just dont tell anyone about it. /s
Is it insider trading if I bought Boeing puts while inside the wrecked airplane?
121–130 of 227 posts
Re: Is it insider trading if I bought Boeing puts while inside the wrecked airplane?
#122Of course not, because you learned the information yourself as an outsider.
Just like the hedge funds that pay for satellite images of all of the WalMart parking lots in the country and count the cars to estimate year over year sales. It's information they have that no one else does, but they didn't get it from an insider.
Re: Is it insider trading if I bought Boeing puts while inside the wrecked airplane?
#123Ctrl-F Casino Royale During the film, the terrorist financier Le Chiffre uses a Ugandan warlord's money to short-sell stock in Skyfleet, thus betting the money on the company's failure. The banker plans to bring about said failure by destroying the company's prototype airliner. After his original bomb-maker is killed by James Bond in Madagascar, another is hired to complete the job. The bomb-maker infiltrates Miami I…
Huh, so sabotage of a flight on a plane where it's very plausibly related to ongoing quality control is a viable method of generating profit without suspicion - so long as the mechanic who sabotaged door to low off isn't the same one making playing the stock?
I still don't think it counts as insider trading if an outsider sabotages the airplane and buys the puts. The sabotage itself is probably a dozen federal offenses (gasp, terrorism!) resulting in actual prison time; insider trading only gets a slap on the wrist.
Re: Is it insider trading if I bought Boeing puts while inside the wrecked airplane?
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's mostly a joke, the original post is from Reddit r/WallStreetBets. But regarding Air Traffic controllers, it appears they are barred from owning airline stock https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/5/6001.104 (b)
I more hope they're barred from shorting airline stock. :)
“But I did even better than owning zero airline stock. I own a negative amount!”
Re: Is it insider trading if I bought Boeing puts while inside the wrecked airplane?
#125No, it is not. If you do not have a fiduciary relationship with Boeing and you have no confidentiality obligations with respect to the information, you are not trading on inside information. If you're in the plane when the door blows up, you're just the first person with material public information. You're not trading on material non-public information. See, e.g. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/misappropriation_theor…
I love answers like this because it clears up confusion in few words and makes the answer obvious in retrospect
It’s often a dangerous kind of answer.
I once saw somebody say something to the effect that in every Hacker News thread, there is always a highly upvoted comment that sounds completely plausible, well argued, made by somebody who appears highly qualified to answer, and that is completely incorrect.
I don’t think it’s always true, but it often is.
Re: Is it insider trading if I bought Boeing puts while inside the wrecked airplane?
#126If members of Congress can make millions trading on info they get from sitting on key committees, then trading based on your first hand experience certainly should be ok.
Re: Is it insider trading if I bought Boeing puts while inside the wrecked airplane?
#127Hmm. So a rouge Meta employee could put a barometric pressure monitor in Messenger or WhatsApp (that people use even without paid in-flight wifi) to detect depressurization and automatically short the airline and aircraft manufacturer.
Most phones got rid of the barometers.
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Re: Is it insider trading if I bought Boeing puts while inside the wrecked airplane?
#128Is it insider trading if I bought Apple puts right after an auto update that crashes my phone?
Re: Is it insider trading if I bought Boeing puts while inside the wrecked airplane?
#129No, it is not. If you do not have a fiduciary relationship with Boeing and you have no confidentiality obligations with respect to the information, you are not trading on inside information. If you're in the plane when the door blows up, you're just the first person with material public information. You're not trading on material non-public information. See, e.g. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/misappropriation_theor…
Important clarification: you do not need to have confidentiality obligations with respect to the information or a fiduciary relationship, it need only be information that is material and non-public information that belongs to the company (i.e. only available to those with a fiduciary responsibility or confidentiality obligation to the company). If an insider with confidentiality obligations shares material non-public…
That’s not quite correct, it depends on the nature of the disclosure.
Someone receiving information from an insider needs be independent of personal, financial, and quid pro quo relationships. So a random person that happens to sit next to a CEO on an airplane can trade on whatever they hear. The CEO’s mistress sitting on the other side of them can’t.
Re: Is it insider trading if I bought Boeing puts while inside the wrecked airplane?
#130Trading on your phone outdoors is always safe!