Key insights
- An employee at a publicly traded company accidentally traded company stock without pre-clearance, violating the company's insider trading policy. While the trade was small ($500) and the employee believes they lacked material non-public information, the incident raises concerns about potential legal and disciplinary repercussions. The situation highlights the importance of strict adherence to company compliance policies, even for seemingly minor trades.
TLDR; asking how strict insider trading is handled
I need some perspective. I work for a recently incorporated publicly traded company, and we have a strict insider trading policy. Employees are required to get pre-clearance before trading stock, and breaking this can lead to termination.
Here’s the situation: I made a trade without getting pre-clearance first. It was an honest mistake. I didn’t realize how serious it was. Now I’m wondering just how serious companies take this, because insider trading is technically a huge crime. you can go to jail. But at the same time, you see Congress members or big executives do it and rarely face real consequences.
Has anyone here self-reported a mistake like this? I want to do the right thing, but I’m trying to gauge just how bad this really is and how seriously my company would take it.
Edit: for clarification
I bought $500 and I’m not in the window group for blackout periods. I don’t think I have insider information because I only know a vague date on when the project is going to be completed. I work maintenance