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Insider trade on Splunk acquisition?

(twitter.com)
417 points mkmk | 1 comments | 21 Sep 23 15:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.203s | source
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kypro ◴[21 Sep 23 18:16 UTC] No.37601673[source]▶
I know this isn't what happened, but what if one day I'm waiting for the bus and I over hear a guy talking on their phone about an imminent acquisition?

1. Would that still fall under insider trading even if the information was accidentally heard, and even if I wasn't 100% sure of its accuracy?

2. If I had no clear connection to the company how would it be proven that I was trading on insider information? Surely it's not enough just to say the trade was statistically unlikely, or is it?

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1. bluehorizon2 ◴[21 Sep 23 18:48 UTC] No.37602179[source]▶
No this would not be insider trading. You have no idea if these people even work for Splunk. And they could have just been speculating.

The SEC could still sue you and turn your life upside down by investigating every aspect of your life to try to find the connection that gave you that information, but if they can’t come up with the proof then eventually you would be fine.