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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

#371

Post by the_optimist »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #50

Similar from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26807695 HN can't see the forest for the trees. Trading isn't the issue. Why are our top elected officials not compensated enough? Income inequality. If it isn't trading, they'll chase Bezos until they "get what they deserve" one way or another.

Your theory: If you pay Pelosi more, she'll stop insider trading. On top of her +$100M net worth, where her salary pales in comparison to trading gains. You just have to pay people more so they stop abusing the system.

Found the Congressperson here.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#372

Post by WaitWaitWha »

I have a better solution than all these "let's restrict", "let's demand pre-trade disclosure", etc.

Term limit them.

12 years total Congress in lifetime. That is two full Senate or six House, or combination thereof.

The longer a politician (or bureaucrat) is in a position, the more power they accumulate and the likelihood to forget the purpose of their role.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#373

Post by BurningFrog »

dan-robertson wrote: post #349
godelski wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because investments are still a great way to hold your savings. The problem here isn't that they have investments (e.g. a 401k), it is that they are acting on insider information. Which is illegal to everyone else. At _minimum_ they should be held to the same standards. Though I think most people agree that they should be held to _higher_ standards, which gives suggestions like a blind trust. And obviously strict rul…

It’s not insider information. You might consider it material non-public information, which you can’t trade on in Europe, but in the US insider trading has a much more narrow definition: roughly it has to come from the insiders of the company. If your friend at Microsoft tells you that they won some massive contract, you can’t trade on it. If you overhear that news in a café, you can. If your friend at the government…

Honest question: If I work at Microsoft and I know we'll launch a product that will kill competitor X, am I allowed to short the X stock?

That more analogous to the politician trading. They do have inside information, but it's not from inside the company they're trading.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#375

Post by BurningFrog »

throwawaygh wrote: post #194
psychlops wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why not just prohibit members of Congress of owning stock? They are some of the most powerful people in the world. Why is it so much to ask that a Senator or especially Representative serving in the most powerful legislative body in the world just take a cash position for 2-6 years?

Too harsh. A blind trust would be quite enough.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#376

Post by BurningFrog »

m463 wrote: post #224
psychlops wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If I was a foreign government, I would just monitor these announcements and impoverish the US politicians.

If I was a foreign government, I would want to enrich US politicians, so they became favorable to my causes.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#377

Post by michaelmrose »

partiallypro wrote: post #352
michaelmrose wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Start with the 3 best examples you can name and we can go over how regulated various industries are, what percentage of income is paid in taxes, and what percentage of their GPD is non military government spending.

There is a lot more to governance than expenditures and safety nets. I'm starting to think we've been in a free society in the west so long that people have simply overlooked the history of large governments stifling industry and life. Limited government is a very big thing in the West, even in countries with very generous social programs.

Could you at least pick one so we can talk specifics?

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#378

Post by BurningFrog »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #325
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…

If you took away the politicians way of getting rich then what motivation would people have to be politicians? /s

Power!

I don't like this corruption, but there are many worse things our rulers could do.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#379

Post by goatinaboat »

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…

This is fucking unreal.

How do you think so many people on government salaries become super rich, whilst supposedly working for the government?

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#380

Post by pc86 »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #148
Joker_vD wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Seriously, I am very serious about preventing conflicts of interest and insider trading. But Microsoft is a terrible example, they are extremely diversified. The contract was announced 3/31 and it's obvious that it had no particular impact on its share price since that date when looking at its peers: https://www.google.com/finance/quote/MSFT:NASDAQ?comparison=...

It went from approximately $235 to $250, which is about 6%. On calls, especially short-dated ones, that can easily be a 40-50% gain. I've got a number of different MSFT LEAPS in my portfolio and they all went up 15%+ on that news.
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