LSAT 148 | Section 2 | Reading Comprehension: Q17

RC Question 17 Explanation

DISCUSSION: The author of passage A thinks that insider trading should be allowed. The author of passage B thinks it should be banned.

This question asks for an answer that is consistent with author A. So, the right answer will almost certainly allow insider trading.

I think this was a fairly obvious prephrase: it’s not an accident the correct answer was at the end. LSAC was testing how quickly you could pass by the distractor answers.

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1. This is an extreme position that neither author holds. No information is shared by everyone. You have to take LSAT answers literally. This answer would forbid almost all stock trading.
2. This is passage B’s position: it disallows insider trading.
    
   You might have thought “But passage A did agree that stock analysis should be legal!”. Well, yes, but that’s only half of this answer. Also, it’s an obvious point: who thinks stock analysis should be illegal? Passage A only mentions stock analysis as an example of something innocent which nonetheless shares a feature with insider trading.
3. This answer is closest to passage B’s position. Only they mentioned investor confidence, in lines 55-65.
    
   Though this answer is quite extreme. It would forbid an investment fund from making large stock sales, for example, because it would undermine confidence.
4. This is only half of passage A’s position. The author of passage A was arguing that insider trading should be legal: both buying and selling.
5. CORRECT. This matches. The author of passage A thinks insider trading should be legal. The exception for illegally obtained information is a reasonable exception that I doubt the author of passage A would disagree with.