Nancy Pelosi’s huge portfolio gains again make the case for banning stock trading in Congress

Let them eat stock options! As Americans sweat over the high cost of food and gas, Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s stock portfolio racked up massive gains in 2023. The former speaker, a consistent high performer in the market (though she had a bad year in 2022 while under increased scrutiny over her trading), enjoyed a 65% return on her investments, reports industry news service Unusual Whales.

That’s better than most major hedge funds. Key to her success was very “lucky” use of stock options, often a sign of trading on inside information, something members of Congress have lots of. To let average Americans echo the gains of Democrats in Congress (and their spouses), Unusual Whales last year launched the “NANC” trading fund, pointedly named after Nancy .

In theory, various guardrails prevent blatant insider trading by members of Congress, but ethics watchdogs have raised regular red flags . Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, have made millions off tech companies that she’s responsible for regulating. (Don’t try this at home, or you could get slapped with a prison sentence of 20 years.) Multiple bills were put forward last year to stop or limit congressional trading, including the bipartisan “Ban Stock Trading for Government Officials Act,” introduced by Sens.

Kirsten Gillibrand and Josh Hawley in late July, which went nowhere. No surprise: Politicians on both sides of the aisle profit from trading. It’s not just insider trading, but insiders blocking any rules that might stop them..