Sooooo, Jamie Dimon just unloaded $233 million worth of JPMorgan stock, and if that sentence didn’t make you at least a little uncomfortable, congratulations—you’ve fully embraced corporate nihilism. Which is why, the real story isn’t the fact that Jamie Dimon just clinched more “F, U Money” it’s whether or not we should all be in a panic at this very moment. Because the scary thing is when a CEO offloads that much stock, it’s either routine estate planning or a signal that they know something you don’t—and the real joke is that both of those things can be true at the same time.

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, Dimon, along with his executive henchmen Troy Rohrbaugh and Jennifer Piepszak, all filed their "don’t panic, this is totally normal" insider sales under Rule 10b5-1, which is basically the legal equivalent of saying, "I planned this months ago, so it can’t possibly mean I have inside information." Sure. Because if there’s one thing we know about billionaires, it’s that they always play fair. 

The damage is as follows: Rohrbaugh offloaded $10 million, Piepszak cashed out $1.1 million, and Dimon, the undisputed king of the financial world, thought that $233 million was a nice round number to sell off—all while JPMorgan stock has been absolutely ripping, up 47% in the last 12 months and outperforming well, pretty much everything. (That is until these insiders yeeted shares yesterday, and triggered a -4.5% sell-off). 

(Source: MSN) 

Now with that said, you can squint and call this a red flag BUT, Dimon still holds millions of shares, and he’s not exactly packing his bags for a one-way trip to the Little Saint James (or is he?). He’s still sitting on over 7.5 million JPM shares, plus another 2.1 million in performance shares and stock options, meaning he’s got more skin in this game than you and I ever will.

So, should we still be worried? 

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Still no, but let’s pretend to care for a second. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Simply put, executives selling stock always makes people nervous, because no one wants to be the last sucker holding shares when the people in charge start bailing. But Dimon’s sales were pre-planned, structured through trusts, and clearly labeled as estate planning. If he was secretly betting against JPMorgan, he wouldn’t be selling in broad daylight like some amateur.

Plus, given the fact that JP Morgan has been printing money off higher interest rates, strong trading revenue, and being the default winner every time a smaller bank collapses—Dimon isn’t selling because he’s scared—he’s selling because when you’ve got nearly $8 billion in stock, you can afford to take some chips off the table. As for the other two bloaks? Well, that could just be a classic case of following the leader here. (Because if Dimon does something, I better follow suit). 

The bottom line is, unless you think Jamie Dimon is secretly shorting his own bank, this is just rich people doing rich people things. If JPMorgan stock tanks, it won’t be because Dimon sold shares—it’ll be because the Fed decided to nuke the economy, or because some rogue hedge fund decided to pull a 2008 and blow itself up again. 

For now though, JPMorgan is still the biggest, most ruthless bank on Wall Street, and Dimon is still very much in the game. Translation: This is just another day in the rigged game where the house always wins—even when it’s cashing out. So with that, place your bets accordingly, friends and relish in the fact that Dimon has added another quarter billion to his belt buckle. As always, stay safe and stay frosty! Until next time…

Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.