Earlier quoted context omitted.
> unfairly profits from having important information other investors don't have. It all depends how you come to know the thing, no? If you can infer something from public information others haven't, then bully for you. I'm pretty sure that if that information is not public, then you're liable. IANAL though so I may be wrong.
That's totally wrong. If you make inferences from non-public information (e.g. talking to the CEO) you can freely trade on that, provided the CEO hasn't shared MNPI with you directly. Every public company has an Investor Relations department that talks to institutional investors every day. Investors wouldn't bother talking to IR if they could get the same information somewhere else. And these communications are not m…
Abbreviating that is so misleading, it's incredibly hard to not see it as bad faith! MNPI means "material non-public information". You're saying "non-public information is fine but material non-public information is not", without making it as obvious.
Yes, it has to be material. "Owes $30b in taxes" is ABSOLUTELY material. If on top of that you learn about it from IRS insider contacts, enjoy your time in prison.
Please do read the Wikipedia article; it has a section on the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insider_trading
> SEC regulation FD ("Fair Disclosure") requires that if a company intentionally discloses material non-public information to one person, it must simultaneously disclose that information to the public at large.