Okay so you have a competitive intelligence company for hire, they go out and collect information on different companies of interests. ie: find information about the company by collecting information from employees (ie stuff anyone could ask), look at product lines, check out how sales have been going, questioning customers etc.. Stuff to help aid you in making decisions when it comes to buying a stock. Would you consider this Insider trading since no proprietary information or confidential data has been collected.
If you learn information that is not available to the public, then yes it is insider trading. Lets say you hear through your investigator that the company is going to have to recall all of the product they produced in the last quarter because it has killed a bunch of kids, but there have been no rumors in the news nor has the company made a statement. If you trade off the information its insider trading and you are going to jail. 5yr
Thats what analysits do. There is no information you will get from the company that isn't readily available to the public or though research reports by analysits.
Thats not true, doing due dilligence is different from gathering inside information. Analysts have calls that are available to anyone to listen in. If you hear information that you know will move the stock and that isn't public its probably safe to assume that you either have heard the wrong info or its inside info, either way you shouldn't trade on it. You don't have to be an insider to be prosecuted for insider trading. 5yr