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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

#151

Post by psychlops »

wpietri wrote: post #100
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…

Whatever the behind-the-scenes truth, I think the appearance of conflicting interests is a problem regardless. For a lot of elected offices and high public service positions, I think their wealth should be put into a blind trust, one constrained by law to buy broad, boring things like index funds. That would surely be a problem for some individuals. But I don't think it's a systemic problem. We only need to find 0.00…

Just require them to announce their trades publicly 24 hours in advance. And let them manage their own finances. All these shenanigan's would disappear.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#152

Post by throwaway5752 »

wpietri wrote: post #100
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…

Whatever the behind-the-scenes truth, I think the appearance of conflicting interests is a problem regardless. For a lot of elected offices and high public service positions, I think their wealth should be put into a blind trust, one constrained by law to buy broad, boring things like index funds. That would surely be a problem for some individuals. But I don't think it's a systemic problem. We only need to find 0.00…

I speak for a lot of people that while I agree with you in principle, the sudden interest in this idea in Republican circles after the prior administration's absolute mockery of conflict of interest and self-dealing laws seems hypocritical.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#153

Post by akudha »

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…

Isn't Pelosi worth like 100 million or something? How much money is enough for these people? :(

How quickly are these trades made public? Maybe we should just copy the congress people's trades and make some profit ourselves :P

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#154

Post by michaelmrose »

maxwell wrote: post #10
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?

Constitutional amendment?

How about initiative and referendum in the 26 states that have such processes and agitating for such processes in the states that don't.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#155

Post by seriousquestion »

ABeeSea wrote: post #118
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/…

People are confused about this because Pelosi rejected the stimulus in October, prior to the election. She didn't accept until December, post election.

Some democrats were urging her to accept it in October: https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1315078896853843970

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#156

Post by skohan »

sneak wrote: post #137
skohan wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it's the definition of conflict of interest. It's insane that this is allowed

I think it's working as intended and that it's insane that people are surprised it's set up this way. The state and large corporate interests in the USA are very tightly integrated and have been for at least an entire generation.

But this is so cynical. Not to be naive, but if we can't at least start from the framework that the government should serve primarily the interests of the people and be outraged when it doesn't, then the American project is pretty much over

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#158

Post by jonhohle »

Joker_vD wrote: post #116
mattferderer wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That seems like the definition of material, non-public information. In the past I don’t think Congress was bound to the same trading rules as the general public (blech), but last I checked, Mr. Pelosi is not in Congress.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#160

Post by munk-a »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #152
wpietri wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever the behind-the-scenes truth, I think the appearance of conflicting interests is a problem regardless. For a lot of elected offices and high public service positions, I think their wealth should be put into a blind trust, one constrained by law to buy broad, boring things like index funds. That would surely be a problem for some individuals. But I don't think it's a systemic problem. We only need to find 0.00…

I speak for a lot of people that while I agree with you in principle, the sudden interest in this idea in Republican circles after the prior administration's absolute mockery of conflict of interest and self-dealing laws seems hypocritical.

Laws need to come into force sometime - and as long as we're not going to get a ping-pong law that's repealed as soon as republicans get into power then I don't mind it happening while democrats hold the torch. I am well aware of the hypocrisy some folks show on this topic but, honestly, it's a good law no matter who is in power and if we're just trying to be petty we won't get anything done.
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