Summary:
⚈ His 51 trades came just before a major market rally on April 9.
⚈ The panic sell contrasts with other politicians’ well-timed Liberation Day gains.
In April 2025, there was a resurgence in calls to ban congressional stock trading and the reintroduction of the PELOSI Act (Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments), a reference to the most prolific suspected insider trader, Nancy Pelosi.
The resurgence is closely linked to the deluge of trades and allegations arising from the stock market chaos of the original Liberation Day announcement, which turned Marjorie Taylor Green, otherwise a middling investor, into a stock pick genius.
By April 30, however, it became evident that one Representative, Robert Bresnahan, had made it his mission to prove that not all politicians trade on non-public information.
Specifically, Finbold’s congressional trading radar detected a staggering 51 sales, all executed on April 8.
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Why this congressional trade was ill-timed
Along with the scale of the trades – the Representative sold nearly $1 million worth of equity – the timing is quaint. April 8 marked the month’s low point across the stock and cryptocurrency markets as what many determined to be the Monday, April 7 ‘dead cat bounce’ was over.
Indeed, only one day later, on April 9, assets across the board enjoyed a powerful rally as President Donald Trump announced that the reciprocal tariffs on all countries other than China would be postponed by 90 days in the wake of significant bond turmoil the night before.
Receive Signals on US Congress Members' Stock Trades
Stay up-to-date on the trading activity of US Congress members. The signal triggers based on updates from the House disclosure reports, notifying you of their latest stock transactions.
The Representative Bresnahan $1 million panic sell
Unlike many of his peers, Representative Bresnahan appears to have engaged in panic selling and not received the suspected memo that led to a suspicious surge in the S&P 500 index minutes before the official tariff announcement.
The vast majority of the stock sales were relatively limited in size, as they were, with just a handful of exceptions, listed at between $1,001 and $15,000 in value. They come from a variety of sectors as names such as Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Boeing (NYSE: BA), FedEx (NYSE: FDX), Home Depot (NYSE: HD), and many others are listed.
Receive Signals on US Congress Members' Stock Trades
Stay up-to-date on the trading activity of US Congress members. The signal triggers based on updates from the House disclosure reports, notifying you of their latest stock transactions.
Speaking of exceptions, the trades involving Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN), Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) – also one of Warren Buffett’s largest holdings – Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD), and Accenture Plc (NYSE: ACN) were substantially bigger and listed as between $15,001 and $50,000.
Did Representative Bernahan also buy the Liberation Day dip?
Lastly, it is worth pointing out that, along with the apparent panic-selling, Representative Bresnahan may have ‘bought the tip’ like many of his colleagues, as politicians have a generous grace period to report their trades.
Should he follow the letter of the law, the full extent of his Liberation Day trades should be known by late May, but, as Representative Darrell Issa demonstrated in September 2024, politicians can significantly break the deadline with little to no consequences.
Featured image via Shutterstock
