Perry E. Metzger writes:
Timothy C. May writes:
Suggestion #1: Never get your legal advice from cypherpunks newsletter. Suggestion #2: If you absolutely can't resist going against Suggestion #1, then listen carefully to Perry. As just a lowly programmer around here, I have often been told that I would be breaking the law if I trade on some piece of information before it becomes public. I am not such an "insider" that I must register my trades 90 days in advance. I've read the actual statute. (though I am not a lawyer and, these days, even lawyers don't know what a law means until the final verdict) You might also want to ask Ivan Boeskey(sp?). I think he's out of Federal prison by now. He's the guy that cut a deal with the Feds to give him time to sell a few billion dollars worth of stock before being arrested, so that he could pay his fine. Once he was arrested, the value of those stocks fell. It looks to me like he and the Feds traded on inside information so that he could pay his fine for trading on inside information. He still went to jail, and he had enough money for good lawyers. Imagine what would happen to me!
IANAL, but I think you must be wrong about this, Perry. If this were the case then, as an employee of company XYZ, I would never be permitted to buy XYZ stock (which is clearly not the case) since I *always* have information that others outside the company do not (about staff changes, product plans and such). I suspect the deciding factor must have to do with the ability to execute actions which have substantial direct effects on the stock price (i.e. buying a company, declaring dividends, having a massive downsizing, etc.).
-- Jeff