Can Insider Trading Be Committed Without Trading?

Abstract

Before a person can be prosecuted and convicted for insider trading, he must first execute the overt act of trading. If no sale of security is consummated, no crime is also consummated. However, through a complex and insidious combination of various financial instruments, one can capture the same amount of gains from insider trading without undertaking an actual trade. Since the crime of insider trading involves buying or selling a security, a more sophisticated insider can circumvent the language of the Securities Regulation Code by replicating the economic equivalent of a sale without consummating a sale as defined by law.