Empirical testing of insider trading in the istanbul stock exchange

The aim of this study is to evaluate the transactions of insiders in a very volatile emerging market: Turkey; and to test whether the buying and selling decisions of insiders yield excess returns and give a signal to other market participants. The study uses the standard event study methodology covers the period from February 2, 2005 to June 30, 2007. The cumulative abnormal returns were calculated in the event window of (-15, +15) days. This result clearly indicates that all of the insider groups exploit market information and either purposely or unintentionally, leak information to the market.