Is this insider trading?

[Hoverfly1]

Sorry if this a stupid question, I have no knowledge of stocks and investments at all.
I work in a consultancy, in a junior role so I have limited direct client contact at work.
I recently thought about investing in some stocks, really just for fun rather than anything serious.
While I was searching stocks I saw a company in the one of the sectors the company I work for advises on, I know we have a lot of work in that area at the moment and i would like to invest in stocks relating to the sector. The projects we work on are confidential and not in the public domain at the stage we are involved, however they do eventually end up public. While I’m sure I could avoid investing in direct clients of my company, the larger companies could be involved in the projects we work on further up the chain and I wouldn’t know.
Can someone explain to me how this works and where the line is drawn in what counts as insider trading. As I said, I am unlikely to be investing much, I just don’t want to end up getting arrested or sacked in the process!

Does your company have a policy on investing? I have to declare any trades I make to a central compliance team for them to approve the buy or sell before I make the trade.

I’m not actually sure, I was going to read over my contract and see if investment is mentioned so I will definitely look into that.

Yes it absolutely is insider trading.

You will have an internal policy on share dealing - I’d start with asking your manager or searching your online employer policies.

If you trade based on info the rest of the market doesn’t have, it’s insider trading.

You might have to fill in independence reports. Or certain people might not be allowed to do certain things. There should be a department that can explain what you can do.

Thanks everyone, these replies are all really helpful. My company is not big enough to have a department for this but they will probably have a policy which I can refer to, so I will wait until I have had a chance to look into it before I make any decisions!

Potentially, yes

In my previous workplace (financial services), we had to do declarations about all our investments plus regular training on insider dealing. Surprised you don't have similar if you're working with confidential, sensitive information.

Yes, it sounds like it is because you're investing based on information you have only because of your job.

We don’t work in finance or anything like that and it’s relatively small company so it’s probably not been a big issue in the past.