Insider trader had all the answers

Insider Trading as a Widespread Edge

• Several commenters suspect a large share of hedge fund outperformance historically comes from insider information, often “parallel-constructed” behind elaborate stories of sophisticated public-data analysis.
• Others push back, noting that hedge funds underperform simple index funds on average and that only a subset could plausibly be doing this.

Cheating, Trust, and Game Theory

• Multiple school stock-game anecdotes show how tiny bits of nonpublic info or simple inaction (staying in cash) win “competitions.”
• One side argues cheating is realistically advantageous and worth teaching as part of how the world works.
• Others stress that widespread cheating erodes social trust, increases systemic costs, and that game theory suggests cheating only works in narrow, short-run contexts.

Alternative Data and Market Signals

• Discussion of “alt data”: satellite imagery of parking lots and ports, crop indices, oil storage shadows, Visa/Mastercard transaction data, ISP traffic, and drones.
• Some note this is now “table stakes” and legal because it doesn’t come directly from insiders.
• Debate on how predictive such signals really are, given expectations and online sales, and how they plug into options strategies that only need modest prediction accuracy.

Legality, Libertarian Arguments, and Market Fairness

• Some libertarian-leaning views: insider trading should be legal but all trades must be disclosed in real time with true beneficial owners, turning insider trades into public signals.
• Others argue insider trading harms counterparties and overall market fairness, and that full transparency could still encourage leaks and misuse of corporate information.
• There is disagreement over whether “perfect information” would eliminate trading; some think differing risk profiles and time horizons would still drive trades.

Congress, Courts, and the SEC

• Commenters highlight an ETF tracking congressional trades that has outperformed the S&P 500, reinforcing perceptions of political insider edge.
• The SEC is criticized as under-resourced, sometimes incompetent, or captured; examples include Madoff and FTX.
• A recent Supreme Court ruling limiting SEC use of in-house tribunals is discussed: one side frames it as protecting constitutional jury-trial rights, another as further weakening enforcement.

Account Security and Password Resets

• The case in the article turns on weak corporate email security: security questions, password resets, and auto-forward rules.
• Commenters note security questions are still in use (e.g., USPS, Windows local accounts) and remain a major weak point, often guessable from public data.
• Many report answering such questions with random strings stored in password managers, sometimes clashing with systems that restrict “non-human” answers.
• There is debate over self-service password reset: some see it as necessary usability; others see it as highly vulnerable to social engineering if not backed by strong 2FA and internal processes.

Data Brokers, Tracking, and Creative Schemes

• Speculation that mobile ad/analytics data could identify and track M&A lawyers/bankers or even SEC staff to front-run deals or investigations.
• Commenters note U.S. data brokers already sell highly granular location data that journalists have used to deanonymize sensitive targets.
• Side note: analyzing SEC web logs and investor IP ranges is floated as a way to detect which firms ignore regulatory information.

Motivation: Why Commit Such Obvious Crimes?

• Some find it puzzling that someone technically capable of the described hacks would ignore the very high likelihood of eventual detection.
• Explanations include myopic focus on immediate lifestyle gains, poor long-term risk assessment, and the distinction between being clever at execution versus at big-picture self-preservation.