gun jumping or more commonly jumping the gun refers to selectively using financial information that has not been publicly announced at least two illegal methods of jumping the gun can be identified 
understanding gun jumpinggun jumping flouts the rule that investors should make decisions based on the full disclosure available to the public in the prospectus not on information disseminated by the company that has not been approved by the sec if a company is found guilty of jumping the gun its ipo will be delayed in order to build market integrity trust and confidence regulators and market advocates discourage the use of private and undisclosed information in theory all market participants should be on an equal footing and have equal access to information 