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A few things. You generally have to schedule your sales ahead of time. There’s often a window in which you can sell. What was their selling pattern like in 202

A few things. You generally have to schedule your sales ahead of time. There’s often a window in which you can sell. What was their selling pattern like in 2021? Probably similar, but even if it wasn’t, it doesn’t mean anything nefarious. The stock was at ATH in November. Anyone smart would be selling into ATH at a likely cyclical top. And lastly, insiders had to know that the fed’s projected rate hikes would hit the bond portfolio hard. I knew this, and I’m not an insider. So, in summary, this is a nothing burger.

pwinnski 4y ago
I think looking into what their selling pattern was like in 2021 makes sense. If it was similar, then yes, there's nothing to see here. Worth checking, though.
- kevinventullo 4y ago
  This shows the sales history of execs for the last two years: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/FRC/insider-transactions/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/FRC/insider-transactions/ The timing is maybe a little convenient but the amounts don’t seem to stand out.
  - pwinnski 4y ago
    Okay, looking at David Lichtman, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer, let's see. https://finance.yahoo.com/screener/insider/LICHTMAN%20DAVID%20B https://finance.yahoo.com/screener/insider/LICHTMAN%20DAVID%.... In 2023: Sold $917k on Jan 19, $594k on Feb 17, and $1.966 million on Mar 6. But maybe that's normal! Let's see. In 2022: Sold $326k on Nov 15, and $2.151 million on Dec 14. Huh. Sold nothing at all before November, but $5.628 million from Dec, 2022 to Mar, 2023. That's... I wish we could go back farther, but there were no sales at all in 2021, at last as far back as the records go, which is at least May, 2021. So from May 2021 to November 2022, no sales at all, then $326,000, then from December 2022 to March 2023, right before the crash, $5,628,000. Lucky timing on the part of that Chief Credit Officer of a failing bank, right? How about James H. Herbert, II, Founder and Executive Chairman? Honestly, he looks pretty safe. Sales on a semi-regular basis for similar amounts. 40k shares in 2021, 55k in 2022, 35k in 2023, not too suspicious. Even less suspicious is Rick Osterloh, Senior Vice President of Devices & Services at Google, who was appoint to the board in September 2022 and bought $148k of shares in March 2023, days before the failure. Ouch!
cma 4y ago
Up until a few months ago you could always schedule it all to be sold based on no insider info, and then continuously cancel the ongoing sales based on insider information (canceling was not considered trading). https://www.sec.gov/news/statement/lizarraga-insider-trading-20221214 https://www.sec.gov/news/statement/lizarraga-insider-trading... And you could presumably do the same for buying. I'm not sure about doing so for buying and selling/shorting at the same time and then selectively cancelling.
dragontamer 4y ago
> And lastly, insiders had to know that the fed’s projected rate hikes would hit the bond portfolio hard. I knew this, and I’m not an insider. The problem with this, is that they presumably didn't work to protect their interests, or their customer's interests, by hedging appropriately. There were months in April or May where they could have sold their long-term bonds and bought short-term bonds, to better hedge against FFR hikes. ----------- What we're concerned about are executives protecting themselves, while screwing over their companies and/or depositors.
paulpauper 4y ago
Yes, the pertinent question is are these sales in any way statistically significant? If no sales had been rendered for a long time, and then a huge sale, that would be more suspicious.

pwinnski 4y ago

I think looking into what their selling pattern was like in 2021 makes sense. If it was similar, then yes, there's nothing to see here. Worth checking, though.

kevinventullo 4y ago
This shows the sales history of execs for the last two years: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/FRC/insider-transactions/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/FRC/insider-transactions/ The timing is maybe a little convenient but the amounts don’t seem to stand out.
- pwinnski 4y ago
  Okay, looking at David Lichtman, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer, let's see. https://finance.yahoo.com/screener/insider/LICHTMAN%20DAVID%20B https://finance.yahoo.com/screener/insider/LICHTMAN%20DAVID%.... In 2023: Sold $917k on Jan 19, $594k on Feb 17, and $1.966 million on Mar 6. But maybe that's normal! Let's see. In 2022: Sold $326k on Nov 15, and $2.151 million on Dec 14. Huh. Sold nothing at all before November, but $5.628 million from Dec, 2022 to Mar, 2023. That's... I wish we could go back farther, but there were no sales at all in 2021, at last as far back as the records go, which is at least May, 2021. So from May 2021 to November 2022, no sales at all, then $326,000, then from December 2022 to March 2023, right before the crash, $5,628,000. Lucky timing on the part of that Chief Credit Officer of a failing bank, right? How about James H. Herbert, II, Founder and Executive Chairman? Honestly, he looks pretty safe. Sales on a semi-regular basis for similar amounts. 40k shares in 2021, 55k in 2022, 35k in 2023, not too suspicious. Even less suspicious is Rick Osterloh, Senior Vice President of Devices & Services at Google, who was appoint to the board in September 2022 and bought $148k of shares in March 2023, days before the failure. Ouch!

cma 4y ago

Up until a few months ago you could always schedule it all to be sold based on no insider info, and then continuously cancel the ongoing sales based on insider information (canceling was not considered trading). https://www.sec.gov/news/statement/lizarraga-insider-trading-20221214 https://www.sec.gov/news/statement/lizarraga-insider-trading... And you could presumably do the same for buying. I'm not sure about doing so for buying and selling/shorting at the same time and then selectively cancelling.

dragontamer 4y ago

> And lastly, insiders had to know that the fed’s projected rate hikes would hit the bond portfolio hard. I knew this, and I’m not an insider. The problem with this, is that they presumably didn't work to protect their interests, or their customer's interests, by hedging appropriately. There were months in April or May where they could have sold their long-term bonds and bought short-term bonds, to better hedge against FFR hikes. ----------- What we're concerned about are executives protecting themselves, while screwing over their companies and/or depositors.

paulpauper 4y ago

Yes, the pertinent question is are these sales in any way statistically significant? If no sales had been rendered for a long time, and then a huge sale, that would be more suspicious.