3 ms·

I'm guessing the paper trail is because it is not always obvious that it IS a crime. Nobody tells you on your first day at work what constitutes insider tradin

I'm guessing the paper trail is because it is not always obvious that it IS a crime. Nobody tells you on your first day at work what constitutes insider trading. At my first company, you got an email saying "you are now an 'insider' for SEC purposes" if you got important enough (so I heard, anyway). Is it insider trading if you sell your stock because the new manager over the division is terrible? Is it insider trading if you're working on a product that you think is awesome, so you buy some stock? I'm guessing both of those are not insider trading, despite that you are acting on information not available to the public. From there it doesn't seem like too great of a leap to not consider that news of the hacking you are working on is also not insider trading. If you asked me, "is it insider trading to sell stock because you know the company has been seriously hacked and the price will drop once news gets out?" I'd probably say "yes." But if I were in the situation myself, I'm not sure if that question would occur to me.

Cerium 9y ago
Nothing against your comment in general, but some companies do tell you. On my first day at my current job I had to complete an insider trading training module and I'm just an average engineer.
toast0 9y ago
I've worked at three publicly traded companies. I don't recall insider trading being mentioned at the first one, but I was in a pretty lowly support role and a former CEO was fined for insider trading. The other two I recall insider trading being mentioned during orientation and in periodic reminders, usually around stock events (such as at least the closed trading window for employees around earnings announcements)
Pokepokalypse 9y ago
Insider trading is normal, routine, and rampant, across corporate America. When people get caught, it's usually because another insider snitched; and it's a standard part of dirty corporate politics. At a company I used to work for, our CIO was found out to have lied about his educational background on his resume; after working there 15 years. Another board member had been sitting on this dirt for at least 5 years. He had hired a PI to dig up things about the executive staff. It was his opening move on pushing out the old execs, and replacing them with a more acquisition-friendly line up. Then said board member cashed out. We would frequently also see large blocks of stock traded the day before a big earnings announcement. Only the executive staff would have had that information. Us line employees all had stock options, but were never able to take optimal advantage of price swings, because someone else was beating us to it. We only had the public information. It is routine and the SEC does not give a fuck, unless the case becomes high profile enough that the press will write about it and make a stink.

Cerium 9y ago

Nothing against your comment in general, but some companies do tell you. On my first day at my current job I had to complete an insider trading training module and I'm just an average engineer.

toast0 9y ago

I've worked at three publicly traded companies. I don't recall insider trading being mentioned at the first one, but I was in a pretty lowly support role and a former CEO was fined for insider trading. The other two I recall insider trading being mentioned during orientation and in periodic reminders, usually around stock events (such as at least the closed trading window for employees around earnings announcements)

Pokepokalypse 9y ago

Insider trading is normal, routine, and rampant, across corporate America. When people get caught, it's usually because another insider snitched; and it's a standard part of dirty corporate politics. At a company I used to work for, our CIO was found out to have lied about his educational background on his resume; after working there 15 years. Another board member had been sitting on this dirt for at least 5 years. He had hired a PI to dig up things about the executive staff. It was his opening move on pushing out the old execs, and replacing them with a more acquisition-friendly line up. Then said board member cashed out. We would frequently also see large blocks of stock traded the day before a big earnings announcement. Only the executive staff would have had that information. Us line employees all had stock options, but were never able to take optimal advantage of price swings, because someone else was beating us to it. We only had the public information. It is routine and the SEC does not give a fuck, unless the case becomes high profile enough that the press will write about it and make a stink.