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 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.