Sunday, April 05, 2026

Martin Act to the rescue: Insider trading on Trump reversals in the legal crosshairs

Currently unknown investors netted tens of millions of dollars in profit by placing huge trades in the oil futures markets just 15 minutes before President Donald Trump announced he was extending the deadline for strikes on Iran's energy infrastructure by five days to allow for nonexistent "negotiations" (which then turned into an additional 10 days—which meant little since U.S. and Israeli bombing simply continued). Because these investors bet on a fall in oil prices, they made money when the price of oil dropped sharply after the announcement.

The same or other investors traded heavily in stock index futures before the Iran announcement and profited handsomely as stock futures soared. All these investors could end up in legal jeopardy for engaging in insider trading if they were somehow given a heads up about the announcement. Were their trades just coincidental to the announcement? It seems unlikely, but that's the big question an investigation would answer.