CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (MarketWatch) — The stock market is likely to be higher at year’s end.

That, at least, is the conclusion I draw from the recent behavior of corporate insiders, who are behaving in ways that suggest the correction’s bottom is at hand.

Consider the latest insider data, courtesy of the Vickers Weekly Insider Report, published by Argus Research. The indicator that they calculate on which I place particular attention is a ratio of all shares that insiders have recently sold in the open market to the number that they have purchased.

For the week that ended last Friday, this sell-to-buy ratio stood at 1.58 to 1, which is less than half the average level over the last decade of 3.4 to 1.

At the bull-market high earlier this fall, in contrast, the insiders’ sell-to-buy ratio got as high as 6.86 to 1.

In other words, at least when measured according to this indicator, the insiders are more than four times more optimistic about their companies’ shares now than two months ago. This much insider enthusiasm is a good sign.

In fact, since the bull market that began in March 2009, there have been just three occasions prior to now in which the sell-to-buy ratio dropped below 2 to 1. Each came within a few weeks of a significant low in the market.

The accompanying table shows the comparable sell-to-buy ratios that prevailed during the weeks in which those lows were actually registered. Notice that the current reading of 1.58 to 1 is lower than two of those three comparable readings.

Week ending... Vickers’ Sell-to-Buy Ratio 6/4/2012 1.67 to 1 10/3/2011 1.04 to 1 7/5/2010 1.83 to 1

When I last wrote about insiders’ behavior three weeks ago, I interpreted their actions to suggest that — even though the correction then underway was likely to be relatively shallow and not the beginning of a major new bear market — the decline still had more to go. Read Oct. 31 column: Insiders providing a ray of sunshine.

Based on how they have behaved since then, I would conclude that there is now a good possibility that a tradeable rally is imminent.

Click here to learn more about the Hulbert Financial Digest.