the FBI and the SEC is fanning out delivering supoenas to hedge funds and market research firms in search of criminality. no one knows the facts yet. there are bad guys and there are aggressive guys who go over the line, BUT, professional investors have paid for better information for thousands of years. the first marathon was created by a guy running to report the outcome of a famous battle; back in the day of whaling and clipper ships there used to be runner at the dock, running news of how the trip went giving an information advantage to the recipients. there are some crazy high frequency traders building a new fiber optic telecom line that saves 75 miles and nanoseconds on the transmission of information. casion analyst count cars in the parking lot of casinos to guage traffic. the bottom line is information and points of view have value and investors have striven for such information forever.
so what is this new chapter all about? conceptually you have almost all hedge funds and large private equity funds paying for infomation; the question is any of this illegal? clearly if a current corporate officer gives non public information to a trader that is illegal; among other reasons because the officer has a duty to the corportation and its shareholders. however if an ex-corporate officer who clearly does not have a duty to the corporation and does not violate an nda he may be a party to expresses his opinion to a hedge fund, has a crime be committed?
i think not.
this will get down to facts; who disclosed what and what duties did they have?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
did you drop dead or something?
Post a Comment