CEO of Pfizer, the company that just announced their Covid vaccine was 90% effective, sold 60% of his stock on the same day as the announcement, as the stock surged up. The trade was planned since August to avoid accusations of insider trading, but we already know they postponed the announcement until after the election, so it looks like Mr. Bourla got himself a nice little bonus on top of election manipulation by omission.
The trade was planned since August to avoid accusations of insider trading
How does this avoid accusations of insider trading? He knew when they'd go public so he planned the trade for the date they'd go public. It doesn't get more insider than that.
If he had traded in August I'd cut him some slack.
What you describe is not how insider trading works. Insider trading can only occur if you sell stocks due to secret knowledge that the stock price will fall, or buy stocks due to secret knowledge that the stock price will rise. This sale is only advantageous because it took place after the good news was public knowledge, because that public knowledge is what let him sell for such a good price.
Yes, unless of course the announcement, which was of course only coincidentally timed to go out on the same day as this trade, was only meant to pump the stock for a bit before it turns out that everyone who takes the vaccine now shits out of their noses.
Now you're just making shit up to justify your misinformed opinion. Pfizer can't both be withholding the vaccine until post-election because it would be such a boon for Trump and know that it's a lemon that will backfire on the people holding the bag.
That's highly unimaginative. If you were the CEO of a company that's making a vaccine for a virus that has the entire world going batshit insane, and that, if effective, will probably sell billions of doses all over the world in the first wave, with a possibility of repeat business if the immunity doesn't last for very long, would you get rid of over a half of your stock? If everything is on the level then the stock should keep soaring, the announcement is just the first bump, it won't stop there.
But no, the CEO cashed out hard. The only conclusion is that either the vaccine plain doesn't work (highly likely given the amount of mutations), or it causes some serious side effects (somewhat less likely, however this is possibly the most rushed vaccine in history, and a first one of its kind at that), or both.
So here's what could plausibly have happened:
Pfizer has a vaccine that's useless or worse.
The CEO wants to get paid.
The "system" knows, and reaches to the CEO with a deal: we'll let you pump and dump by making a big announcement and then immediately cashing out, as long as you make sure the announcement comes after the election. (At this point it doesn't matter whether the vaccine is actually useful or not, nobody knows - but making the announcement before the election would definitely benefit Republicans regardless.)
This article and dozens of similar ones come out. Nobody investigates Pfizer's officers for insider trading, as per the deal. <--- You are here.
The vaccine turns out to be shit.
The media either says "oh no!" and then ignores it along with the rest of the Covid crisis, or blames Le Drumpf.
Oh and now that I think of it, the timing is absolutely perfect: the announcement came late enough to not give any points to Trump, but early enough that everyone will forget about it by the time Biden is potentially inaugurated.
This whole thing stinks like a Chinese wet market.
If I correctly remember the mandatory insider trading training my employer makes me take every year, you can be charged with insider trading if you decide to execute the trade using material non-public information even if you wait until the information becomes public to actually execute the trade.
The training explicitly uses an example of an employee having a trade set up and ready to execute as soon as a press release goes out.
But it still only works one way: buying on the way up, or selling on the way down. The other way around can't be insider trading, because the reverse relies on the material information being disseminated to the public to be worthwhile. If you have insider information that the stock price is going to go up, using your insider information to sell before everyone else realises and makes the stock price go up just hurts you.
announced their Covid vaccine was 90% effective, sold 60% of his stock on the same day as the announcemen
If the vaccine was 90% effective, you'd expect their stock price to soar. If this guy's selling, he obviously knows something isn't as rosy as he's saying it is.
The only way this gets insider trading pinned on it is if the vaccine turns out to have issues and the stock price takes a big dive later. If the vaccine works, they sell tons of them and the stock price stays up, then there's no advantage gained by selling now. So, no insider trading. We will have to wait and see.
I suppose it could also be if this CEO had bought a ton of extra shares in anticipation of the food news dropping, but executives trades are publicly reported so we would have known about it.
CEO of Pfizer, the company that just announced their Covid vaccine was 90% effective, sold 60% of his stock on the same day as the announcement, as the stock surged up. The trade was planned since August to avoid accusations of insider trading, but we already know they postponed the announcement until after the election, so it looks like Mr. Bourla got himself a nice little bonus on top of election manipulation by omission.
How does this avoid accusations of insider trading? He knew when they'd go public so he planned the trade for the date they'd go public. It doesn't get more insider than that.
If he had traded in August I'd cut him some slack.
What you describe is not how insider trading works. Insider trading can only occur if you sell stocks due to secret knowledge that the stock price will fall, or buy stocks due to secret knowledge that the stock price will rise. This sale is only advantageous because it took place after the good news was public knowledge, because that public knowledge is what let him sell for such a good price.
Yes, unless of course the announcement, which was of course only coincidentally timed to go out on the same day as this trade, was only meant to pump the stock for a bit before it turns out that everyone who takes the vaccine now shits out of their noses.
Now you're just making shit up to justify your misinformed opinion. Pfizer can't both be withholding the vaccine until post-election because it would be such a boon for Trump and know that it's a lemon that will backfire on the people holding the bag.
That's highly unimaginative. If you were the CEO of a company that's making a vaccine for a virus that has the entire world going batshit insane, and that, if effective, will probably sell billions of doses all over the world in the first wave, with a possibility of repeat business if the immunity doesn't last for very long, would you get rid of over a half of your stock? If everything is on the level then the stock should keep soaring, the announcement is just the first bump, it won't stop there.
But no, the CEO cashed out hard. The only conclusion is that either the vaccine plain doesn't work (highly likely given the amount of mutations), or it causes some serious side effects (somewhat less likely, however this is possibly the most rushed vaccine in history, and a first one of its kind at that), or both.
So here's what could plausibly have happened:
Oh and now that I think of it, the timing is absolutely perfect: the announcement came late enough to not give any points to Trump, but early enough that everyone will forget about it by the time Biden is potentially inaugurated.
This whole thing stinks like a Chinese wet market.
If I correctly remember the mandatory insider trading training my employer makes me take every year, you can be charged with insider trading if you decide to execute the trade using material non-public information even if you wait until the information becomes public to actually execute the trade.
The training explicitly uses an example of an employee having a trade set up and ready to execute as soon as a press release goes out.
But it still only works one way: buying on the way up, or selling on the way down. The other way around can't be insider trading, because the reverse relies on the material information being disseminated to the public to be worthwhile. If you have insider information that the stock price is going to go up, using your insider information to sell before everyone else realises and makes the stock price go up just hurts you.
If the vaccine was 90% effective, you'd expect their stock price to soar. If this guy's selling, he obviously knows something isn't as rosy as he's saying it is.
Just heard Pfizer called Biden 24 hours before announcing to the government/ Trump
The only way this gets insider trading pinned on it is if the vaccine turns out to have issues and the stock price takes a big dive later. If the vaccine works, they sell tons of them and the stock price stays up, then there's no advantage gained by selling now. So, no insider trading. We will have to wait and see.
I suppose it could also be if this CEO had bought a ton of extra shares in anticipation of the food news dropping, but executives trades are publicly reported so we would have known about it.