Is it illegal to act upon insider info

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Go for it OP but be careful. If you get caught and go to prision, avoid getting prison tattoo's as your intelligence will be reduced.
 
Greebo said:
Really? So ignoring the fact that high up people shouldn't talk about mergers etc, if they happen to tell somebody and that person then acts on the info and buys shares, the person who told them gets done as well?
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Potentialy yes the legal framework is in place for this it would be considered market abuse as improper disclosure and would be a civil offence rather than a criminal one which insider trading is

Although I'm not sure if anyone has ever been posicuted for it
 
groen said:
It is a ridiculous law in my opinion.
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Yeah WTF, insider trading is great with no negative issues!
Not like it can help cause stock market crash's and depressions :rolleyes:

It's both illegal and unethical, don't do it!


After the Great Depression and Black Tuesday, the SEC established laws to govern insider trading. The goal was to restore investor confidence and convince investors that the playing field was level, and everyone had an equal opportunity to make money in the stock market. Insider trading is one form of stock manipulation that ultimately led to a drastic decline in investor confidence, and the government has a big interest in preventing another such event.
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But how would the prosecution actually find out? would they have to be tipped off? or do they have some sort of system whereby they know everyones name who buys shares in a certain period and teir ties to the company.

even then they would need to know when the time period began when the sensitive info was availible.. for every company!

i cant see you being caught unless someone snitches..am i right?
 
The FSA can audit trades historically and a team at the London Stock Exchange monitors suspicious trading volume, I know as I work closely with them from time to time.

I'm sure it happens more frequently than you hear about but the repercussions are extremely serious, it's just not worth risking.
 
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mattx2 said:
Potentialy yes the legal framework is in place for this it would be considered market abuse as improper disclosure and would be a civil offence rather than a criminal one which insider trading is

Although I'm not sure if anyone has ever been posicuted for it
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Nomura got smashed for it just the other week. That was by the Japanese regulator, mind.
 
It happens all the time, it's if you get caught or not which is extremely unlikely, go for it.
 
How do you think rich people make even more money, and when was the last time you saw a rich person in the dock for white collar crime - the police know such cases cost an arm and a leg to investigate/prosecute and so they stick to catching the criminal masterminds doing 35 in a 30 or black people being black after dark.
 
al4x said:
But how would the prosecution actually find out? would they have to be tipped off? or do they have some sort of system whereby they know everyones name who buys shares in a certain period and teir ties to the company.

even then they would need to know when the time period began when the sensitive info was availible.. for every company!

i cant see you being caught unless someone snitches..am i right?
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I'd imagine that a one time "lucky" windfall in the stock markets would be one of the flags that are watched out for.
 
bitslice said:
How do you think rich people make even more money, and when was the last time you saw a rich person in the dock for white collar crime - the police know such cases cost an arm and a leg to investigate/prosecute and so they stick to catching the criminal masterminds doing 35 in a 30 or black people being black after dark.
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Dealers being prosecuted for insider trading does happen with several high profile cases this year.
 
desires said:
Is it illegal to act upon info or just illegal to give it?

I.e. if I was told by a company director that his company was going to acquire another company that would be beneficial would it be illegal to purchase stock in that company ahead of the acquisition or is the only illegal bit the person that told me?
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unless you make millions though it wont be noticed :p
 
groen said:
Did you watch the video i posted? no.
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I did, and still think your viewpoint if flawed.

The "It helps the little guy" line is overplayed, what it actually helps is CEOs and directors as they get to make quick profits from dealing in shares and everyone else gets to fight over the scraps.
 
I was just a question. Unfortunately I've not been touted of about any public companies that you lit can invest in :p
 
al4x said:
But how would the prosecution actually find out? would they have to be tipped off? or do they have some sort of system whereby they know everyones name who buys shares in a certain period and teir ties to the company.

even then they would need to know when the time period began when the sensitive info was availible.. for every company!

i cant see you being caught unless someone snitches..am i right?
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It doesn't have to be one or the other, indeed for a successful prosecution it would often be better to have both a tip off and a flagged trade (or series of trades). If the thread was real then it saying basically "I've been given insider information" would be quite a good clue that the person acting on it was doing so knowing that it was not allowed.
 
the law is daft, it's incredibly hard to enforce this, unless it's obvious like before a takover someone puts all their life savings on a compay that is about to be acquired. generally people are more discrete and you can get third parties to act for you and share the profits with them.

insider trading is the order of the day, its hard to beleive that someone who has insider knowlede which they can make a huge return on won't act on it. It's like landing on a £10,000 scratchcard that the wind blew towards you and saying "I didnt pay for this scratchcard, it's someone elses so I won't claim it". BS! Most people would think it;s fair game, you dont know whose this is, you have no way of returning it to the owner because everyone will claim it was theirs, so you would cash it in.

For insider traders, im sure the logic is the same. You're not hurting anyone, just depriving a large company with limitless funds a little bit to get ahead. FGS Libor was fixed!! what makes you think this sort of thing doesnt happen at every level?
 
Golf1.6 said:
For insider traders, im sure the logic is the same. You're not hurting anyone, just depriving a large company with limitless funds a little bit to get ahead.
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Except you aren't. Unless you are talking about a stock offer in the most cases you are going to be taking advantage of other people dealing in shares. Which is more likely these days to be pension funds and the like.
 
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