Tag Archives: US stock market

It’s good to be a Congress critter!

I haven’t checked my investment account in a couple of weeks because the last time I did, it was just too darn depressing.

Shocking no one, therre is an apparent way to avoid this: become a member of the U.S. Congress!

From Daily Mail:

“Investors dedicate countless hours to solving the mystery of how to beat the stock market – and many lose millions of dollars in the process.

But the answer might be simple: Just copy Congress.

A tool which copies trades made by members of Congress and their families has gained nearly 20 percent this year – performing twice as well as the stock market average of eight to ten percent.

And a separate tool which is dedicated to tracking Nancy Pelosi‘s investments reveals her portfolio has returned a remarkable 50 percent in the last 12 months, vastly outperforming the 17 percent gains of the benchmark S&P500 index of America’s top companies.

The tools were created by Quiver Quantitative, which uses public disclosures from members of Congress to mirror their trading activity and track the results.

The disclosures reveal some politicians have displayed a near-prophetic ability to invest in companies just days before their stock prices explode. Some sit on congressional committees linked to the firm’s they’ve invested in.

James Kardatzke, CEO of Quiver Quantitative, told DailyMail.com: ‘You can almost certainly see instances where there seems to be people acting on information that they may have been receiving in committee meetings, or may have been receiving just based on the nature of their job.’

Quiver Quantitative has singled out several trades for their success. None of the members of Congress have been accused of insider trading. 

Quiver Quantitative’s separate tracker for Nancy Pelosi’s trading activity has returned around 50 percent since last December. Pelosi has profited hugely from massive gains this year in the stock price of Nvidia, the chipmaker whose valuation has passed $1 trillion thanks to the AI boom. Pelosi also owns millions of dollars worth of Microsoft and Apple stock, which have both risen by around 55 percent since the beginning of the year.

Current rules allow members of Congress to trade stocks freely, but they must report their trading and they are barred from using non-public information to inform their purchases. But the fine for lawmakers who break the rules is typically just $200.

Read the whole story here.

No matter how we vote, we just can’t seem to drain this:

DCG