[sellyme]

Something being technically legal under some conditions doesn't automatically make it sound financial advice.

There's a lot of companies out there. It's easy to pick one that definitely won't get you in to trouble instead of one that probably won't get you in to trouble.

[peeters]

If you work for a company that grants stock via shares or options, you're going to have to sell them at some point. At which point insider trading applies.

[Taniwha]

And your company will carefully tell you when the safe times to do so (usually a month or so after a quarterly result or some such announcement)

[grillvogel]

its not that common. i have a friend who has blackout periods on his RSUs, but no company ive worked at with RSUs has any black out period.

[Taniwha]

every company I've worked for that's gone public (3 of them now) has had blackout periods

[op00to]

My very very very very large company doesn’t have stock lockup like that. I can sell my granted and vested stock at any time, unlike previous employers. Weird.

[freetanga]

It really depends a lot on your role. I would assume your CFO, that knows the figures he will share in the market and analysts expectations, is indeed vetoed.

Most Senior Execs and the whole Financial division typically fall under these umbrellas.

[op00to]

My last company which was smaller, I was locked out for a month around earnings reports. I probably have more privileged information now, but I know not to trade on it by waiting the appropriate time.

[bryanrasmussen]

>And your company will carefully tell you when the safe times to do so

not familiar with the whole situation, but I'd worry the company would tell me times that were advantageous for it, not necessarily for me.

on edit: I suppose the downvotes are HNs way of telling me that would be a silly thing to worry about. Thanks for the clarification.

on second edit: thanks for the actual clarifications as to why I would be silly to worry about that kind of thing.

[bawolff]

I think its usually a very pre-arranged time (like once a quarter shortly after the quarterly earnings since you cant know what's in the next quarterly earning if the previous one just happened).

Besides, are there really bad and good times for the company? Its not like the company itself is affected, just the stock holders. Management wants stock to go up because management usually owns stock. So screwing you would also screw themselves.

Last of all, if you dont like the blackout periods, you can just setup an arms length plan to bypass it https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rule-10b5-1.asp

[csunbird]

No, actually, it is the opposite. For legal compliance, the company tells you when it is safe for you to trade, assuming that you do not have any insider information that would affect the stock price during the allowed periods, without getting into legal trouble.

My company does this and it is a relief for legal compliance reasons.

[subhro]

That is true. And my philosophy is, I will sell the moment it vests (subject to sell windows of course). I will take the money and invest it elsewhere.

[peeters]

I think it's sound financial advice, I'm just saying "don't trade your company's stocks" isn't really a sufficient solution to avoiding insider trading.