Securities Law Commons^™

The Evolving Role Of Section 16(B), William H. Painter

Michigan Law Review

The evils which section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 was enacted to prevent are well known. As expressed in one of the committee reports, this so-called "shortswing trading" provision was intended "to protect the interests of the public against the predatory operations of directors, officers, and principal stockholders of corporations by preventing them from speculating in the stock of the corporations to which they owe a fiduciary duty." To curb such speculation, section 16(b) provides for recovery by the corporation, or by one or more stockholders acting in its behalf, of any "profit realized" from purchases and …