Is it illegal to paper trade inside information?

Starting as a FT analyst soon in an M&A group. I was just wondering if I could get in trouble for paper trading inside info on my Ameritrade app. I don’t use Ameritrade anymore for live trading though since they’re making me transfer.

I was just wondering if I could do this for shits and giggles.

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If you care about investing then this would be a good exercise in understanding tail risk. In a best case scenario you papertrade some stocks and send snaps to your friends of your paper gains for a laugh. Great.

But now let’s look at the tail risk. This somehow comes on the radar of compliance, either it leaks or perhaps the SEC/banks monitors paper trading for people testing out insider trading strategies (I have no idea), and you now have to explain that you wanted to ‘insider trade for fun’. Good luck with that conversation.

Risk adjusted reward is a key concept here as well my man. Those few laughs aren’t worth even a 1% chance of nuking your career with this firm.

 

Exactly, not to mention even if you're "insider trading for fun" there's plausible ways it can be seen in a really bad light. Someone could and honestly would do this then give a friend access to the account so they could copy the trades.

 

People overthinking it here. Fake trading is never illegal and won’t get you in trouble.

To get ahead of the next question: no you will not be fired if you dream about killing your boss.

 

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