Private Information in Executives' Option Trades: Evidence from the UK

This paper investigates whether UK executives use private information in the trading decisions associated with the exercise of their executive stock options. We find that UK executives' exercise and sell decisions are motivated by their private information but not by their anticipation of future return volatility. These findings appear robust when we control for additional motivating factors that include option moneyness, the previous stock return and the value of the exercise. We argue that the disparity in the informativeness of US and UK executives' trades at exercise is related to important differences in executive remuneration, and in the regulation and taxation of executive stock options.