Economy Members of congress outperformed the S&P 500 by huge amounts

[White Whale]

https://newrepublic.com/post/177806/members-congress-made-stock-trading-2023

Here Are the Members of Congress Who Made the Most in Stock Trading in 2023

Here Are the Members of Congress Who Made the Most in Stock Trading in 2023
Congratulations to this bipartisan group for making a record profit in stock trading last year.
Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell put their hands on their hearts, as other members of Congress do the same around them

Congress killed it in the stock market once again, with Democrats outdoing their Republican colleagues by far, despite conflicts in some of their committee appointments, according to a new report by Unusual Whales, a market analysis group.

Some of those high-flying lawmakers included Democratic Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Brian Higgins and Republican Representatives Mark Green and Garret Graves. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConell, Senator Tommy Tuberville, and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene also make an appearance in the list of top officials who made bank in the stock market last year.

The Unusual Whales analysis is based on financial disclosures made by members of Congress every time they or their families make a trade. Higgins’s gains far outpaced the others’, with 238.9 percent returns over 2023, nearly 10 times the S&P 500 index, which rose 24.8 percent by the end of the year. The data also found Democratic members of Congress secured a 31 percent gain in returns, far outpacing Republicans’ 18 percent gain.



Buisness is good if you are in congress and it's bipartisan. They are geniuses when comes to the stock market it's like they have Insider knowledge or something.

 

[The XL]

No shit they did. The vast majority of them are clearly insider trading. We have criminals making our laws.

 

[HomeCheese]

Just accepted as part of life now and shows how low our collective standards have fallen.

In the 80's and 90's if a politician got caught having sex with a prostitute their career was over. Now, we actually have a former escort in the US House of Representatives.

It's insane how much worse off our standards are now.

 

[Jack V Savage]

Just accepted as part of life now and shows how low our collective standards have fallen.

In the 80's and 90's if a politician got caught having sex with a prostitute their career was over. Now, we actually have a former escort in the US House of Representatives.

It's insane how much worse off our standards are now.

Mostly a fake story, really. You can take any group of 500 people, and then report how the top five of them did in a game of chance and suggest that they cheated. It's worse with stocks because if people just hold a few, the chances are very high that some will outperform by a lot over a short period (but not over a longer one). Just a game played by sleazy propagandists like GG.

 

[Fox by the Sea]

brb putting everything in the Congress Index

 

[Jack V Savage]

brb putting everything in the Congress Index

It's not an overall Congress index that would do well, or an index of members who did well last year. You need to put everything into an index of who is going to do well this year.

 

[panamaican]

It sounds like everyone else just has to work harder and maybe they should spend more time learning how the market works. If they don't have time to watch CNBC all day, they should go to the library and get some books. It's only a few minutes a day.

I'm going to make a point about hypocritical thinking because we all know that Congresspeople are abusing their positions to trade on information that the common person doesn't have. It is absurd to me that when it comes to this subject, people can easily understand how people with more can use that "more" to reap outsized benefits for themselves, relative to others.

But when we look at that same concept as it applies to the rank and file of society, those same people argue that the underperforming aspects of society just don't want to succeed and that anyone can have the higher performance outcomes if they just change their values. It's absurd.

If these people were consistent, they would say that people Congress are successful and have a stronger work ethic and culture than people who are not outperforming the market. And that if people underperforming the market wanted to do better, they should take the time to study the habits of the successful people in Congress and copy them. They would ignore the advantages that Congress has and attribute everything to personal work ethic and culture.

But they don't. That "work ethic and values" argument is only reserved for the less fortunate who are struggling.

 

[Fluffernutter]

All investors are equal. But, some investors are more equal than others.

 

[djacobox372]

LOL that the average congressman is better with investing than the great business man Donald Trump, who has underperformed the S&P his whole life.

 

[HomeCheese]

Mostly a fake story, really. You can take any group of 500 people, and then report how the top five of them did in a game of chance and suggest that they cheated. It's worse with stocks because if people just hold a few, the chances are very high that some will outperform by a lot over a short period (but not over a longer one). Just a game played by sleazy propagandists like GG.

So you don't think senators and congressmen are using their positions to gain insider information for financial gains in the market?

I thought they pretty much admitted they did it or at least some of them did.

 

[Jack V Savage]

So you don't think senators and congressmen are using their positions to gain insider information for financial gains in the market?

I thought they pretty much admitted they did it or at least some of them did.

No. I think this sums it up better than I can (note the last sentence):

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047272722000044

We find no evidence of superior investment performance whether we look in aggregate or at Senators specifically accused of informed trading. Over a six-month horizon, stocks bought by House Members underperform on average by 26 basis points, while stocks sold underperform by 11 basis points. Even at the 95th and 99th percentiles of ex-post stock returns, House and Senator stock returns are consistent with random stock picking. Our methods cannot rule out the existence of some insider trades that are masked by the means, masked by poor ex-post performance or that took place in earlier years.

The case that you see made is based on statistical illiteracy (or self-justifying cynicism), but it's not impossible that it's happened.

 

[rearnakedchoke]

No shit they did. The vast majority of them are clearly insider trading. We have criminals making our laws.

At least they take a bipartisan approach on something.

What a shit show. I can’t for the life of me figure out why they won’t ban stock trading for themselves.

 

[PhitePhan]

It sounds like everyone else just has to work harder and maybe they should spend more time learning how the market works. If they don't have time to watch CNBC all day, they should go to the library and get some books. It's only a few minutes a day.

I'm going to make a point about hypocritical thinking because we all know that Congresspeople are abusing their positions to trade on information that the common person doesn't have. It is absurd to me that when it comes to this subject, people can easily understand how people with more can use that "more" to reap outsized benefits for themselves, relative to others.

But when we look at that same concept as it applies to the rank and file of society, those same people argue that the underperforming aspects of society just don't want to succeed and that anyone can have the higher performance outcomes if they just change their values. It's absurd.

If these people were consistent, they would say that people Congress are successful and have a stronger work ethic and culture than people who are not outperforming the market. And that if people underperforming the market wanted to do better, they should take the time to study the habits of the successful people in Congress and copy them. They would ignore the advantages that Congress has and attribute everything to personal work ethic and culture.

But they don't. That "work ethic and values" argument is only reserved for the less fortunate who are struggling.

 

[HOLA]

The statistics are useless. It takes what they held at the end of the year, calculates the YTD return for that stock, then assumes they held it for the entire year. We also don't know how much they hold in each stock. Their disclosures give a range.



There are also, what...540 members of congress? They're showing like 30 who, ostensibly at least, beat the market. That's not very significant.

 

[Rob Battisti]

Mostly a fake story, really. You can take any group of 500 people, and then report how the top five of them did in a game of chance and suggest that they cheated. It's worse with stocks because if people just hold a few, the chances are very high that some will outperform by a lot over a short period (but not over a longer one). Just a game played by sleazy propagandists like GG.

Of course you’d take this position. You don’t find the countless trades involving politicians on committees with insider knowledge prior to government involved programs as an issue? I mean, you wouldn’t since you love living in fantasy land.

I worked for a finance company for years where I had access to information not even close to what congress does and I wasn’t permitted to hold equity or make trades.

The right thing to do is stop politicians from holding any stocks in individual companies and limit them to broad indices.

 

[Rob Battisti]

because we all know that Congresspeople are abusing their positions to trade on information that the common person doesn't have

@Jack V Savage doesnt

 

[HOLA]

Mostly a fake story, really. You can take any group of 500 people, and then report how the top five of them did in a game of chance and suggest that they cheated. It's worse with stocks because if people just hold a few, the chances are very high that some will outperform by a lot over a short period (but not over a longer one). Just a game played by sleazy propagandists like GG.

Yeah, you could literally have 500 monkeys throw darts at a board and some of them would outperform the market in a year. Outperformance over the long-term in much more difficult.

For the record, I'm not opposed to debates about congress and limits on what they're allowed to invest in, but this list is just shit.

 

[Jack V Savage]

Of course you’d take this position.

Because it's factually correct, yeah.

You don’t find the countless trades involving politicians on committees with insider knowledge prior to government involved programs as an issue? I mean, you wouldn’t since you love living in fantasy land.

Nice personal attack, but this does nothing to address the point. I don't think saying untrue things is justified just because you like the effects. If you want to argue against gov't officials owning stocks, that's fine. Just make the point honestly.

 

[HOLA]

Higgins (the top performer) financial disclosure form shows most of his unrealized gains would be from NVIDA, which he's owned since 2017, and which he still has less than $100,000 in. NVIDIA was up 239% last year.

 

[Rob Battisti]

Because it's factually correct, yeah.


Nice personal attack, but this does nothing to address the point. I don't think saying untrue things is justified just because you like the effects. If you want to argue against gov't officials owning stocks, that's fine. Just make the point honestly.

Yes. I make the point honestly. Some Members of congress on both sides of the aisle use their political insider knowledge to make financial gain in the stock market. There is countless evidence of specific instances up to and not including events surrounding Covid and the government response to it. Congress or their immediate family should not be permitted to make trades during their time in office.