Pls3701

PLS 3701

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Critically analyse insider trading using Kant’s universal

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principles/value-based approach to ethics to exemplify your views.

Table of Contents:

Page

1 Introduction 2

2 What is insider trading? 2

3 Ethical issues surrounding insider trading 3

4 Kant’s Universal Principles 3

6 Conclusion 5

7 Bibliography 6

Introduction:

In recent years we have seen many high profile scandals regarding insider trading. Movies have been made surrounding this glamorised white collar crime and while the lives of many others have been changed due to the greed of a few people who were entrusted to act in the best interests of others. But is insider trading really ethically wrong? Do insiders really have a moral obligation to the people they are acting on behalf of? Below we will look at this relationship and the ethics surrounding insider trading with reference to Kant’s universal principles approach.

What is insider trading?

According to Wikipedia, “Insider trading is the trading of a public company’s stock or other securities such as bonds or stock options by individuals with access to non-public information about the company.” The individuals referred to above are called insiders, these are usually people working within the company who have access to information that the public doesn’t and this information can be used to profit the beneficiary. These individuals are referred to as ‘insiders’ and include corporate officers, key employees, directors, or significant shareholders with access to information not made public about securities. This is a very extensive definition because even though it says insiders could be guilty of insider trading, in actual fact any person even (closely related) to the insider who has access to the non-public information and acts on it could be guilty of insider trading.

It seems that there are no set...