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Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

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Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#111

Post by wpietri »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #93
mabbo wrote: post #9

The very people whose job it should be to stop this sort of thing are the ones who are profiting from it. How do you change this? No really, how can we force congress to change the rules so that elected officials can't profit from inside information? Why would they ever vote for such a bill?

It's impossible. Who watches the watchmen? And Democratic party believes that bigger gov't is the solution to many of our problems.

If it's impossible to have an effect, then every government would be equally bad at this. But that's not the case.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#113

Post by stereolambda »

sakopov wrote: post #15

> For example, Pelosi in Dec 22 was against more stimulus. Her husband buys deep ITM TSLA and AAPL calls that day. December 23rd, she is suddenly for stimulus again, with those same companies ralling 5%, giving her an instant +30 return. > Congressman Gottheimer is absolutely an incredible options trader. He’s been selling calls at peaks on $MSFT all 2021, & seemingly buying back the contracts on dips. This in blocks…

Please correct me, but here's a provocative hypothesis I spent three minutes thinking through. Couldn't you say that speculating with insider information on public markets can be a way for public officials to make a lot of money without marrying themselves to any particular interests? In that case, couldn't it be potentially a mechanism we can exploit for good?

Disclaimer: not American, no strong opinion on these people.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#114

Post by YinglingLight »

freeone3000 wrote: post #106
yumraj wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious if any of this falls under the definition of insider trading . It should, but I think it doesn't and which is why SEC doesn't get involved in these. Does anyone know?

For a long time, Congress had an exemption to insider trading. They no longer do, but, insider trading still requires material non-public information about the company in question -- and Congressional acts are the most public thing possible. Betting that a company's stock will go up (or down) and then making it happen after you make the bet isn't insider trading, it's activist investing, and is totally legal.

>Congressional acts are the most public thing possible

Not when said action occurs a week before the Congressional act is announced. Is this HN thread flooded with bots or something? Have never seen this level of sympathy for politicians.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#115

Post by partiallypro »

dlp211 wrote: post #104
nickthemagicman wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's impossible. Who watches the watchmen? And Democratic party believes that bigger gov't is the solution to many of our problems.

Show me a country with little government that is successful.

Comparatively speaking, most Western countries.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#116

Post by Joker_vD »

mattferderer wrote: post #56
sakopov wrote: post #15

> For example, Pelosi in Dec 22 was against more stimulus. Her husband buys deep ITM TSLA and AAPL calls that day. December 23rd, she is suddenly for stimulus again, with those same companies ralling 5%, giving her an instant +30 return. > Congressman Gottheimer is absolutely an incredible options trader. He’s been selling calls at peaks on $MSFT all 2021, & seemingly buying back the contracts on dips. This in blocks…

I would like more oversight here but I don't know if these are great examples. I do (without evidence) believe a lot of these people use insider information. Pelosi's husband has been very bullish for a long time on Tesla, Apple & tech in general I do believe. Gottheimer did what I think is a Bull Call spread which means in February, after a crazy run up in market prices in January, he bet that MSFT would go up a lit…

Well, when the order of events is "A committee which Pelosi is member of is discussing the large contract on the VR helmets for the military — Pelosi's husband buys MSFT — The committee anounces that the contract goes to MSFT — MSFT stock rises", and the pattern keeps repeating, it is evidence, albeit circumstantial.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#117

Post by steveBK123 »

Of course if you actually work in financial services industry, your personal trading is extremely restricted. This is regardless of being in no position to see positions/flow/etc that would give you any insider edge.

The industry generally sees it as easier to show compliance by having locked down personal trading by employees.

Usually this takes the form of - ETFs only, pre-clearance required, 30 day holding periods, limited to using only a list of 5 approved brokers.. and sometimes all of the above.

The restrictions apply not just to spouses but to anyone in household, and you have to attest you are reporting any holdings of say.. your parents, if you still live at home.

So the mother of a live-at-home college grad tech support analyst who plugs in phones at a bank has more trading restrictions than senior politicians :-)

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#118

Post by ABeeSea »

sakopov wrote: post #15

> For example, Pelosi in Dec 22 was against more stimulus. Her husband buys deep ITM TSLA and AAPL calls that day. December 23rd, she is suddenly for stimulus again, with those same companies ralling 5%, giving her an instant +30 return. > Congressman Gottheimer is absolutely an incredible options trader. He’s been selling calls at peaks on $MSFT all 2021, & seemingly buying back the contracts on dips. This in blocks…

> Pelosi in Dec 22 was against more stimulus.

This is not true. It’s very odd to see the kind of right-wing conspiracies based on outright fabrications spread on HN as literal truths. Here is an article from December 22 were Pelosi is calling for more stimulus:

www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/12/22/trump-calls-covid-relief-bill-unsuitable-and-demands-congress-add-higher-stimulus-payments.html

Here is her direct tweet dated 12/22:

https://mobile.twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/134155753573...?

Edit: There are outright lies in the source article. Sad day for HN that the lies are getting so much traction and fact checking with 1st hand sources is getting downvoted.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#120

Post by jb775 »

yumraj wrote: post #101
sakopov wrote: post #15

> For example, Pelosi in Dec 22 was against more stimulus. Her husband buys deep ITM TSLA and AAPL calls that day. December 23rd, she is suddenly for stimulus again, with those same companies ralling 5%, giving her an instant +30 return. > Congressman Gottheimer is absolutely an incredible options trader. He’s been selling calls at peaks on $MSFT all 2021, & seemingly buying back the contracts on dips. This in blocks…

I'm curious if any of this falls under the definition of insider trading . It should, but I think it doesn't and which is why SEC doesn't get involved in these. Does anyone know?

I'm pretty sure they can't be charged with insider trading for some loophole reason. It's 100% insider trading though. US politicians and their families shouldn't be allowed to buy/sell any stocks as a condition of public office. And they shouldn't be able to accept revolving door money after leaving office as well.
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