Posted on 08/02/2016 2:55:19 PM PDT by Nachum
While we have often heard that members of Congress, who are not only exempt from insider trading oversight, are also ardent daytraders we had never seen it in action.
Until now.
The following publicly filed monthly Periodic Transaction Report by Democrat Congresswoman, Judy Chu, shows us just how pervasive daytrading is not only for algos, but for those who supposedly are paid to serve their constituents. What is interesting is the size of the trades - between $1,000 and $15,000 each, this is not some novice, penny pincher; what is even more interesting are the underlying securities of choice: volatile, and levered, calls and puts on not only the S&P500, but also on some of the most volatile securities out there, such as the VIX.
Here are some examples of the trades in question (the latest full report can be found here):
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Hilary learned how to make big bucks in trading volatile stocks just by reading the Wall Street Journal - no reason other connected Democrats shouldn’t be able to do the same.
Greedy adrenaline junky...?
Oh, just another Democratic crook - the town is loaded with them.
It looks like she is trading options rather than daytrading.
They should have plenty of time to trade as they have given all legislative authority to the bureaucracy or Hussein or SCOTUS..
Congress exempted themselves from insider trading laws. Aside from the straight up bribes they receive, it’s a major reason they can go up to Capitol Hill with relatively normal assets and come out multi-millionaires a few years later.
First of all.
The images on Zerohedge are worthless when it comes to Trading anything, never mind Daytrading.
Next.
Chinese are notorious Gamblers/Traders.
Some are better than others.
There is nothing that would suggest that her success can be attributed to some “inside knowledge”.
I used to run a Daytrading firm and was a very active trader myself.
The best traders in my office where Asian, go figure.
I had one guy that would do 600 trades a day, every day, and averaged $5,000 a day in profits. Insane.
If she is some Congresswoman Daytrading and having some success, I could care less.
I think ZeroHedge is trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill.
Wow, she is one lucky trader. Profits always uphill, no downturns at all. Hillary must be so jealous.
Blind trusts for Congress just like the President.
Then lets see how many retire.
Looks like she has had some nice gains since she entered congress. close to $3.0M in 6 years.
Nothing to see. Move along.
Congress critters get to trade on inside information? No, I don’t think so. Their assets are supposed to be in blind trusts. They are government employees!! Something stinks!!!
Well, another reason is that by serving even one 2-year term in Congress, you earn a pension worth more than a million. But I thought the financial disclosure laws required the Critters to have a blind trust, or were at least banned from doing their own trades. Hello, Paul Ryan!!!! Urgent House business over here!!
She isn’t alone. Others have written of the extraordinary stock trading skills one develops immediately upon becoming a member of congress.
First, how does she have time to do all these trades, with her busy schedule “serving” the public ?
this looks as crooked as hell. Most of these are large trades for far out of the money options. They look like trades designed to generate either profits or losses. If this is money laundering a bribe from someone, if they share the account, she makes all kinds of trades and is assigned the winners and the briber gets the losers.
she is also splitting trades to hide the size of the positions
eg S&P 500 JUN 24 2010
the first thing to find out, is her Ameritrade Acct shared with anyone, or is it hers alone ?
My guess (speculation alert) is that there are two or more people making trades in this account and Chu is being assigned the profitable ones. That’s based on the improbability of her trading this stuff from $0 to $3 million in the last few years.
Unless she went to the Hillary Clinton school of miraculous speculation.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02920493
FWIW,
One of my best clients was a former Congressman, a highly connected lobbyist that made a number of losing trades based on what he “Thought” he knew.
I can’t even quantify the number of phone calls I received from well placed and trusted people that said “Buy X now because they are being bought out tomorrow”.
You live and learn, and while most of their predictions never materialized, it’s the few that did that makes this game worth playing.
I’ve been Fucked over many times by guys I thought where my friends and at the of the day I/we laugh about it.
At the same time they gave me insight and I gave them insight into where the big money was moving.
I made my clients and myself boat loads of money on buy out speculation, or “Inside Information”, that was rampant and became a crap shoot.
A guy that has a $10,000, or $100,000 or $1,000,000 account makes no difference. It’s just a decimal point.
You can day trade options too.
What laws, exactly, did she break?
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