Tag Archives: congressional stock trading

This Should Have Been Done Ages Ago

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On Monday, Newsmax posted an article about a bill being introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to ban stock trading by members of Congress.

The article reports:

House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., on Monday will introduce a bill banning lawmakers from buying individual stocks.

A post from the House Administration Committee on X confirmed the rollout of the “Stop Insider Trading Act,” saying “it’s time we banned lawmakers from trading stocks,” as Republicans move to answer a long-simmering public concern: that members of Congress can use privileged information to pad their portfolios.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Steil drafted the legislation with the backing of House GOP leadership and support spanning party factions, including Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., as original co-sponsors.

The last time the House tried to do this, they called it the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act. Now that Nancy Pelosi is not running for re-election (she was one of the most successful stock traders the market has ever seen), they may be able to pass this.

The article concludes:

The Washington Times reported last month that House Republicans planned to vote early in 2026 on a congressional stock-trading ban after reaching a compromise under which the ban would apply only to lawmakers, not the president or vice president.

“I think we’re going to deliver a really strong product in 2026,” Roy told the outlet.

Roy declined to discuss specifics but said the legislation will include “a lot of elements” of his Restore Trust in Congress Act, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., and 118 others.

The push comes as bipartisan frustrations over congressional trading persist.

Lawmakers in both parties have explored stricter bans in recent years, driven by voter anger over conflicts of interest and weak enforcement.

It is way past time to pass this bill.

I Have Mixed Emotions About This

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There has not yet been a successful move to stop insider trading by Congress. That might have something to do with the fact that Congress is the one passing the laws. However, someone with great entrepreneurial tendencies has come up with an idea to level the playing field. I’m really sorry I missed this when it was first reported.

On August 28, The Daily Caller reported the following:

When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared that politicians’ stock returns would make “every hedge fund jealous,” he highlighted one of Washington’s worst-kept secrets: lawmakers such as Nancy Pelosi consistently beat the market using information ordinary Americans could never have access to.

Now, as Congress debates banning itself from stock trading, a new company called dub Advisors is pulling back the curtain on political stock portfolios. dub Advisors allows everyday investors to track, and copy, how politicians trade via the dub copy-trading platform, founded by 23-year-old Harvard dropout Steven Wang. The dub platform functions as marketplace for copying investment strategies built by others, including those built by dub Advisors, dub’s affiliated Registered Investment Advisor. dub Advisors is one of numerous creators that operate investment strategies on the platform, specializing in translating complex trades of public figures (such as Pelosi’s Nvidia options) into strategies that can be easily copied by the average American.

The dub platform arrives amid explosive revelations about congressional trading. Senator Josh Hawley’s “PELOSI Act,” named after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seeks to ban lawmakers from trading individual stocks entirely. The bill has gained momentum after President Trump told Time magazine he would “absolutely” sign such legislation, adding, “I watched Nancy Pelosi get rich through insider information.”

These aren’t baseless accusations. Politicians are required to disclose their trades under the STOCK Act, and analysis of these filings reveals patterns that raise eyebrows. Members of Congress routinely make well-timed trades before major legislative announcements, regulatory changes, or economic briefings that move markets.

The article notes:

As inflation erodes savings and traditional retirement security crumbles—the Senior Citizens League reports Social Security benefits lost 20% of purchasing power from 2010 to 2024—Americans need every advantage available.

“A decade from now, instead of picking stocks, we’ll be picking people to invest in,” predicts Wang. Until Congress finally bans its own trading, companies like dub ensure that the insider information that made politicians successful at trading is made available to all Americans.

The establishment may not like this transparency, but in a true free market, information demands to be free – and the 1.3 million Americans who have downloaded dub agree as they copy-trade their way towards their financial goals.

This is not a advertisement for or an endorsement of a product. It is just a salute to some very smart entrepreneurs.

I Wish I Could Trade Stocks Like The Pelosi Family

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On Tuesday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about some recent stock trades by Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy Pelosi.

The article reports:

Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, dumped over $500,000 worth of Visa stock just weeks before the Department of Justice slapped the financial giant with an antitrust lawsuit, according to the New York Post.

The timing couldn’t be more suspect. Visa, one of the most dominant players in the debit card market, is now facing charges of monopolizing the industry.

The DOJ’s antitrust unit claims Visa has abused its market power, forcing financial tech companies to work with them while penalizing those who try to go with competitors.

The article concludes:

“Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks, and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions,” the congresswoman’s spokesperson told The Post.

Visa shares plummeted by 5.5% after the news of the lawsuit hit the markets. And yet, the Pelosis dodged that bullet by a matter of weeks. Coincidence? Skeptics are right to ask: How much did Nancy Pelosi know? Did her perch as a top Democratic power player give her insider knowledge that her husband conveniently acted upon?

Public records and filings don’t lie. Even though Paul Pelosi’s stock dump didn’t occur at the height of the market fallout, the timing of the sale—mere weeks before a bombshell antitrust lawsuit—raises a cloud of suspicion.

Last year, Paul Pelosi dumped 20,000 shares of Google stock in December – a month before the Department of Justice and Merrick Garland filed their antitrust lawsuit.

In 2022, Paul Pelosi exercised $1 million to $5 million Alphabet call options before Democrats proposed a congressional stock trading ban. In the same year, Paul Pelosi sold all of his NVIDIA stock just one day before Congress was set to vote on a bill that would boost domestic production of semiconductors.

It’s amazing how astute some relatives of members of Congress are in predicting what the stock market is going to do.

Somehow Congress Just Can’t Get This Legislation Passed

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On Sunday, The Daily Caller posted an article about Congress’ efforts to pass a law banning stock trades by members of Congress. There have been many examples of Congressmen using information based on their knowledge of pending legislation to make large sums of money on the stock market. (See articles here and here.) Somehow there seems to be no motivation to pass laws to ban that practice.

The Daily Caller reports:

  • Senate Democrats’ move to delay a bill banning members of Congress from trading stocks is “disappointing,” watchdogs that backed ban proposals told the Daily Caller News Foundation. 
  • Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley made the stock ban delay revelation to Insider Thursday, telling the outlet lawmakers are prioritizing “other bills and judicial nominations.”
  • “In order to have a government that truly works for the people, voters need to trust that lawmakers have their best interests at heart,” said Joshua Graham Lynn, CEO of RepresentUs, a nonpartisan anti-corruption group. “But by continuing to allow themselves to benefit financially from their positions of power, members of Congress are condoning legalized corruption.”

The article notes:

There have been a handful of stock ban proposals, including the Ban Conflicted Trading Act, which Merkley sponsored in March 2021 and bars members and senior congressional staffers from buying or selling stocks. Democratic Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff in January sponsored the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, which would require members and their families to divest their holdings within 120 days of the legislation being approved or place certain investments in a qualified blind trust.

Merkley’s announcement also comes on the heels of a New York Times report Tuesday detailing possible conflicts of interest among lawmakers who traded stocks between 2019 and 2021 while sitting on committees that may have given them key financial insight. The senator tweeted out the Times report Wednesday, claiming, “This is why I’ve been leading the charge in the Senate to ban congressional trading. We need to get it done.”

The article concludes:

“There is no excuse for any further delay on this legislation,” Dan Savickas, director of tech policy at Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a nonpartisan group focused on lowering federal spending, told the DCNF. “Congress has had ample to time to consider and pass this bill a number of times already.”

“Congressional leadership dragging its feet on this issue sadly reveals where their true priorities lie,” Savickas added.

Spokespeople for Merkley and Schumer did not respond to requests for comment. A Pelosi spokesman pointed the DCNF to her Wednesday presser remarks.

If they are not willing to stop trading their stocks, maybe they could just give all Americans a heads-up before they trade anything!