blackout period Material Information
Blackout periods generally occur when insiders have access to material information, such as financial performance. A company may impose a recurring blackout period on a quarterly basis in the days surrounding an earnings report. Trading also might be restricted in response to major events, such as mergers or acquisitions, when corporate insiders have access to material information. For quarterly earnings, the blackout period could systematically begin on the last day of the financial quarter and continue until one or two trading days after the company files its financial results. This way, the public has a fair amount of time to dissect financial results, according to a 2012 report on law firm Parker Poe's website.