Insider trading is illegal because it works too well. But there's a legal version: using internal knowledge to make career moves. When Nokia's engineers knew their phones couldn't compete with the iPhone, some left for Apple and Google.
They "traded" their careers instead of money. Most did nothing, waiting for confirmation that never came. If you're working at a company, you likely know more about its state than outsiders.
Are you using that information? Three situations where people hold an edge but sit on it: things are bad but you don't act due to comfort; a successful initiative is happening but you stay away; or you're job searching based on brand names instead of opportunities. Most don't act because they wait for numbers, official confirmation, or a justified feeling. The numbers arrive late, official statements are often optimistic, and "justified" never comes.
Researchers found Nokia's middle managers feared passing bad news upward, leading to overly optimistic reports at every layer.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing