Congressional stock trading has become a highly publicized and contentious issue. In many ways, 2024 was a watershed moment — bringing widespread attention to the controversial practice.
Lawmakers have an informational edge over the general public — and regulate the very industries they often invest in.
While a spotlight has been shined on congressional stock trading, efforts to curtail the practice have provided little in terms of results so far. With that in mind, many traders have adopted an alternate approach — opting instead to copy the trades of their representatives in a bid to emulate some of their successes.
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However, going long on the stocks most often traded by congresspeople isn’t a winning strategy — in 2024, doing so would have underperformed the S&P 500. On the other hand, taking a page out of the playbook of some of the more successful congressional traders would have provided an advantage.
With 2024 already behind us, Finbold has decided to examine which U.S. politicians have made the greatest return in the financial markets over the course of last year.
Several politicians have made triple-digit returns in 2024.
Nancy Pelosi is perhaps the most renowned (or notorious) congressional stock trader. As a representative, Pelosi earns $174,000 per year — throughout the course of 2024, her net worth increased from $231 million to $273 million — with the $42 million increase equivalent to roughly 241 times her annual salary.
The former speaker’s investments netted a 146.2% return in 2024 — but as impressive as those gains are, Pelosi is not the trader who made the biggest profit in 2024.
Surprisingly enough, the lawmaker who made the greatest returns is not an active trader. Representative Brian Higgins of New York’s 26th congressional district, whose tenure ended in 2024, has made just three trades during his time on Capitol Hill.
Those trades happened to include Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) — and with a simple buy-and-hold approach, Higgins captured the entirety of the 185.97% rally experienced by Nvidia stock in 2024. The same approach made Higgins the most successful congressional trader of 2023.
Finally, readers should note that estimating the returns netted by congresspeople is a tall order — as the exact amounts being invested are obscured by disclosure rules which see reporting done in ranges, the closest estimate that can be given is applying a simple appraisal on a year-to-date (YTD) basis.
Featured image via Shutterstock
