Senators and Representatives tend to secure impressive returns on their investments — most often, they outperform their constituents by quite a large margin. The rules and regulations governing this practice are rather lax, regularly violated — and disclosure rules obfuscate the exact amounts being invested.
It comes as little surprise that the practice is controversial. However, as it is unlikely to change any time soon (despite broad bipartisan support for stricter regulation), and many traders have adopted an ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ mentality — opting instead to copy or emulate the trades of U.S. politicians to secure better returns.
That’s not to say that blindly following what Congress is doing is guaranteed to give good results, however. This isn’t speculation — a well-known trading bot that mimics the investments made by politicians actually underperformed the S&P 500 in 2024. There is a way to bolster your returns with insights from Capitol Hill — but it still requires some research and legwork.
Picks for you
To that end, Finbold has decided to consult one of the most advanced publicly available large language (LLM) models. Here is a portfolio that the right honorable Representative ChatGPT-4o of OpenAI’s 1st congressional district constructed.
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA)
Semiconductor companies have benefited greatly from the ongoing AI revolution — and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has been leading the charge. On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, Nvidia stock has seen prices increase by 178.80% — and plenty of politicians, including Nancy Pelosi, have made investments in the GPU maker.
The AI model highlighted strong demand from data centers, Nvidia’s expanding software ecosystem, and strategic partnerships with cloud giants as catalysts for growth in 2025. Additionally, ChatGPT noted that Nvidia’s dealings in autonomous vehicles and robotics could serve to significantly expand its TAM (total addressable market) in the future.
While Nvidia’s upward trajectory has slowed down as of late, and the stock experienced a pullback in December of 2024, this latest development only serves to provide a more attractive price for a long position — provided that investors have the necessary tolerance for risk.
Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM)
Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) is the largest publicly traded oil company in the world. Oil and gas demand has proven to be unexpectedly robust in spite of the energy transition — and Exxon’s robust financial performance, extensive stock buyback program, and high dividends have managed to attract the attention of investors.
On a YTD basis, Exxon Mobil stock has seen prices increase by 11.18%. At the time of writing, the stock was trading at a significant discount, with a forward price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of just 13.4.
Representative GPT would opt to invest in XOM shares due to steady global demand for oil and Exxon’s recent investments in low-cost, high-output fields. In addition, the company’s pivot to carbon capture technologies was singled out as a potential long-term boon.
ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML)
Finally, Representative GPT selected ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ: ASML) as the last part of its portfolio. This Dutch semiconductor company is quite unique — it isn’t engaged in the production or design of chips — rather, ASML makes the equipment that is necessary to produce chips.
It’s hard to overstate how crucial ASML is for the wider semiconductor supply chain. The business maintains a monopoly on advanced lithography equipment — without ASML, most of the wider industry would grind to a halt.
In spite of that fact, the price of ASML stock has dropped by 3.33% over the course of 2024. The company’s latest earnings report, which was accidentally released ahead of schedule, was rather disappointing. On the bright side, the downward moves mean that the stock is now trading at quite an appealing valuation.
The AI model also reflected on ASML’s large backlog — which provides a degree of stability and predictability, as well as a move toward semiconductor self-sufficiency on the part of many countries due to geopolitical instability, as additional factors that could drive growth in 2025.
Readers should note the output of AI models — even ones as advanced as ChatGPT, cannot serve as a substitute for due diligence and personal research.
Featured image via Shutterstock
