Insider trade on Splunk acquisition?

Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $10M.

The SEC absolutely will be looking into this trade.

that's the contract price, not the profits

isn't it closer to 400k?

$22k * ($18.30/$0.04) = $10.065M

I think $10M is right. The options cost $0.04 each yesterday (per the tweet), so spending $22,000 would get you 550000 options. Those options are now worth $18.30 (per the tweet) for a total value of ~$10M.

22K * 45560 / 100 = 10023200

didn't they send martha stewart to jail?

An option contract with an ask of $0.04 costs $4. The trader bought 5500 options for $4 and they’re now worth $1830, so it’s still a $10M profit.

The listed option price is the price per share, and a standard option contract is 100 shares of exposure.

Search for "insider trading convictions". They're not rare, and often result in jail time.

Are most of the inside traders that get caught non-professional investors, because the pros know how to escape detection? Are the convictions a small fraction of the number of crimes? Is the SEC too focused on crimes that are easy to prosecute and ignoring more important systemic issues? I'd say yes to all, but the SEC is far from toothless in this type of case.

Technically her jail sentence was for lying about her insider trading, not for the original crime.

Martha went to jail for lying to the Feds. If she just told the truth, she would have probably gotten no more than a wrist slap.

Unless they are a politician :/

https://blogs.luc.edu/compliance/?p=4459

Insider trading is one crime that the SEC prosecutes regularly, because most people doing it are incredibly stupid.

You’ll note that opinion piece never actually outlines any special immunity from insider trading rules that Congress people have. What it’s really outlining is that the normal rules for insider trading aren’t enough for Congress people. Which is a reasonable position to take, but it’s not what the headline implies.

There is no special immunity for insider trading for Congress. https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20170412_RS21127_36174d...

No, the trader bought 260 options. See second photo in the tweet, first row, column "volume". 260 options times $4 equals $1,040 invested, which turned into $475k.

You are correct. The amount "$22,000" purchased options quoted in the tweet is not supported by the screenshots which show 260 options were purchased, for a total of $1,040, which is now worth $475k. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37602079

None of the images in the tweet show either premium of $22k or 5,500 option contracts (eg options on 550,000 shares). What am I missing?

The screenshots seem to show a total traded volume for yesterday of 260 contracts (26,000 shares), way smaller than what was suggested.

Furthermore, nothing makes it clear that these were all the same person. And the open interest went down that day so at least some of this volume was buying to cover.