The Secret of Billions
"Insider Trading: But basically, if you know information that is private (“Company A is buying Company B”) then you are not allowed to make money on that information."<p>I see this misconception all the time & I'm really surprised to see it in this context.  The sine qua non of "insider trading" is being <i>an insider</i>.  If I know of a merger because I overhear the parties talking about it in a restaurant, or I've hired private investigators to see who's visiting who's offices, there is no issue.  There has to be some relationship that obliges me to keep that information private.  The only way markets work is by surfacing "private information".<p>"The essence of stock market law in the US is this: every transaction has to have risk in it. If you eliminate risk by, for instance, paying for information that nobody else knows, then you have committed a crime."<p>That's just completely wrong.  If I hire a satellite to track car dealer inventories, buy Ford as a result, and make a ton of money, I'm doing my damn job.  No one has committed a crime.  Ditto if I sell that data rather than trading on it directly.