It comes as little surprise that lawmakers have access to timely, accurate, and often unpublicized information in order to legislate and regulate as effectively as possible. However, when it comes to investing in financial markets, that same information poses a unique, and some would argue, unfair edge.
The results certainly seem to suggest so. Lawmakers tend to secure much greater returns than their constituents. To boot, there is no shortage of suspicious trades happening in Washington D.C. — a congressperson or senator investing in a stock just before it experiences a sharp, sudden, and usually unexpected move to the upside has become relatively standard fare.
This has become quite a controversial practice — but even though research suggests that banning or severely curtailing congressional stock trading has huge bipartisan support, that support comes from the public — not the politicians themselves. At present, disclosure rules are quite ineffective — penalties are meager, regulations are broken on a regular basis, and the true amounts being invested are obscured by wide reporting ranges.
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Of all the politicians who engage in stock trading, Nancy Pelosi is the most infamous. The former Speaker of the House has made millions in the stock market — leading many to copy her trades in a bid to replicate her success. Here is how a $1,000 investment made at the beginning of 2024 in some of her top holdings would have performed.
Pelosi bet big on semiconductor companies in 2024
As one of the most notable congressional traders, Nancy Pelosi has invested millions of dollar cross dozens of stocks in 2024. However, the congresswoman has a pronounced preference for tech companies — and in 2024, she (quite correctly) made big bets on semiconductor stocks.
It comes as little surprise that the representative invested in Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA).
Nvidia shares were trading at $134.29 at press time — equating to a 178.80% rally on a year-to-date (YTD) basis.
Pelosi also made a significant investment in Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO). At the beginning of the year, Broadcom stock was trading at just $108.45. Since then, the price of an AVGO share has increased by 113.60% to 231.84 at press time.
While not entirely representative of the representative’s wider portfolio, investing an equal sum in these two stocks would have netted a return of 146.2%. In other words, a $1,000 investment would now be worth $2,462, with a tidy $1,426 profit.
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