I once had the majority share-holder/owner of a publicly traded company tell me to buy his stock, because certain, specific things would happen and it would go up.
The comments were made at a small, informal dinner of a mutual friend, who was quite close to this CEO. So, I decided to “invest” a few thousand bucks.
The stock proceeded to lose 50% of its value over the next 6 months. I dumped it and eventually the company fell on hard times and was bought by another company for pennies on the dollar.
The moral of the story? Don’t even trust “inside” information.
Especially don't trust "inside" information - it's either illegal to trade on (because it's not public knowledge), deliberate fraud, or worthless because it's something the tipster is speculating on.
I got some good inside info once. I bought a stock for ~$0.50 and rode it for a while and kept in touch with the shareholder services department. It shot up to $1.25. I sold and felt like a genius. I called the shareholder people and asked which of their other companies (the management company managed several penny stock companies.) I should invest the profit into. He told me (insisted?) I should be in the company I just sold. I couldn't justify buying back in at a price higher than I had just sold at and waited. Stock hit $4 and I finally bit the bullet. I quickly rode it to $13 and bailed. It peaked at ~$16. I could kick myself for not staying in the whole ride. Still made quite a few bucks.
I don't think the info was illegal. It was his job to attract investors. I do suspect he knew the info that was driving the stock so high.