insider trading

noun

1. the illegal buying and selling of securities by persons acting on privileged information.

insider trading

1. The unlawful practice of using information that comes from a source “inside” the business but is not available to the general public to trade on the stock market . This activity is prohibited by law and is policed by the Securities and Exchange Commission .

Notes

In the mid-1980s, several revelations of insider trading rocked Wall Street .

Other Words From

• insider trader noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of insider trading¹

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

Stewart may be worth $400 million now, but her conviction on charges related to an insider trading scandal lost her more than an estimated billion dollars.

From Salon

In March 2004, Stewart was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction and two counts of lying to federal investigators in connection with an insider trading scheme.

From Salon

Ivan F. Boesky, the brash financier who came to symbolize Wall Street greed as a central figure of the 1980s insider trading scandals, and who went to prison for his misdeeds, died on Monday.

From New York Times

In 2007, a Canadian judge ruled that Felderhof had been unaware of the swindle and found him not guilty of insider trading.

From BBC

The last person she visited in prison, in 2004, was her friend Martha Stewart, who was serving five months in a federal penitentiary on charges related to insider trading.

From Seattle Times