insider trading

American  

noun

1. the illegal buying and selling of securities by persons acting on privileged information.

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insider trading Cultural  

1. The unlawful practice of using information that comes from a source “inside” the business but is not available to the general public to trade on the stock market. This activity is prohibited by law and is policed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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In the mid-1980s, several revelations of insider trading rocked Wall Street.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• insider trader
  noun

Etymology

Origin of insider trading

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

Prediction market firms, banned in some countries and facing scrutiny in the US over insider trading allegations, allow users to bet on the outcomes of events ranging from conflicts to sports, politics and elections.

From Barron's • Jun. 13, 2026

Securities and Exchange Commission in 2016 of getting an insider trading tip and buying $931,000 of stock from sports gambler Billy Walters.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 12, 2026

Drew was a pious churchman who specialized in insider trading, which wasn’t only legal, but made him “reliable” in the eyes of the first credit agency in America.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 12, 2026

But any insider trading on prediction markets erodes trust in the platforms and causes traders to question the market’s integrity.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 10, 2026

Paolo’s father was a real estate mogul who had been indicted for insider trading some months ago.

From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart