In today's world, an insider is a very common concept. It is applicable in various fields of economic activity. In a general sense, an insider is a natural or legal person who, due to his position, has access to valuable (mainly, of course, from an economic point of view) information.
Term
Insider (from the English "located inside") - a member of a group of persons who have any important information. Moreover, he actively operates - for the most part for his own benefit. In the media, this word has become synonymous with the concept of “source to…”.
An example of insider altruism is American intelligence officer Edward Snowden, who revealed to the world classified information belonging to the US National Security Agency. But, as a rule, such persons in a certain group have not only knowledge, but also sufficient power and means, and use their position only to acquire additional benefits. In contrast, external specialists of the company can only analyzereceived information without having any idea how reliable it is.
Another striking example of an already self-serving activity is the well-known scandal on Wall Street associated with the names of Michael Milken, Ivan Boschi, Martin Siegel and Denis Levine. It all ended with real terms and huge fines. You can read about this in a book by James Stewart called The Greed and Glory of Wall Street. Feature films are still made about the speculations of American moneybags.
Insider Information
Often this concept is associated with industrial espionage and super profits of large corporations. Meanwhile, as in any organization, so in a political party there are areas that are closed from outside access. This is secret information not intended for ordinary citizens - the latest technologies, advanced developments, financial reports, lobbying for the interests of certain groups. And since real people are involved in all these processes, they are insiders who can deal with this information. No wonder Francis Bacon said that knowledge is power. And in the modern world, such persons are becoming a serious weapon to achieve both political and economic benefits. And the activity of an insider can undermine the work of a large corporation and break the career of a major public figure. And even though the term itself initially did not have a negative component, more and more often insider activity is associated with personal self-interest.
Because of the above, it is clear that the attitude of ordinary people to thisphenomenon is mostly negative. This is supported by various conspiracy theories. For example, rumors about the existence of the Illuminati group. An insider of this secret society allegedly reported that the highest of this world planned to reduce the population of the globe by ninety-nine percent. One of the ways they have chosen is products made using GMOs. The latter is said to drastically reduce the capacity of the human reproductive system. Films are also made on this topic.
Right
Members of criminal gangs or corporations that break the law can create "leaks" leading to the disclosure of such acts. With a purpose, of course.
Finance
Often insiders - shareholders or board members of large corporations - use their information about the position of the issuing company for transactions in the securities market. Such transactions are not always legal.
Politics
In ordinary life, insider information is information (social life, economics, ecology, etc.) that contradicts the point of view of the authorities and at the same time is reliable. Sources in this case can be both politicians and scientists, journalists, cultural figures.
Business
An insider is a major shareholder, as well as a senior manager of a corporation. All of them have important information about the state of affairs of the company.
Banking
A bank insider is a natural or legal person who is aware of the financial situation due toofficial position. Shareholders and their relatives may also have such information. Here it is necessary to clarify who are "physical" and who are "legal" insiders.
The first category includes:
- Persons holding shares in the bank, shareholders.
- Top management: from the chairman of the board of directors to the chief accountant.
- Heads of structural divisions, as well as persons who, by proxy of the auctioneer, have the right to vote at meetings.
- Auditors, auditors and representatives of control bodies.
- Relatives of all the above persons.
- Associates of institutions associated with the bank.
The second category includes:
- Participants and institutions that own substantial shares of capital in a bank; as well as enterprises, significant parts of which are owned by the latter.
- Organizations whose leaders are close relatives of shareholders, senior managers and controllers of a credit institution.
How to protect yourself from insider trading
Commercial and other organizations are taking steps to keep information classified. There are both legislative and hardware tools for this. Among the latter, special computer programs, such as "Insider", which "hide" electronic data should be noted.
Important documents are stored in specially designated places under the guise of other information, say, graphic files. And for a non-professional, this data on a computer in generalas if not. And only when you enter the correct password, the desired folders are available. True, the files that the program can delete are no longer subject to recovery, and the application itself uses the Internet. So there is also the risk of spreading information on the World Wide Web.
What the Insider Program can do
- Data encryption.
- Hiding confidential information.
- Unlimited processing data.
- Internet data exchange.
- Permanent deletion of files.
Other standard programs are also used to protect confidential information: antiviruses and authentication systems. In general, any self-respecting organization should have a security policy.
The law on insider information is one of the legal methods of combating the dissemination of classified information. It has already received many amendments. This regulation defines the list of persons classified as insiders, as well as the cases when an individual or legal entity can acquire such status.
According to the law, the use of insider information to manipulate stock prices and personal enrichment is illegal. All because it prevents competition in the financial market.
List of insiders - what is it? The law obliges organizations to compile a list of employees who are granted access to classified data. Insider information may alsopossess by virtue of his position. The ability to work with secret documents and responsibility for this is stipulated by labor and civil law contracts.
There are so-called "primary insiders". These are the persons who directly receive secret data. In addition to them, there are also "secondary". They have access to insider information through the first.
Information about insider activities
Such information is, in principle, available to everyone. They are essential for making decisions about whether to buy or sell stocks. In such cases, it is important to remember the following. Most of the deals that insiders make are designed to grow their companies in the long run. Therefore, a serious and thorough analysis is needed. And the sale by one of the major directors of an insignificant part of his shares should not be misleading. It is necessary to act only when several shareholders start to get rid of securities. And the director, who not only receives a salary in the company, but has his own assets in it, is a much more indicative object for analysis.
Information about such transactions can be found on many specialized sites, which even have insider sections. There is always something interesting on them. However, this or that site can be controlled by an insider. Reviews on such resources should therefore be read very carefully.
This article, of course, does not pretend to cover the whole topic. There are many nuances to insider trading. Everyone already understands that it is not enoughgood for ordinary people, but in today's market economy, this phenomenon must be treated as a fact.
