4 ms·
It's only illegal if you're using secret information. The company can't report info to some shareholders and not others.
by sp332 5y ago
It's only illegal if you're using secret information. The company can't report info to some shareholders and not others.
- charcircuit 5y agoIn my example the company is not reporting to any shareholders. You are doing trades based off of information that you have collected yourself.
- sp332 5y ago-
- notch656a 5y ago>If you're using information anyone could get with some research, then it's not illegal. If I am willing to give out information gained during employment of the company to anyone asking as part of their research, then by this definition it's not illegal, as anyone can get the information with some research.
- ethbr0 5y agoSee fair disclosure requirements https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/glossary/fair-disclosure-regulation-fd https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-ba...
- notch656a 5y agoAt best that would only require you to disclose to everyone once asked by someone performing some research, or through the outlined regulation FD mechanisms. It still holds that using your own definition, all it takes is some research to gain what the employee who is willing to give up information knows, and that giving up the information can be done in a way that avoids violating regulation FD.
- ethbr0 5y agoIf you want to play chicken with the SEC like they're a D&D DM you're rules lawyering, be my guest. Because while they may not prosecute often, I'd still rather stay off their radar.
- charcircuit 5y ago>If you're using information anyone could get with some research, then it's not illegal. Then why were these engineers being charged? They used a role which very likely was open to anyone in the public to apply to do research into the performance of the company.
- sneak 5y agoNo, it's only illegal if you are using secret information accessed with privileged insider access. If you do research and deduce nonpublic (secret) data and use that, that is fine. The classic example is inferring sales data from customer traffic by observing the parking lot utilization at regular intervals.
- kasey_junk 5y agoThis is an American interpretation of insider trading laws which are very much not about keeping markets fair rather they are about preventing shareholders (or those working on their behalf) from stealing from other shareholders. Other jurisdictions have different presumptions about what insider trading laws are for and may thus interpret them in different ways. This was a US jurisdiction filing so the former standard applies but on an international message board it’s worth remembering people have different intuitions about this stuff for good reason.
- nullc 5y agoI'm curious if there are places where monitoring how busy business parking lots and trading on your analysis would be unlawful insider trading?