EL USO INDEBIDO DE INFORMACIÓN PRIVILEGIADA EN EL MERCADO DE VALORES COLOMBIANO A LUZ DE LA EXPERIENCIA ESTADOUNIDENSE.

Insider trading is one of the most harmful conducts within the stock market given the inequity it represents for the investors and the mistrust it can cause amongst them, which is why such practice has been is severely punished internationally. This article analyzes the rules and laws that forbid it in Colombia, both at the administrative and criminal levels, and also intends to determine the true effectiveness or practical application of such dispositions that prohibit it. For such purposes the American experience is brought up illustrating the reader with the huge development the subject has had in such country, particularly in a case precedent level, in order to contrast the extensive treatment it has been given there with the scarce precedents to be found regarding such matter in Colombia. As part of the purpose described above, the text studies the phrasing of the prohibition in the criminal and administrative scenarios, the limitations derived from it, the nature of the penalties it contemplates and the way they have been interpreted and applied by the Colombian authorities in the few penalized cases we have had. In the same line of thought, the article also studies the obligation that issuing companies have of disclosing material information to the market as well as of the way in which they must proceed in order to disclose information regarding transactions in motion to protect the market and its transparency. It approaches the conflicts of rule interpretation regarding insider trading in Colombia, as well as in USA, and that the regulating authorities must confront everywhere. The article pursuits to be a warning in the sense that, with this one, like with many other subjects, the abundance of rules and laws is useless, if they have no application in practice, thus conducing to a disturbing lack of protection for the market investors and, consequently, discourages the development of the stock market in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]