Investors are increasingly tracking congressional trades as popular Congress members continue to retain high stock market returns amid prolonged economic volatility. California representative and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is also known for making highly profitable trades that helped her stock portfolio return over 700% since 2014. While Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, carries out the trades, she has vehemently opposed criticism of her sharing confidential information with him that can influence markets. Despite growing demand to push bills banning Congressional trades through the Senate to prevent insider trading, Pelosi has made several trades that have resulted in huge gains or helped avert significant losses.
In 2021, Pelosi exercised Microsoft call options before the tech firm secured a US defence contract. Next year, she bought Nvidia call options when Congress passed the CHIPS Act to subsidise the semiconductor industry. Pelosi went on to buy more Nvidia call options in 2023 with a $120 strike price way before the AI company announced its 10-for-1 stock split completed in June of this year. She also disclosed in a recent periodic transaction report that she purchased another 10,000 Nvidia shares in late June, around the same time when bipartisan senators floored the ETHICS Act to ban Congressional trades by imposing huge fines for violations. However, the report also revealed that Pelosi sold 2,000 shares of Visa Inc. worth over $500,000 on July 1, less than three months before the stock price tanked significantly to hover around $269 on September 25. The nosedive was triggered soon after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil antitrust lawsuit, accusing the payments giant of illegally monopolising the debit card market.
