A trading irregularity where traders on the floor of an exchange illegally use information available at their disposal about their customers’ orders in order to trade preemptively for their own account. Front running is a manipulative practice that constitutes a form of insider trading.

It may take the form of trading ahead of customer’s orders so that traders can take advantage of inside information relating to other orders. This trading will affect the price of securities and traders who move ahead of their customers will gets the advantage of moving before the market moves.