re: Form V
The instructions DO say:
"If a transaction is voluntarily reported earlier than required, place "V" in the appropriate column to so indicate; otherwise, the column should be left blank."
I've run into this problem before.......the form's design (and instruction) leads to a misinterpretation. Prior to the current design, there was no "V" in the heading of the column that you're looking at.........so a transaction meeting the above criteria was so noted by putting a "V" in the column across from the appropriate transaction(s) . At some point our friends at the SEC stuck the V at the top of the column, so the process now calls for putting an X in that column across from any appropriate transaction. Unfortunately they updated the form, but neglected to update the instructions.
The absence of any x's in that column on the form indicates that none of the Pike transactions were reported earlier than required.
Someday maybe they'll fix it.
ps. The actual transaction code "P" means basically an open market or private purchase. I'm not sure what you mean by a "stock deal", but there are several other transaction codes that would be more likely to be used for anything other than a basic purchase.