http://www.insider-monitor.com/top10_insider_sales_month.html Looks like a lot of selling from Facebook executives. What are the restrictions, apart from filing with the SEC, that insiders face when they sell their company’s stock? Are there restrictions in terms of how long they have to wait after an earnings call before selling? How do regulators distinguish between a trade that was done with:
i) material nonpublic information
ii) just to raise some cash for personal reasons etc
There are black out periods around earnings and typically requires disclosure certain period of time before the sales.
Facebook major shareholders all had some minimum holding period before they could sell their stakes. If they all seemed to sell at the same time, it might be related to partial or full expiration of this holding period.
Regarding insider trading in general, who are we kidding - a vast majority of it is probably unprosecuted. It’s only in the most extreme cases, or if another interested party sues the executive, that the SEC conducts investigations.