BensonBear generally speaking, here are the rules...1. There is...

BensonBear generally speaking, here are the rules...

1. There is a 'black-out' period whereby a director is exempt from buying/selling shares...

a.The period between the end of the Company's financial year (30 June) and the announcement of the Company's full year results to the ASX;

b.The period between the end of the Company's half year (31 December) and the announcement of the Company's half year results to the ASX; and

c.The two week period before the date of the Company's Annual General Meeting.

2. If a director possesses information that is not known by the market, and this information may have an affect on the share price, a director may not buy/sell shares, and may not procure someone else to buy/sell shares.

For example, while discussions were in place for this coal acquisition, the directors would not have been able to buy shares because they knew more than the market did at the time, and if the market knew of this acquistion then the share price would have risen.

Another example is if a company is going to report a change in profit targets. This would have a positive/negative affect on the share price if the market knew of this news, so directors may not buy/sell while knowing this information before it is released to the wider market.

Apart from that, they are free to buy/sell whenever they like from what I understand. There is no strict 'time figure' for how long prior to an announcement that directors are exempt from buying/selling, but I figure that ASIC and the ASX would act on any suspicious activity.

Sometimes you are going to get the 'postman' hear something in an office and leak information, and this may occasionally result in a bit of leaked news which would lead towards speculative buying from 'insiders'. Happens a fair bit if you track the volume of a stock prior to an announcement, so the little rally in HDG before the original announcement can probably be put down to this. Unfortuantely managerial discussions can not be kept air tight all the time.

Hope that helps!