and positioning engines; confidence 82%.

Learn
What is a dark pool?

Dark pools are private trading venues where big investors can trade large blocks without showing their orders to the public market first. FINRA publishes how many shares trade on them each week, with a delay of about two weeks.

Get these signals the moment they fire
This letter is a once-a-day snapshot. The Dark Matter terminal tracks insider clusters, dark-pool volume, options flow and positioning live.
Open the terminal
How we rate signals
High: a validated insider cluster (several insiders buying within 30 days, no sales since), a CEO, CFO, president or chair buying on the open market, or two independent signals on one stock. Medium: a single insider purchase, a short-dated out-of-the-money options trade, or a 3-year positioning extreme in a major market. Low: dark-pool spikes on their own, and everything else.
Sources: SEC Form 4 filings, FINRA ATS data, CFTC Commitments of Traders, listed options volume and open interest, daily prices; via Dark Matter's engines.
Educational market commentary — not investment advice. DarkMatter Research is a publisher; everything here is for informational and educational purposes only, is general in nature, and is not personalized to any individual's financial situation. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security. It is not connected to the management of any fund and does not reflect any fund's performance. Past market conditions do not predict future results. Consult your own licensed financial professional before making any investment decision.
The Daily Brief · Free · Every market morning

The signals worth knowing, before the open.

Insider cluster buys from SEC filings, unusual dark-pool volume from FINRA, big single-stock options bets and crowded futures positioning, each rated with one level to watch, plus where the terminal's macro engine puts risk-on or risk-off. Short, plain English, free. Educational market commentary, not investment advice.

No spam. Unsubscribe in one click. By subscribing you agree to our Privacy Policy.

More briefs

All issues →