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Comment by ckardat123 | Hacker News Reader

The CEO of Coinbase has sold more stock in his own company than usual the last couple of months: https://www.quiverquant.com/insiders/COIN

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That mortgage isn't going to pay itself...

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/crypto-ceo-brian-armstrong-...

Here's an excerpt from one of the latest reports from SEC [1] about CEO selling stock:

> The transactions reported on this Form 4 were effected pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted by the Reporting Person on August 26, 2022, during an open trading window.

[1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1679788/000120919123...

Up until very recently, CEOs could always plan to sell then cancel or not based on insider information.

Did you also notice that the price is 300% higher over the last couple of months?

I was speaking of sales in terms of share count, not dollar value.

300% up seems like a good time to sell more than usual

Doesn't mean much. With as much SEC scrutiny as the company is currently undergoing, he'd be a fool to run afoul of insider trading laws, which strongly implies that he's not in possession of any material non-public information. Besides, there are lots of reasons to sell, but only one reason to buy. Based on that chart, I'm far more interested in what Fred Ehrsam is thinking…

You don't think the CEO of the company has material non-public information???

I think if the CEO of the company has material non-public information and is trading based on it, then there is a 100% chance the SEC, which is already looking closely at the company, will come down hard on him, including disgorgement and massive fines, and even potentially working with the DOJ to file criminal charges and put him in prison—all of which they're dying to do in their effort to assert their authority over cryptocurrency, as Brian Armstrong is acutely aware if he has any attorneys worth half a damn.

So I believe he very probably does not currently have any material non-public information, or at the very least is not trading on the basis of having it.

I think the usual strategy to not run afoul of insider trading laws is to schedule the sales several months in advance.

It is, under rule 10b5-1. But so what? The CEO goes through with a sale of stock that was planned and announced months ago, at a time when he definitively had no material non-public information, and everyone goes shocked Pikachu face? It makes no sense.

Having to plan it months in advance takes some of the short term trading aspect away. You can have no idea what markets will be doing months from now.

You obviously have material non public information as CEO, but you could just as easily lose by trying to trade that as win when there’s such a long delay involved. Everybody else gets to see what your trade is, with plenty of notice, and can front run you.

> You can have no idea what markets will be doing months from now.

Knowing the market conditions for your trade is normal and expected. Taking away that information is a bad thing, a necessary evil at best.

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