Ask YC: Using Employee Stock Purchase plans to cover short positions?

Posted by drandall on Monday September 15, 2008 @11:31AM
from the self-post dept.

Can individual companies enable this sort of behavior legally? Is this more of a technical or ethical question?

Edit: this sort of behavior: short selling your own stock

( 3 comments | on HN )

Re:Ask YC: Using Employee Stock Purchase plans to cover shor... by drandall on Monday September 15, 2008 @12:10PM (#304776)

Follow up - theoretically, if I thought my employer's stock was going to go down but wasn't privy to nonpublic info, could I put on a short position to lock in gains or ride out a dip? Or is just working for that co enough to make that illegal?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask YC: Using Employee Stock Purchase plans to cover shor... by olefoo on Monday September 15, 2008 @11:47AM (#304756)

Talk to a lawyer; but I'm pretty sure that using employee owned stock as collateral for covering a short position is illegal.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask YC: Using Employee Stock Purchase plans to cover shor... by noodle on Monday September 15, 2008 @11:33AM (#304737)

i think this is more an ethical decision. however, if i were an employee and my company offered me stock options instead of a check, i'd be looking for a new job.

[ Parent | on HN ]