May 17, 2011

Robert Murphy on insider trading

To drive home just how arbitrary and non-criminal "insider trading" really is, consider this scenario: Suppose someone had been planning on buying shares of Acme, but just before doing so, he caught wind of a bad earnings report. In light of the new information (which was not yet public), the person refrained from his intended purchase. Should this person be prosecuted for insider non-trading?

~ Robert Murphy, "Is Insider Trading Really a Crime?," Mises.org, May 16, 2011

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