In the age of trading apps and Wall Street fervor, who among us hasn’t dreamed of striking it rich on a well-timed hunch?
Apparently that dream isn’t just for us nine-to-fivers. US Representative Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi has cashed in to the tune of $38 million thanks to some very smart investments, with some alleging that the centi-millionaire couple might be making their own luck.On New Years Eve, recent SEC filings show Mr. Pelosi had sold off roughly $24 million in Apple stocks and about $5 million in Nvidia. Weeks later, the venture capitalist placed a bevy of call options — an agreement that grants the right but not obligation to buy stocks at a predefined price — on companies including tech startup Tempus AI, energy company Vistra Corp, and known tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Nvidia.Both transactions were disclosed on a joint filing made on January 17, three days before Trump was sworn in, and the final day before the long-awaited TikTok ban was scheduled to go into effect. Altogether the filing represents $38 million in total transactions, swelling the couple’s already nine-digit net worth.
This comes on the back of the much-discussed Nvidia blowout, which saw over $1 trillion in overhyped stock value disintegrate into thin air yesterday.
Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks,” her spokesperson told Fox of the trades, “and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions.”That’s an almost comical excuse, of course — she might not have personally made the trades, but her husband, with whom she lives and has nine grandchildren, did. Though the Pelosis can’t technically make trades based on insider data, there’s nothing prohibiting the couple from buying or selling stocks, and the dubious timing is drawing scrutiny from all sides of the political spectrum.Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, has publicly blasted “congressional insider trading,” albeit without calling out her party head by name.”Do you really think that [everyday] people don’t see this shit?” the New York congresswoman railed on Jon Stewart’s “Weekly Show” podcast. “You’re doing this on public trust, on tax-payer financed public facilities.””You’re regulating the market that you’re trading on,” Stewart chimed in. “You’re running the casino!”
Unfortunately for anyone who favors democracy over plutocracy, trades like this are nothing new. The gamblers have been running the casino for decades.In 2017, it came to light that Tom Price, Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, made dozens of trades involving Health sector securities while serving on the Ways and Means Committee. In early 2020, a bipartisan group of representatives dumped their stocks following a confidential COVID-19 briefing. Then in 2022, a bombshell analysis by the New York Times found that at least 97 lawmakers or their family members made trades in industries which could be directly impacted by their legislative work.Though there are technically safeguards in place to regulate congressional trading under the 2012 STOCK Act, its compliance is notoriously difficult to enforce, and the lead time on trade filings is exceedingly generous. Notably, no legislative official has been ever been charged via the law.Even ignoring insider trading based on secret data — which often feels like a semantic argument over what’s happening right in the open — lawmakers have a massive effect on the direction our markets take, with speeches, announcements, bills, and — yes — trade filings pushing and pulling stock prices in favorable directions.
Just in: The Pelosi affect is officially real,” writes Christopher Joseph, who manages the Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker on X-formerly-Twitter. “Yesterday news broke that she opened a brand new ~$100K position in Tempus AI… today it’s up 30 percent. Literally from the news that Nancy Pelosi is bullish.”Given the win-win position lawmakers enjoy, many have given up on the legislative body ever regulating itself. Instead, they follow the congresspeople closely on platforms like Autopilot, which allows users to automatically mirror the Pelosi’s trades in a high-risk, high-reward game of chicken.Literally called “Politician Portfolios,” these investment moves can really pay off. “It’s already up 13 percent since her filing and has made her an estimated $100k,” wrote Joseph regarding Pelosi’s Vistra Energy buy. “Congrats to those on Autopilot who got in.”And maybe that’s the only takeaway here. The 84-year-old DNC chair’s ballooning net worth places her well above the average wealth of the top .01% of Americans. You know what they say: if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
