In their attitudes toward stock trades based on inside information, the author of passage A and the author of passage...

shunhe on December 23, 2019

Hi @Ryan-Mahabir,

You've correctly identified the second passage as "negative," but the difference between two answers is passage A's being "positive" vs. its being "neutral." Doing a close reading of the diction the author chooses and the arguments the author makes will reveal that his overall impression of insider trading is more than just neutral, but positive. For example, in the second paragraph when discussing certain aspects of insider trading, the author suggests that they are "part of the very definition of a functioning stock market." At the beginning of the third paragraph, the author argues, "stock markets work best when all the relevant information about a company is spread as widely as possible, as quickly as possible." This occurs, the author believes, when insider trading is allowed. Indeed, the author finally characterizes many of the effects that come from insider trading as "good for everyone in the stock market." Thus, we can see that his attitude towards insider trading is not one of mere neutrality, but of support. Hope this helps!