[jstarfish]

I don't think this is accurate (in the US), and very dangerous advice if you are wrong.

Not only does it contradict every post-hire training I've ever sat through, but Martha Stewart didn't go to prison for the fun of it-- she was a recipient of insider information three or four degrees removed from the source. It was very much illegal for her to use other people's insider information.

The standing definition is that if you are trading on knowledge not available to the public regardless of how it was sourced or laundered, it's insider trading. I'd genuinely like to see any references you have that can attest to this more lenient interpretation-- it seems entirely self-defeating.

[bsder]

> Martha Stewart didn't go to prison for the fun of it-- she was a recipient of insider information three or four degrees removed from the source. It was very much illegal for her to use other people's insider information.

Martha Stewart went to jail for lying to the Feds, not insider trading, IIRC.