Banks bet against themselves ... and win

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J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. became the latest too-big-to-fail bank to take advantage of an interesting trade: the bank hedges the spread on its own debt. When investors bid up the yield — an indicator that they think the bank won’t pay — J.P. Morgan makes money. ...

Hey, it doesn’t have to make sense, it’s Wall Street.

The end result was slightly better-than-expected but lackluster profit of $4.26 billion, for the nation’s second-biggest bank by assets. The bank reported $1.9 billion in revenue from the bets against itself — the net income from the move wasn’t immediately available.
...
J.P. Morgan isn’t alone in this. Morgan Stanley /quotes/zigman/182639/quotes/nls/ms MS +2.23% offset losses during the financial crisis and beyond by betting against its own debt.
...

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jp-morgans-bet-against-jp-morgan-2011-10-13

Would it be considered insider trading to bet against yourself if you knew you were rotten to the core?