While I agree with you here, "reasonable doubt" ought to come into play. Perhaps, "We meant to get in earlier, your honor", or "There was a madman doing that". Do judges know better?

One wonders how much greed is needed to cheat for more with that kind of salary. Would it be enough greed to drop a secret or two? Greed itself sounds like the biggest thing to remove him for.

Good thoughts. I was thinking (not written well) about what PDF does better than other pixel-accurate formats (such as postscript). In other words, I was looking for something above-and-beyond the competition effectively justifying the sanitization effort that the OP will have to put forth (as many unfortunately don't).

Re-evaluate the use-case for the whole PDF attachment. I can't think of a single _good_ reason to use it, ever. If somebody tries to give a false reason why it's a necessary format, just explain to them in technical detail why it's bad. I'm hoping that somebody can reply to this with a _genuine_ reason why sending a PDF (Pretty Damn F'ked) attachment to an e-mail is either necessary or optimal. 'It's good looking' sounds like a weak reason.

I think your social media silence says quite a lot about what kind of person you are. If I were looking for someone to keep the company's secrets, it'd be you.

Simply put, when two traders decide that they're willing to pay (perhaps) an extra 0.1% to ensure that their trade happens _now_, then that little margin is the _only_ reward offered to competitive (read: high-frequency) traders. If I don't want to be that huge sucker who pays the extra 0.1% for immediate service, then I will place a limit order. That limit order essentially boils down to using weak tools (broker's web interface, internet lag, etc.) to compete with HFTs and save my precious 0.1% to myself. The fact that HFTs exist means that my competitive limit bid or offer won't yield much over an immediate market order at any price. Grudges come from people with weak tools who pay too many big fees and consequently lose the day-trading game. Serious grudges come when whole exchanges cancel orders due to one party's HFTing failures (losses). If executed orders are cancelled too often, then some other exchange will try to complete with NYSE, AMEX, TSX, DAX, etc. by guaranteeing no cancelled trades.

Just say "I'm not sure whether or not I can be compelled to say anything about this (or surrender that item in my possession) or not". Authorities will instantly know that due process is the only way to go from there. Also, don't be rude to officers or play dumb about it. One line to stick to is all that's needed.