Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and husband Paul had another successful year in the stock market, once again trouncing the annual return for the S&P 500.
The S&P 500 gained a stunning 24% in 2023 — but the 83-year-old House representative and her husband scoffed at such low returns.
Already a multimillionaire, the Pelosi family stock portfolio gained 65% in 2023 thanks to some savvy options plays — and they weren’t done.
Their trades ended with a “deceptive tactic” by Nancy: A multimillion dollar NVIDA call that was quietly announced on the Friday before Christmas break, to bury the news.
Of course, Pelosi wasn’t the only lawmaker to cash in big last year. According to Unusual Whales, 32 elected U.S. congressmen and women out of the 100 active investing lawmakers easily beat the market by large margins — the biggest winners frequently being options-happy members.
Reps. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y. and Mark Green, R-Tenn., were the leading investing lawmakers.
The two enjoyed watching their stock portfolios grown more than 233% and 122%, respectively, in 2023.
Pelosi has regularly defended allowing U.S. lawmakers to trade stocks and options, despite having inside information about regulations and upcoming laws that could give them an unfair advantage over the rest of investors.
“We are a free market economy. They should be able to participate in that,” Pelosi said in 2021.
The practice of options trading on Capitol Hill has soared in recent years, and has caught the eye of ethic watchdogs.
“It’s a sign of quasi-insider trading that’s corrupt and should be banned — it’s either an addiction to risk or a sign of corruption,” Jeff Hauser, founder and director of the Revolving Door Project, told the New York Post.
“There are teams of people at sophisticated hedge funds that exist to find minor arbitrage opportunities to make a profit,” Hauser reportedly added. “It’s preposterous to think they are finding profit where Bridgewater or Renaissance Capital is missing it.”
In case you’re wondering, here was the Pelosi family’s last trade of the year — a potential $5 million winner that was intentionally buried.
Pelosi bet millions on $NVDA in November using call options. Using a deceptive tactic, she purposely disclosed this on the Friday before Christmas weekend to avoid media coverage. pic.twitter.com/HR3KvynbPI
— congresstrading.com (@congresstrading) December 22, 2023
The Horn editorial team