How to invest like a Pelosi

The Sunday Times ^ | 1/26/2025 | Rachel Mortimer

[simpson96]

If there is a golden rule to beating the stock market, members of the United States Congress seem to know it.

Members are allowed to trade stocks, although — as in the UK and other countries — trading on insider information is illegal. And representatives of both parties have posted impressive returns, some gaining triple figures over the past decade — a political record that many investors would be keen to replicate.

One of the most popular portfolios offered by the investment app Autopilot, which allows retail investors to mimic politicians and hedge fund managers, is the Pelosi Tracker — named after the Democratic congresswoman and former speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi.

The @PelosiTracker­­ account on the social media site X has almost 900,000 followers. Be warned, however, that Autopilot has rated its risk level as “high”.

The portfolio mirrors the stocks sold and bought by Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, an investor who owns and runs the real estate and venture capital firm Financial Leasing Services.

The S&P 500 has returned 230 per cent since 2014, while his portfolio gained almost 800 per cent over the same period, according to the investment research company Quiver Quantitative.

So, should we be voting with our feet when it comes to political investments?

How good is the Pelosi Tracker? Last year the tracker finished up 54 per cent, beating the performance of almost every US hedge fund.

The return of Donald Trump to the White House has triggered a flurry of trades by Congress members and their spouses hoping to capitalise on his presidency. Pelosi this month bought options on Amazon, Google, the chipmaker giant Nvidia and the healthcare company Tempus AI — locking in a price to buy at later.

Members of Congress are legally required to report within 45 days any trades worth more than $1,000 they or their spouses make. Once publicly disclosed, copycat trackers and investors replicate their stock picks. The Pelosi Tracker’s top holding is Nvidia (making up 20 per cent) followed by Google (14 per cent), the power company Vistra Corp (11 per cent), the cyber-security company Palo Alto (10 per cent), Amazon (10 per cent) and the infrastructure software company Broadcom Inc (9 per cent).

Nvidia, one of the so-called magnificent seven stocks that dominate the tech sector, has emerged as one of the biggest winners of the AI race. Garry White from the wealth management firm Charles Stanley said: “Pelosi is buying into the sectors that are doing very well already and that strategy has worked for him so far. But if some clouds start to appear on the technology horizon, for example if Trump’s policies mean that inflation starts to rise sharply, then a tech sell-off could mean losses.”

One tech stock to have recently bucked the trend is Apple, which last week slipped to its lowest level since October after a weaker sales forecast. Pelosi sold 31,600 shares in the company in December, and since then its price has fallen about 10 per cent, although it remains in the top 10 holdings of the Pelosi Tracker.

White puts this down to political tensions with China and financial pressures. He said: “There is lots of negative sentiment around Apple. Part of that may be economic slowdown and households being unable to afford new technology. And also the Chinese government has started to ban Apple phones, so the company is having to make compromises.”

A spokesman for Nancy Pelosi said she does not own any stocks and “has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions.”

[HIDEK6]

The best way to stop this is to require Congressmen to immediately notify the public what stocks they are buying and selling.

[econjack]

Yep...it’s no secret. Members of Congress are permitted to do insider trading. The best thing to do is get a law that makes it illegal. The chances of Congress giving that up are slim and none...and Slim left town.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Corrupt politicians make some of the best investors! I.E., Hillary Clinton. She just read the Wall Street Journal and made a quick $100k by placing a trade on cattle futures! No help at all from a corrupt broker shifting a winner trade into her account, right?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Yup - I've put a few thousand into the Pelosi Tracker on the AutoPilot app. It's doing well.

AOC of all people seems to have the right view on this - she was calling out insider trading by members of Congress just recently. Members of Congress and their spouses should be forced to put all of their investment assets into blind trusts controlled by independent financial managers.

[Texas Eagle]

No, no, no, no. We don’t want to stop this. We want to make it mandatory. All congressturds should divulge where they are investing so we can do likewise.

[Steely Tom]

Here’s a story no American media outlet would touch.

Unless, of course, they caught Donald Trump doing it.

[MinorityRepublican]

AOC of all people seems to have the right view on this - she was calling out insider trading by members of Congress just recently.

AOC is better than a typical Democrat even though she is a Leftist.

AOC voted against the ban on TikTok.

[Regulator]

“Last year the tracker finished up 54 per cent”

A piffling statistical anomaly. Nothing more.

Nothing to see here, move on...

/Jim Comey

[Vaduz]

The Pelosi’s another shady D.C. lot that helps keeping the stench strong.

[fruser1]

If congress can do this, then so can everyone else under equal protection.

This is part of the government corruption that needs to end.

Congress doesn’t have to use commie care either as I recollect it.

[butlerweave]

Nancy needs an Investigation

[Brian Griffin]

“Members of Congress and their spouses should be forced to put all of their investment assets into blind trusts controlled by independent financial managers.”

>US Treasury instruments

[antidemoncrat]

“How to invest like a Pelosi”

Get elected to Congre$$ and eve if they ban insider trading like they did once before, bring it back and continue to feed data to your hubby so he can continue to make millions of $$$$. Looking at her age and physical appearance she should worry about eternity staring her in the face. Oh, I forgot. She’s devout Catholic. that means she can do whatever she wants as long as a priest waves his hands over her as she is dying and all her sins will be forgiven and she will sneak right past God’s judgement right into Heaven.

[zeestephen]

QQQ - the ETF for the Nasdaq 100 - is up 400% in the last 10 years.

SPY - the ETF for the S&P 500 - is up 200% in the last 10 years.

QQQ is closer to 425% if you re-invested your very modest dividend.

SPY is close to 250% with its larger dividend re-invested.

The only way to score an 800% gain in 10 years is to invest in high risk individual stocks.

The only government officials who might have critical inside valuation knowledge about individual stocks would be in the IRS or the Justice Department.

Almost all the other government agencies share their financial knowledge in real time with the financial markets.

[Gene Eric]

With a mandatory 30 minute delay on their orders.

[Sequoyah101]

It is illegal but only for us peons. As if we get a lot of insider trading information.

[Sicon]

"Members of Congress and their spouses should be forced to put all of their investment assets into blind trusts controlled by independent financial managers"

And how do you ensure that they are "independent"? Kickbacks work in many different ways, as do threats.

[linMcHlp]

Pelosi this month [January 2025] bought options on Amazon, Google, the chipmaker giant Nvidia and the healthcare company Tempus AI — locking in a price to buy at later.

The Pelosi Tracker’s top holding is Nvidia (making up 20 per cent).

Nvidia, one of the so-called magnificent seven stocks that dominate the tech sector, has emerged as one of the biggest winners of the AI race.

A spokesman for Nancy Pelosi said she does not own any stocks and “has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions.”

[Faith65]

bkmk