If you work for a privately held company, and through that you know important details about a competitor and "lack" of a competitive advantage that competitor has in a market due to your own companies superiority, is it considered insider knowledge to act on that? IE short the shares of the public competitor? The knowledge not gained through any direct interaction with said public company, ie no NDA disclosure of info from them. However could be based on knowledge you have of the market place, the inaccuracies of large PR releases of the public company that you know not to hold ANY weight due to your own dealings with companies related to the PR? Or if you knew that said public company could be put out of business or face royalty/fines due to not having freedom to operate because of IP? Is knowing and acting on any of this against any sort of SEC regs? All purely hypothetical of course,but something I have often wondered.
Is the "knowledge" available to the public? Or is it only known to insiders? If the latter, then it isn't worth the risk to make a trade. If in doubt, stay out.
I tell you what i wouldn't do.I wouldn't ask the SEC- best placed to answer my question. No. I would just come on here and ask a bunch of kids what they think. .. . <___________- is this a piece of your brain?
Don't do it. But, if the little devil in you still wants to go ahead, make sure you have public information that can validate your reason for going short. You should confirm with a lawyer..
all of the knowledge I refer to should technically be public. For example, the IP that could put them out of business or materially affect their bottom line is out there in the public. They are already granted patents. Anyone doing their Due Diligence "could" find it. Just with thousands of patents out there, you have to be looking carefully to find one about a company that could hurt that company.... Then concerning product superiority, anyone who purchased the product would realize how gimmicky it is compared to others in the industry, so again public what makes the situation unique is working for a competitor the time/effort was put into discovering these things that 99.9% of the investors likely do not know, but does not make it any less public
Yup,it's always best to attempt to cover your ass when you're determined to lie,cheat,steal and con your way through life.What better way to get good advice on that than from a lawyer?
Consult a lawyer specializing in "securities law" example: http://www.shufirm.com/areas-of-practice/securities.html