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It's kind of like claiming you're the world's best trader, but all your winnings come from insider trading.
by yareally 2y ago
It's kind of like claiming you're the world's best trader, but all your winnings come from insider trading.
- eru 2y agoThat's fine, when and where that's legal. Eg even the US has no laws against insider trading in commodities. Similarly, French insider trading laws work on rather different principles than US ones. So it's hard to attach much moral significance to the legal accident of insider trading laws in one place and one time. (And arguably, laws banning insider trading are bad for the general public, because to the extent they are respected and enforced, they keep information out of market prices.)
- FredPret 2y agoTrue, but they also make it hard for a cynical exec to game the system, for instance by shorting the stock and then tanking the company on purpose.
- eru 2y agoContracts and laws around fiduciary duties already handle that just fine.
- somenameforme 2y agoThis is exactly what the laws around fiduciary duty "really" cover. I say "really" because the term is often invoked to justify/excuse scummy behavior from executives, arguing that they're legally obligated to behave that way because of fiduciary duty. In reality it just means you must act in the interests of the company, largely to prevent this exact sort of scenario (or an exec just being butthurt or whatever).
- eru 2y agoYes, though it goes a bit further than just a blanket 'in the interest of the company'. Sometimes it's that, sometimes it's in the interested of the shareholders, sometimes it's also in the interest of (some) customers, etc.