question regarding insider trading...

[chicago.shortseller.70]

OK, dumb question regarding insider trading...

I work for company X that is going to be reporting within the next few days.

I am not a CEO, CFO, VP or anything like that. I do not have any access financial information.

I am just an ordinary "tech" guy that works at the company.

Earlier today, a few of my co-workers and I went out to a sports bar to watch a few of the football games.

As you would expect, the economy and the current business situation at work was a hot topic.

During the discussions, a few of my co-workers admitted to shorting our company stock. I was somewhat surprised that they admitted it.

However, I will admit that even before today, I thought about shorting our company stock but I did not know if it would be considered insider information.

The only "insider information" that I really have is more like "insider observation"...

1) Business has been slow and it's quite obvious since a lot of us tech guys are just "standing around" because there is not work to go around. It does not take rocket science to notice that we have less business compared to earlier this year.

2) Last week, our management team had a few unscheduled meetings. My co-workers and I are guessing that they are meeting to discuss the current economic condition, future business, and, of course, rumors of huge layoffs are circulating.

So, if I decide to short sell my companies stock given the information that I know which based only on observations...

Would it be considered insider trading?

Thanks for your help.

CSS

[aiki14]

I would say you're in the clear as far as insider trading goes, since you are not a principal, however there are a few gray areas of concern.
First is the coworker who admitted short selling the stock, and if he was aware of any privileged info. If you act on his actions you could be at some risk (even if you are it is likely to be minimal)
Second is if the meeting of the management team was public knowledge. Most likely it is and again you're at minimal risk.
Third is if you are in a 10b5-1 plan, then you cannot sell short. Since you didn't mention that and it is normally associated with "insiders" you are probably not at risk there as well.

In general I would advise you not go short your own company, because even though the risk is small it does put up flags. Here's the SEC page on insider tradinghttp://www.sec.gov/answers/insider.htm