alt Hacker NewsThis means that employees would only be able to sell their stock 2 windows a year where they currently can sell 4 windows a year, correct?
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I think the effect is actually backwards: there may only be 2 windows instead of 4 but the total amount of time window per year should theoretically go up significantly. The 2 removed reports should make both of those quarters less subject to insider trading and therefore more tradeable.
That depends on your company, not the SEC. I work for a publicly traded company and have very few blackouts, mostly around earnings, for selling.
in the UK this is kinda the policy.
however the bigger issue here - is this is a ruse - there is a reason quarterly reporting brought transparency to companies - now they can easily hide nasty things.
you as an employee with stock options - yeah those are close to worthless since the price hit you can take can vary a lot.
Much larger windows though no? Blackout periods are prior to reporting dates.
10b5-1 plans would presumably still be a thing if you wanted to sell more often.
Would that necessarily be a bad thing? I remember how that would drive short-termism on the part of regular employees. Since stock comp was a major part of many companies' salaries, people would hope for a bump in the earnings report. We complain about short-termism in the markets, but you can't say one thing and then do something else.
There is no law regarding how and when (non-exec) employees can sell company stock. The SEC only restricts insider trading, and some companies voluntarily enforce blackout periods to reduce the chance of insider trading. Plenty of public companies (e.g. Microsoft) let employees trade whenever they want.