Insider Trading Is “Everywhere,” Matt Taibbi Says: “The Fear Is There’s No End to It”

Tech Ticker
11/23/10

When FBI agents raided the offices of three hedge funds on Monday, the reacton on Wall Street recalled the famous scene in Casablanca where Claude Rain's Capt. Renault character is "shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here."

To Rolling Stone contributor Matt Taibi, author of Griftopia, there's nothing shocking at all about revelations of possible widespread insider trading on Wall Street. (See Massive Insider Trading Probe Could Nab Wall Street's Biggest Names)

"Everybody is trading on the inside somehow or another, so this isn't particularly surprising," Taibbi says. "A lot of sources I talked to suggested this is endemic to the entire culture."

The current investigations center around alleged insider trading prior to merger announcements such as MedImmune's takeover by AstraZeneca in 2007 and Merck's buyout of Schering-Plough in 2009, The WSJ reports.

While gaming takeovers is a "classic" form of insider trading, Taibbi says it's also evident in high-frequency trading, where exchanges provide a millisecond sneak peak at buy and sell orders, or the practice of clients front-running big orders by institutions.

"The real issue here is that it's everywhere," he says. "And the fear is there's no end to it."

Taibbi, who became widely known in financial circles in 2009 when he dubbed Goldman Sachs "a vampire squid on the face of humanity," says he is not cynical by nature. "But this Wall Street stuff is overwhelming," he says. "The more you look into it, the less you see the way out. The government seems so completely helpless to do anything positive in this situation."

Insider Selling Hits Record 8,280x Buying In Week Ending November 19 (Zero Hedge)

Bloomberg via Zero Hedge
11/22/10

In the first full week of the latest iteration of post-QE2 POMO, which was supposed to see a dramatic ramp in stocks, the only thing we have seen is the biggest insider buying to selling imbalance since the data has been tracked.

Overall, selling by S and P 500 insiders was 8,279.5x times greater than buying (per Bloomberg). There were 5 insider buys for a total of $150,673, and 117 sales for a total of $1,247,500,249. There is no point to even discuss what this data point indicates.

Insider Selling Surges To Multi-Month High, Hits $662 Million (Bloomberg and Zero Hedge)

Bloomberg reports that the week ending October 29 saw the largest amount of insider selling (by notional) in S and P500 stocks in months, possibly in all of 2010 (unfortunately our records don't go back all the way to the beginning of the year). Altogether, $662 million in stock was sold in the past week, compared to purchases of just $1.6 million.

The result: an insider selling to buying ratio of 423x. This is nearly double the prior week's 229x. Yet the ratio was rescued by three brave buyers who bought up $787k and $407k worth of American Express and Procter and Gamble. Absent these two purchases the ratio would have been a disaster.

What is more important is the denominator side of the fraction, as the total selling over the week hit what appears to have been a near-term record, at a total of $662 million. Biggest selling continues to take place at the (no surprise here) tech names which continue to be bid up by investors hoping a return of the dot com bubble.

If there is a clearer indication that no bubble is imminent than relentless insider selling, someone please tell us. And this week the insider certainly are telegraphing just that when it comes to Oracle, Apple, McDonalds, Precision Castparts, EMC and Coca Cola.

Insider Selling To Buying: 2,341 To 1 (Zero Hedge)

Zero Hedge

Sorry kids, we just report the news... as ugly as they may be. After last week saw an insider buying ratio of 1,411 to 1, this week the ratio has nearly doubled, hitting a ridiculous 2,341 to 1. And while Wall Street's liars and CNBC's clowns will have you throw all your money into "leading" techs like Oracle and Google, insiders in these names sold a combined $200 million in stock in the last week alone (following Oracle insider sales of $223 million in the prior week). Insiders can. not. wait. to. get. out. fast. enough.

This Fed-induced rally is nothing short of a godsend for each and every corporate executive. But yes, there may be value: there was insider buying in 2 (two) companies last week: General Dynamics and Best Buy, for a whopping total of $177,064. At the same time sales were a total of $414 million: so is anyone wondering why JPMorgan is reopening its gold vault... Anyone left holding the bag on this market when the FRBNY props are taken away, will be left with the same return as all those investors who entrusted their money with Madoff. Guaranteed.

Insiders dumping shares (Zero Hedge)

From the fine folks at Zero Hedge

For all those who thought last week's "dramatic" improvement in the ratio of insider selling to buying from 650:1 to "just" 290:1 was a sign things are turning and insiders may soon be selling only 100 or so times more stock per week than buying, we have some bad news.

According to Bloomberg, the latest ratio of insider selling to buying was 1,411 to 1. Let us repeat: 1,411 to 1. Needless to say, corporate insiders are totally buying the Fed reflation story, and the economic recovery. Like, totally.