Buying and selling shares of company stock isn’t illegal. But what about when you do it for a company you work for or otherwise interact with? Insider trading can be tricky. One wrong move can turn savvy trading into illegal trading. Here’s the difference between good versus bad insider trading.
Insider Trading Defined
Insider trading is when a person has private knowledge about a company they own shares in and makes investing trades based on that knowledge. An insider can also pass along private knowledge about a company even if they don’t own a stake in it but shares information with someone who does. If you make investment decisions based on knowledge that the public doesn’t know, that’s insider trading.
Insider trading in its most basic form isn’t illegal. There’s a difference between legal and illegal insider trading.
Legal Insider Trading
If insiders buy and sell stocks, they must register transactions with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through advanced filings. This kind of insider trading often goes unnoticed because it doesn’t violate any rules.
When employees buy stock from the company they work for or CEOs buy back their company shares, this is legal insider trading. As long as these transactions happen through advanced SEC filings.
Illegal Insider Trading
Illegal insider trading is when you use private information to make trades for profit and don’t disclose those trades through advanced SEC filings.
Anyone can commit illegal insider trading, not just someone who works at a company or has a working knowledge of a company. Common illegal insider trades can involve officers, directors and other company employees. But it also can involve friends of employees or others. If they receive private information about a company before the public knows about it, they could find themselves in trouble.
The SEC monitors illegal insider trading by watching trade volumes on companies. If a company’s share volume fluctuates without news releases from or about the company, the typically SEC flags it. They’ll usually investigate it further to see if shares changed hands illegally.
Handling Private Information Legally
If you’ve ever been tipped off about something before everyone else knew about it, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Many times, in many circles all over the world, people share insider information. It’s what you do with that information that matters.
If you find out that a company’s earnings fell short of expectations before earnings are officially released, that’s OK. But if you sell shares of that company after learning about those less-than-stellar earnings, or you pass that information on to someone who does, that’s considered illegal insider trading.