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Insider Trading
Prevent insider trading at your company with the effective Think Twice videos, which educate, entertain, and jolt

Annotated diagram of Schedule DTax errors can be costly! Don't draw unwanted attention from the IRS. Our Tax Center explains and illustrates the tax rules for sales of company stock, W-2s, withholding, estimated taxes, AMT, and more.



SEC Law

In SEC Law, learn how to avoid insider trading with stock grants and how to comply with other securities laws.

Basics and Insider Trading cover the fundamental securities law that pertains to anybody who owns publicly traded shares. Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plans fully explains the prearranged trades you can create to minimize your risk of insider-trading violations. Executives and directors must know the requirements that are thoroughly discussed in Rule 144 and Section 16.

Test Your KnowledgeTest and improve your knowledge with our Insider Trading quiz and its study guide in the answer key.

Listen to the new podcast on the basics of SEC Law and Insider Trading!


  Articles   FAQs  

Compliance Concerns That Executives Must Understand To Prevent SEC, IRS, And Corporate Problems (Part 1): Company Stock Trades This is premium content

Richard Friedman
NEW! An often underappreciated danger that companies face is the risk that an executive or employee may violate corporate, tax, or securities law. This article series outlines practices for executives to help them avoid compliance problems, and explains the possible penalties of noncompliance. Part 1 focuses on compliance issues involving company stock holdings and transactions.

Prevent A Martha Stewart Moment: Insider Trading In Your Company's Stock

Bruce Brumberg
It is all too easy to forget the insider-trading rules if you suddenly see a chance to profit or avoid loss through a simple stock trade. The well-publicized case against TV celebrity Martha Stewart presents valuable lessons that are more important than ever in our age of stock market volatility and Wall Street scrutiny.

How To Use Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plans To Sell Company Stock (Part 1) This is premium content

Darryl Rains and Sunil Kulkarni
Diversification and cash-flow needs may prompt you to sell company stock regularly. Yet SEC rules, company insider-trading policies, and fears of insider-trading allegations may make stock sales tricky. Rule 10b5-1 trading plans offer a potential solution, but they must be properly drafted and implemented.

How To Use Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plans To Sell Company Stock (Part 2) This is premium content

Darryl Rains and Sunil Kulkarni
A Rule 10b5-1 trading plan is an ideal solution when SEC regulations and corporate insider-trading policies would otherwise keep you from selling your shares. However, to be effective these plans must be properly implemented. Part 2 explores their restrictions and flexibility, and how to disclose them.

How Executives And Directors Can Avoid SEC Troubles Before Trading Their Company Stock
(Part 1)
This is premium content

Merrill Freed and Steven Schraibman
Your advisors say now is the time to buy or sell your company stock or to exercise options. But before you proceed, you'd better understand the securities laws that apply. Otherwise, you risk losing your profits, paying big fines, attracting unwanted media attention, and perhaps even going to jail. The storm of controversy over the backdating of stock option grants shows how closely executive stock sales are scrutinized.

How Executives And Directors Can Avoid SEC Troubles Before Trading Their Company Stock (Part 2) This is premium content

Merrill Freed and Steven Schraibman
Your advisors say now is the time to buy or sell your company stock or to exercise options. But before you proceed, you'd better understand the securities laws that apply. Part 1 focused on insider trading and Rule 10b5-1 plans. This article looks at other pitfalls of securities law, including short-swing-profits violations under Section 16(b), and required SEC filings, such as Form 4 and Form 144.

Insider Trading Prevention & Education

Bruce Brumberg
myStockOptions.com
Editor-in-Chief Bruce Brumberg developed this PowerPoint presentation for talks and meetings on insider trading. With colorful examples from recent cases, it covers fundamentals, penalties, Rule 10b5-1 preapproved trading plans, and lessons that the cases of Martha Stewart/ImClone and Joseph Nacchio/Qwest can teach. (Premium members can view the presentation in PDF from the above link and may request permission to use it at their companies. Please allow up to a minute for the presentation to ful

Elevated Enforcement

Julius Melnitzer
Inside Counsel
The SEC's intensified search for insider trading includes enhanced scrutiny of Rule 10b5-1 trading plans.

Insider Trading Makes Comeback In Options 20 Years After Boesky

Bob Drummond
Bloomberg.com
A large volume of corporate acquisitions and well-timed investments in target companies has set off alarms about insider trading at the SEC and in stock exchanges around the world.

The SEC Is Eyeing Insider Stock Sales

Jane Sasseen
BusinessWeek
Concerned about patterns of trades before bad news and abuses that signal insider trading, the SEC is looking into Rule 10b5-1 plans.

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What is insider trading? Do you have to be an "insider" or executive to commit it?

Insider trading is illegal. It occurs when someone...

UPDATED! What is insider tipping?

Tipping is telling someone material confidential information about a public company, whether in...

Why are insider trading and tipping illegal?

Insider trading and tipping violate the concept of fair capital markets...

How do civil and criminal insider-trading cases differ?

Most insider-trading cases involve civil suits and penalties...

What are the civil penalties for insider trading?

Anyone found liable for trading on inside information must pay the federal government...

What are the criminal penalties for insider trading?

Under Section 32(a) of the Securities Exchange Act, as amended by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, individuals face up to...

Can I receive a bounty for providing information about someone who has committed insider trading?

Under Section 21A(e) of the Securities Exchange Act, the SEC may award...

Aren't my stock-trading records confidential? How could the stock exchanges and the SEC get them and other information about me? This is premium content

To detect irregular patterns of trading, each stock exchange uses a surveillance operation...

Do the rules of insider trading and tipping apply only in business contexts? Do they also apply to what I tell friends and family? This is premium content

The rules apply to any confidential, important information that you reveal to anyone about your company. The SEC adopted...

Does it matter whether the person who violates the insider-trading laws lives outside the US? This is premium content

The SEC has reciprocal agreements with many countries...

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