In a victory for common sense, the trading behavior of company executives, directors, and large shareholders in the stocks of firms they're registered "insiders" at have been proven profitable to monitor by both academic studies and (more importantly) the experience of your fellow professional investors.

Below are lists of the top 10 mainly open-market insider purchases and sales filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday, February 6, 2013 as ranked by dollar value.

Please note, however, that these are factual lists, not buy and sell recommendations. Dollar value is only one metric to assess the importance of an insider transaction, and, frankly, often not even the most important metric that determines if an insider transaction is significant.

In insider purchases, the data storage products and services corporation EMC (NYSE:EMC) bought $32,403,402 worth of stock in cloud infrastructure and virtualization company VMware (NYSE:VMW). Michael Solomon, Founder and CEO of Christian social community and entertainment company Truli Media (PINK:TRLI), bought $1.2 million worth of company stock. Ramesh Srinivasan, President and CEO of slot machine and gaming technology manufacturer Bally Technologies (NYSE:BYI), bought $1,186,905 worth of company stock.

In insider sales, the global private equity firm Advent International sold $319,451,904 worth of stock in specialty value retailer Five Below (NASDAQ:FIVE). Additionally, Director Howard Ross sold $49,064,960 worth of company stock, and Chairman David Schlessinger sold $29,020,168 worth of company stock. Bill Gates sold $82,914,600 worth of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and a founder of another tech giant, Sergey Brin, sold $63,952,688 worth of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). At diversified technology and manufacturing company Honeywell International (NYSE:HON), President and CEO Roger Fradin sold $29,020,168 worth of company stock.

At InsiderInsights.com, we find new investment ideas just about every day using these and more intricate insider screens to determine where we should focus our subsequent fundamental and technical analysis. And while stocks don't (or shouldn't) move up or down based on insider activity alone, insiders tend to be good indicators of when real stock-moving events like earnings surprises, corporate actions, and new products may be in the offing.

Insider Purchases

#:	Filer Name	Insider Titles	Company Name	Ticker	Trans Type	Dollar Value
1	EMC	BO	VMware	VMW	B	$32,403,402
2	Solomon Michael J	CEO,DIR,BO	Truli Media	TRLI	JB*	$1,200,000
3	Srinivasan Ramesh	PR,CEO,DIR	Bally Technologies	BYI	B	$1,186,905
4	Lloyd Philip A	DIR	Firstmerit	FMER	JB*	$1,000,000
5	Silvestri Joseph	DIR	Triumph	TGI	B	$551,920
6	Mohan Madhu K	DIR	Washingtonfirst Bank	WFBI	JB*	$499,991
7	Aequitas Mgt	BO	Carepayment Tech	CPYT	JB*	$375,547
8	Pennant Capital	BO	Universal Stainless	USAP	B	$253,797
9	Kever Jim D	DIR	Tyson Foods	TSN	B	$233,690
10	Dye David A	CFO,SEC,DIR	Computer Prog	CPSI	B	$194,381

Source: InsiderInsights.com | Key to Insider Title and Trans Type Codes
 

Insider Sales

#:	Filer Name	Insider Titles	Company Name	Ticker	Trans Type	Dollar Value
1	Advent Intl	O	Five Below	FIVE	JS*	$319,451,904
2	Gates William H	DIR	Microsoft	MSFT	AS	$82,914,600
3	Brin Sergey	F,DIR,BO	Google	GOOG	AS	$63,952,688
4	Ross Howard D	DIR	Five Below	FIVE	JS*	$49,064,960
5	Schlessinger David	CB,DIR	Five Below	FIVE	JS*	$29,020,168
6	Fradin Roger	PR,CEO	Honeywell Intl	HON	AS	$3,500,000
7	Wise Bret W	CB,DIR	Dentsply Intl	XRAY	AS	$1,275,128
8	Bell Leonard	CEO,DIR	Alexion Pharm	ALXN	S	$1,143,718
9	Stensrud William	DIR	Juniper	JNPR	S	$1,112,305
10	McCaulley Jeffery A	PR	Zimmer	ZMH	S	$883,214

Source: InsiderInsights.com | Key to Insider Title and Trans Type Codes

Editor's note: Jonathan Moreland is the founder of Insider Insights and author of "Profit From Legal Insider Trading."