Browse Definitions :
Definition

insider trading

WhatIs.com
Contributor(s): Ivy Wigmore

Insider trading is the buying and selling of securities based on information that has not been made available to the general public. 

Because insider information gives an investor an advantage over others, it is illegal and punishable by law. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversees securities transactions, activities of financial professionals and mutual fund trading to prevent fraud and intentional deception.

Mechanisms in place to prevent insider trading include quiet periods, during which corporate insiders are prohibited from selectively divulging information to some investors before it is made public, and blackout periods, which prohibit trading by insiders at similar times and for similar reasons. 

This was last updated in November 2013

Continue Reading About insider trading

Join the conversation

1 comment

Send me notifications when other members comment.

Register

Please create a username to comment.

"Information available to the public" is very broad. One guy did some trades on Gulf before it was bought by Chevron and it was suspected that he had insider information. When questioned, he mentioned he saw Gulf's private jet at the airport near Chevron. Since this was visible to anyone, it was not "insider" information.
Cancel

-ADS BY GOOGLE

File Extensions and File Formats

SearchCompliance

  • PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)

    The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a widely accepted set of policies and procedures intended to ...

  • risk management

    Risk management is the process of identifying, assessing and controlling threats to an organization's capital and earnings.

  • compliance framework

    A compliance framework is a structured set of guidelines that details an organization's processes for maintaining accordance with...

SearchSecurity

  • Trojan horse (computing)

    In computing, a Trojan horse is a program downloaded and installed on a computer that appears harmless, but is, in fact, ...

  • identity theft

    Identity theft, also known as identity fraud, is a crime in which an imposter obtains key pieces of personally identifiable ...

  • DNS over HTTPS (DoH)

    DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is a relatively new protocol that encrypts domain name system traffic by passing DNS queries through a ...

SearchHealthIT

  • telemedicine (telehealth)

    Telemedicine is the remote delivery of healthcare services, such as health assessments or consultations, over the ...

  • Project Nightingale

    Project Nightingale is a controversial partnership between Google and Ascension, the second largest health system in the United ...

  • medical practice management (MPM) software

    Medical practice management (MPM) software is a collection of computerized services used by healthcare professionals and ...

SearchDisasterRecovery

SearchStorage

  • M.2 SSD

    An M.2 SSD is a solid-state drive (SSD) that conforms to a computer industry specification and is used in internally mounted ...

  • kilobyte (KB or Kbyte)

    A kilobyte (KB or Kbyte) is a unit of measurement for computer memory or data storage used by mathematics and computer science ...

  • virtual memory

    Virtual memory is a memory management capability of an operating system (OS) that uses hardware and software to allow a computer ...

Close