Yeah, but who says the public should have all the information on the company? We recognize limtis to required disclosure, trade secrets, and the like.

I agree they should have all the information on the product they buy.

I guess you're saying the stock is the product, which I guess it is. I suppose it may be right to require a person to not act on any information that is not known to the public, as he is, in effect, commiting a fraud upon the stock purchasers/holders.

But the trouble is, when the guy isn't doing any affirmative act to deceive people, how can penalizing the stock sale be right? If he has no responsibility to disclose information, i.e. he's not a high level official, but just an assembly line worker, say, who's gotten information, how can he be restrained from acting on this?