3 ms·

Earlier this year, 50 Cent more or less did this with H&H stock and made a good amount of money off of it(I'm not sure if he actually sold it, but the value of

Earlier this year, 50 Cent more or less did this with H&H stock and made a good amount of money off of it(I'm not sure if he actually sold it, but the value of the stock went down a fair amount two days after the initial rally). The article below also references that teenager you mentioned: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41041141/ns/today-entertainment/t/cent-pumps-doesnt-dump-penny-stock/ http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41041141/ns/today-entertainmen... The actor Jesse Eisenberg also quipped the same line from the article, "But is what 50 Cent did really that different from what happens all day long on CNBC when professional money managers take to the airwaves to praise the stocks of companies they already own?" If this sort of thing is illegal* then Cramer should've been charged with a crime on the first airing of "Mad Money". *yes, I realize there's more to the legalities of insider trading than just talking about it on air :)

raganwald 15y ago
Your foot note makes an incredibly interesting mistake: What a teenager like Lebed does is not insider trading, because he doesn't work for the company or otherwise have access to inside information. He knows as much as you or I do. Insider Trading is well-understood and easy to define: trading on secret information that is not available to the market. Talking up a stock you own when you don't have inside information... Anybody can do this and everybody does this. How can I talk about Apple and Google taking over Microsoft's business and it's just fanboyism, but if I buy and sell stock while writing the exact same words, it's illegal? Ridiculous, especially in the age of the Internet. Pump-and-dump used to require a boiler room, now it requires a phone with a data plan.
- artmageddon 15y ago
  If you meant the asterisk at the end, I may not have stated my thoughts clearly(fyi, I agree with everything you said). The only way it would've been a crime on Lebed's part would be if he had gotten non-public information from someone involved in/with the company in question. I haven't researched it but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's utter crap that the SEC can come down on someone hard just for stock tips from someone who's no more well connected than anyone else. Personally, I work in the financial field(as a developer) and won't touch trading just because I feel like if I make one wrong move I could risk getting fired / barred / etc..

raganwald 15y ago

Your foot note makes an incredibly interesting mistake: What a teenager like Lebed does is not insider trading, because he doesn't work for the company or otherwise have access to inside information. He knows as much as you or I do. Insider Trading is well-understood and easy to define: trading on secret information that is not available to the market. Talking up a stock you own when you don't have inside information... Anybody can do this and everybody does this. How can I talk about Apple and Google taking over Microsoft's business and it's just fanboyism, but if I buy and sell stock while writing the exact same words, it's illegal? Ridiculous, especially in the age of the Internet. Pump-and-dump used to require a boiler room, now it requires a phone with a data plan.

artmageddon 15y ago
If you meant the asterisk at the end, I may not have stated my thoughts clearly(fyi, I agree with everything you said). The only way it would've been a crime on Lebed's part would be if he had gotten non-public information from someone involved in/with the company in question. I haven't researched it but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's utter crap that the SEC can come down on someone hard just for stock tips from someone who's no more well connected than anyone else. Personally, I work in the financial field(as a developer) and won't touch trading just because I feel like if I make one wrong move I could risk getting fired / barred / etc..