At Barratt's trading update this morning one analyst questioned whether FD Mark Pain or chief exec Mark Clare would be buying shares in the company any time soon.

"It's a good mark of confidence from the directors in the company's fortunes," he pointed out.

Pain was cagey and joked that his wife would have to stop single-handedly trying to reverse the slowdown in UK consumer spending first.

Clare talked about continuing investment opportunities, managing to answer the question but not really answer the question in the way he is particularly adept at.

And both were quick to knock back suggestions that they'd be at an unfair advantage if they did decide to buy company shares because they knew the exact terms of the company's new banking covenants.

"Watch your screens," concluded Pain.

A few hours later and the City was rewarded - chairman Bob Lawson piled in with £100,000 worth of shares.

Which just leaves one obvious question: Why havent the two Marks followed suit yet?

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