Billionaire Entrepreneur Charged with Insider Trading!

Marc Cuban charged with insider trading on Mamma.com shares ...

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban charged with insider trading - MarketWatch


Do you think Martha Stewartesque justice will be on tap?

Yep, when all hell breaks loose in financial markets,
sacrifice a rich or famous person.
That'll distract the masses.

The sick thing is...
it usually works.

We ALL insider trade.

I buy a stock
because I think I have some secret knowledge
the rest of the market doesn't,
and the stock is underpriced.

Jon shorts stocks
for the exact same reason.
(that I think I have some secret knowledge...)

I guess that the big difference is that you *think*. This guy is in a position to actually *know*.

What I can't understand is, these guys know a lot about it and they know they SEC loves to make publicity out of this. How can they fall for it?

Inside traders should be convicted and I'm not usually a fan of conspiracy theories but it's kind of strange that instead of going after the CEO’s and CFO’s that signed off on all those Sarbane-Oxley financials the SEC is chasing a 4 years old 750k transaction by a guy that has started a movement against the bailout plans (BailoutSleuth - BailoutSleuth)

Well, the Martha Stewart conviction
made absolutely no sense either
(other than that she was a very powerful woman)

I just think there are bigger fish to fry
than insider trades
and I don't like it when people are chosen as 'examples'
(because lets face it,
like it or not, SO many people do it).

It's funny how certain government officials go after high end wealthy people ever so often! I'd say Mark isn't in the "good ole boys network" but soon will be. This will be evidenced by his increasing of Washington Lobbying money and all of a sudden the charges will be dropped. May be I'm wrong...

I never really understood the concept of insider trading. Obviously the closer you are to a company or the people in it, the more of an advantage you will have. It seems like such a gray area though. What is the difference between a hunch or a tip, and "inside" information? And where is the disctinction made?

Well, I've never heard of anyone
getting caught for inside trading
when they BUY,
only when they sell.

And only when you sell publicly traded shares.
If you sell your private company at a high
(suspecting it will soon decrease in value),
you are looked at as a genius.

Basically if you as an exec or owner or buddy of an exec or owner sell,
large fund managers don't sell
and they lose money,
it is insider trading.
If you sell,
large fund managers sell,
and the smaller investor (who gets the information later) loses money,
it isn't.

Yeah, I'm cynical

The system is really F'd up when the SEC goes after these types of trades amounting to 6 figures, but the billion dollar bailout, the lobbyists, and the politicians getting rich in sweetheart deals and campaign contributions get the free pass. Doesn't excuse it of course, but it reminds me of the local police -- cracking down on jaywalkers when there is a plague of murders blanketing the city.

Plague of murders blanketing the city?! Umm...is it too late to move the meetup to Vegas?

Is it really possible to stop insider trading? Sorry I think the answer is No. Someone who knows anyone in any company will try it. It's called improving your odds in other gambling situations - I think it is a little naive to go against it in this case. And we should be concentrating on many other things - in part on what are hedge funds getting away with and how news are affected by $$$.

Nooooo not here, just a hypothetical!

"Vince", you're avatar's freakin' me out a little...

I've never understood the insider trading thing either.

If Cuban got information that the company behind the stock he owns is expected to tank next week, he's supposed to hold onto his stock or buy more???? This makes no sense at all.

I can understand it if he was on the board, or was an officer. But as a stockholder?

Well, Bob,
he's supposed to call everyone in the world up,
ensure they have the same information
and THEN sell.
'Cause that's what the big fund holders do.
Yep.
All the time.

And why do they charge the people acting on the tips
and not the person SHARING the tips?
I'm sorry.
If someone credible called me up and
told me the stock I own was going to tank,
I'd be a dumb a$$ not to sell.

Stop making sense, you!!

I understand the idea of being left in the dark while some big apple has info about the stock's future performance... may be that's why people should do more research on their own and invest in things they know about?!

There's no sense complaining
about the big fund holders getting their information first.
That is reality
and part of the dynamics of the game.
If you don't like it,
you shouldn't be playing.

I just don't like witch hunts.
They are usually led by hypocrites.

But you do
love to
type like this
for some
reason



Are you related to William Shatner?

I've seen companies selling newsletters where they report what trades the insiders have done in their companies (they have to disclose it).

There is a whole philosophy of following the same activities that insiders make. If a registered insider for the company sells then they sell. If the insiders buy then they buy as well. I don't know how good the return is compared to the average investor, but I think it sounds interesting.

When I was actively trading I began to notice a pattern. The Market Makers (proper label given to the big shots) would cause a huge perceived value shift in a single stock every 3 months. Martha Stewart was one of them. They don't just control stock values and price, they influence the media. If you are able to discern patterns well and start trading, you will find this to be true. To recognize such patterns, you have to tap into the Wall Street chatter and compare it with the news and large volume trades.

The secret: The planets align when a gap in the news (not too many large stories on CNN) is proceeded by high volume trading on a stock perceived as having good value (stock is sold in high volume over a week period dropping price) and the Wall street chatter completely avoids said stock.

Timing: Once the media gap is over, it will start reporting on a company slowly building up to a large story. The volume will increase on sells and Wall Street chatter will begin avoiding the stock as it builds in the media.

Takes practice, but practice is free. Try out what I'm saying, you might get the hang of it and buy stock on a company right before they freeze trading on it! Also, this sometimes (although rarely) happens when the Market Makers want to pull off a large shorting of the stock; however, this draws attention from SEC media police.