Posts Tagged ‘tipping’

What do you do if someone gives you insider information?

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

When someone has privileged or sensitive non-public information about a company that could affect its share price once the information becomes public, they can use that information to either buy or sell stock at the expense of the people they sell to or buy from who don’t have this information. This is called insider trading and it’s illegal. Let’s say you work at a company and know that the company just lost a ton of money, even though the public thinks the company is doing great. If you sell  your stock to the unwitting public, that’s insider trading.

But what if you are just given the information and aren’t actually an “insider” at the company? This is often called “tipping,” and it’s still illegal for you to trade based on that privileged information because the effect is the same – if people think that it’s not safe to invest because they are going to be taken advantage of by sneaky insiders and their friends, they won’t buy stock, and that’s bad for everyone.

How much should you tip the waiter?

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Everyone asks themselves the same question once the bill comes: How much should I leave for a tip?

While there is no one correct answer, there are some standards that most people abide by. Generally, leaving an 18-20% tip is generous and is appropriate for good service. A 10% tip would be appropriate for subpar service, and for really bad service you’re not obligated to leave a tip at all. Of course the opposite is true, too – leave as much as you want for awesome service.

The important thing to remember is that much of a waiter’s salary is made up of the tips they receive from each table.

An easy way to calculate the tip is to find 10% by moving the decimal one place to the left ($25.00 becomes $2.50) and then double it for 20% ($5.00).