Insider Trading and the Leather Pig

Is it me or are there a lot of insider trading schemes lately?!

As a professional that works with publicly traded companies, I am completely blown away that there are still folks out there that they won’t get caught trying to rig the system.

On a more personal level, these stories always remind me of my Uncle Al.

By anyone’s definition, my uncle was a successful business man who over the course of his career accumulated some serious wealth. While not my favorite uncle (my Uncle Ed still holds that title), I learned an important lesson from my Uncle Al that, clearly, wasn’t taught to everyone.

Growing up, it was not uncommon for me to go to my Uncle Al’s office on the weekend. In his office, he had a big, leather pig - and I mean BIG… about the size of a bulldog. I loved this pig as I could sit on it and pretend I was riding it like a horse. As any self-centered 5-year old, I assumed the reason my uncle had this pig was so I would have something “wicked cool” to play with when I was at the office. It wasn’t until years later that I learned the true meaning of the leather pig.

The true purpose of the pig - in all its grotesque grandeur - was to remind my uncle not to get greedy when doing deals. For my uncle, the best deals were those in which everyone felt they got what they wanted fair and square… anything else was just a “leather pig” of a deal.

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