Concur. Generating one's own non-public information and trading on it as a non-insider is not insider trading.

This is no different than doing foot traffic counts (or satellite parking lot surveillance).

Lets say you run a large company, and you are about to make a big purchase from another public company. Lets say you are planning on increasing their sales by some non-trivial amount like 20%.

Is it legal to purchase shares in that company before you make the purchase? You are leveraging private information, but not information gleaned from insider knowledge from the other company.

This was given as the example of a trade we shouldn't do when I was first exposed to the insider trading policy at my current employer, a US trading firm. I think it might still be defensible and not insider trading by US standards, but it's at least a grey area.

> it's at least a grey area.

This is 90% of where money is made in my experience

This is similar to the scenario that cost David Sokol his job with Berkshire.

You're both right. The SEC has been more aggressively prosecuting and trying to stretch the definitions, while the courts have been reigning them in somewhat in turn. Tread carefully. A lot could change if the court gets packed with progressives legislating from the bench in the next few years, as will likely happen.

You're completely right, let me rephrase to reinterpreting insider trading. I was specifically thinking of Bonan Huang and Nan Huang.