I feel this argument is a bit of a red herring. It's sort of like saying, it's ok to drive through red lights so long as I don't hit any pedestrians - - nobody

I feel this argument is a bit of a red herring. It's sort of like saying, it's ok to drive through red lights so long as I don't hit any pedestrians - - nobody gets hurt, so what's the problem? One purpose of insider trading rules is to ensure a sense of equity. Being an officer in a public corporation, investment banker, accountant, or anyone else privy to material non-public information is a position of privilege and trust. It's not fair to everyone else if folks with insider information can freely cash in on that information at will. To further see that this is so, consider if there are no insider trading rules - - - in this case, why would anyone pursue a legitimate career as a developer or doctor or lawyer when there is so much more money to be made from exploiting insider information in the marketplace? Clearly that would not be a good kind of society to live in.