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Insider trade on Splunk acquisition?

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417 points mkmk | 1 comments | 21 Sep 23 15:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.41s | 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. wrsh07 ◴[21 Sep 23 19:02 UTC] No.37602419[source]▶
Matt Levine covers this fairly extensively

I believe someone in Europe overheard info on a train and was successfully prosecuted. The US has not historically prosecuted trading on inside information that wasn't obtained illegally

So if you research that's fine. If you overhear something that might be fine (I don't think anyone has been seriously convicted yet but I could be wrong)

It can't be enough to say the trade was statistically unlikely because your independent research might legitimately let you make an unlikely trade. This particular trade was very unlikely though.