In a case study, a fifteen-year-old named Jonathan Lebed was able to make nearly $800,000 through stock trading, with a notable 27 trades. The SEC later investigated and found eleven of those trades to be illegal. Lebed was known for purchasing microcap stocks, hyping them on Yahoo! Finance message boards, and then selling them quickly for a profit. Despite the SEC’s findings, Lebed maintained his innocence and claimed he was simply acting on his stock market knowledge. Views on Lebed’s actions are split – some see him as exploiting the system, while others believe he did nothing wrong. The SEC ultimately settled with Lebed for $285,000.
http://www.kentlaw.edu/faculty/rwarner/classes/legalaspects_ukraine/securities/case_studies/ledbed.htm