This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.
All good things must eventually come to an end. This is the rule in this ephemeral world. For traders who continued to track former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stock picks throughout 2022, the gravy train came to a somewhat abrupt end. Fear not, though. After all, the average US House member still managed to beat the market in one of the toughest financial periods in recent memory, giving impetus to the thesis of following congressional trades to generate some much needed alpha in this market.
“broke down”
I just released the full circulation report on politicians in 2022.
Even though 2022 was the worst market since 2008, both Democrats and Republicans beat the market.
Many politicians are hitting the market individually.
Many of them made extraordinary deals that resulted in huge profits. pic.twitter.com/qDWIJB2spk
Unusual whale January 3, 2023
Extraordinary Whales has now published a comprehensive report on the stock trading results of US congressmen in 2022. In what may be one of the more striking results, Nancy Pelosi ended 2022 on a somewhat dour note, with a loss of about 20 percent. That’s almost exactly the same as the S&P 500, which ended the year with a loss of just over 19 percent. According to Unusual Whales, many of the deep money options that Pelosis bought ended up at a loss, leading to this unremarkable performance for 2022. Of course, given the interest Nancy and her husband have continued to garner. The supposed superiority of their shares, the question arises whether this loss was a deliberate attempt at deflection. Satanic, if that’s true.
Many have asked: What about pelusisis in 2022?
In 2022, it’s down about 20%. Many of their deep cash options plays expired at a loss.
Meanwhile, the top trader, Pat Fallon, a Republican, is up 51% in his trades in 2022.
Read the full report: https://t.co/6OYED6CbIR pic.twitter.com/IinFE3dSS9
Unusual whale January 3, 2023
For starters, Nancy Pelosi attracted quite a bit of attention when she — via her husband Paul Pelosi — exercised 200 call options related to 20,000 shares of NVIDIA in the run-up to the approval of the CHIPS Act. These options were bought back in 2021 and carry an exercise price of $100. However, after widespread uproar, Pelosis was forced to liquidate NVIDIA’s bet at a loss of $341,365 (you can see the related Periodic Transactions Report here).
In yet another instance of signature “insight,” Nancy Pelosi began flooding Visa stock as key bipartisan legislation began to attract significant attention, with the latest divestiture taking place in November 2022. The Credit Card Competition Act of 2022 was introduced back in July by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Roger Marshall (R-Kansas). Representatives Peter Welch (D-VT) and Lance Gooden (R-TX) introduced a companion copy of this bipartisan legislation in September. The bill aims to break up the Mastercard-Visa duopoly by requiring major banks to “allow electronic credit transactions to be processed on at least two unaffiliated networks, at least one of which must be outside the Visa-Mastercard duopoly.” For obvious reasons, if this legislation becomes law, the negative effects of Visa and Mastercard stocks cannot be underestimated.
On average, Democrats are down -1.76% in 2022, while Republicans are up +0.4%.
Meanwhile, the S&P500 itself is down 18% in 2022.
Just like in 2021, politicians beat the market.
Read the full report here: https://t.co/6OYED6CbIR pic.twitter.com/6OOEbYWWcR
Unusual whale January 3, 2023
Despite Nancy Pelosi’s somewhat average stock trading performance during 2022, most members of the US House of Representatives still managed to beat the market by a narrow margin. As evidenced by Unusual Whales in the above tweet, the average Republican House member is up 0.38% in 2022, while the typical House member is down 1.76% over the same period. For reference, the SPY ETF is down 18.2 percent for the year. The fact that many US lawmakers are able to consistently beat the market is cause for concern. Is it time to stop House members and Senators from trading stocks ahead of major legislative attempts?
Interestingly, Republican Pat Fallon is up 51% in 2022! It looks like Nancy Pelosi has given Fallon the stock pick crown.
Members of Congress may not own or trade individual stocks. nor their husbands.
– Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) January 2, 2023
Do you think a total ban on congressional trading is the necessity of the hour? What about greater oversight? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.