I'm curious what the general populace of ET says in regards to this (though I will take the commentary with a grain of salt considering the source, of course). A friend and I were discussing, over lunch, buying put options to protect RSU's we had in our company. He thought that, given our positions, that could be considered insider trading (we are not considered "insiders" in the financial sense of the word). It was my belief that we should be fine buying put options that were not in excess of the RSUs we had that were coming up to vest, as long as the put options reflected the approximate time frame in which the RSUs were coming into maturity. For example, if an employee who is not an "insider", bought 10 contracts of a march put option at $50, and the stock today was at 50, and that employee had 1000 RSUs coming up for vesting as of March 15th, this would be an acceptable hedge in the eyes of the law. Thoughts?
http://www.sec.gov/spotlight/insidertrading/cases.shtml the answer to your question will be in the sec site case if u can read Higher Education is the key to become a successful trader! Higher Education!