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The gist I've read in the past is that basically as long as it's not obtained illegally (e.g. breaking in and stealing) and there's no benefit to the person providing the information, it's not insider trading.

Matt Levine writes on the topic pretty regularly. Here's an example with a number of interesting situations.

www.businesslive.co.za/amp/rdm/business/2018-02-01-matt-levine-the-fine-line-between-insider-trading-and-knowing-more-than-others/




"pork bellies..."

This is famously the Eddie Murphy rule - it was a crime to steal the briefcase, but not to trade on the knowledge gained from the contents of said briefcase.

iirc 'Trading Places' is on netflix, and Planet Money[0] did an entertaining episode about this.

[0] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/07/09/200401407/epis...


That would be a good way to donate to charity. Just feed info about your corporate overlord to a philanthropic trader.


I've never thought about that before, but it would certainly make for an interesting news story!

"Meals on Wheels is accused of receiving insider information about big market movements from dozens of investment bankers. The Meals on Wheels endowment has seen 10x growth in the past 18 months. It looks like the group they provide for will be fed forever, even if we went through another Great Depression-level financial catastrophe. Should they be allowed to keep these funds? It certainly looks bad for the government to fine them hundreds of millions of dollars with the recent cuts in government-provided social programs."




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