In securities markets, insider trading is a crime. In commodities, insider trading is almost completely legal. This divergent treatment has long been accepted as appropriate, given perceived differences between the markets. For example, it has been thought that futures traders are sophisticated...

Federal law restricts insider trading. Yet these restrictions operate differently on insolvent or bankrupt firms. The law is less constraining in some respects: federal law extensively regulates the trading of residual claims in solvent firms but not insolvent firms. However, the law is more...

An extensive literature evaluates whether and how best to regulate “insider” trading. Far less attention has been given to what sorts of assets should be subject to insider trading regulation to begin with – just equity securities, all sorts of investments, or some point in between? This...

If you trade securities on the basis of careful research, then you are a brilliant and shrewd investor. If you trade on the basis of a hot tip from your brother-in-law, an investment banker, then you are a criminal. What if you trade for both reasons? There is no single answer, thanks to a...

Insider trading law is meant to be a shield, protecting the market and investors from connected traders, but it can also be a sword. Insofar as we penalize trading on the basis of material non-public information, it becomes possible to share information strategically in order to disable or...