The issue isn’t so much being an insider, it’s did you get access to the data through nefarious purposes or did you have an obligation to protect that data.
If I’m an analyst and I cold call someone with a duty to protect the data, it’s not at all clear how I’ve stolen from the shareholders. Which is the basis of US insider trading. Theft, not information asymmetry.
Compare that to if I steal a binder from my sleeping girlfriend (a recent case). She has a duty, but I’ve stolen from the shareholders in that case.
That said, the SEC has certainly expanded the definition of insider trading recently with their court hypothesis’
If I’m an analyst and I cold call someone with a duty to protect the data, it’s not at all clear how I’ve stolen from the shareholders. Which is the basis of US insider trading. Theft, not information asymmetry.
Compare that to if I steal a binder from my sleeping girlfriend (a recent case). She has a duty, but I’ve stolen from the shareholders in that case.
That said, the SEC has certainly expanded the definition of insider trading recently with their court hypothesis’