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Congress Needs to Stop Day Trading, Says Sen. Mark Warner

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Re: Congress Needs to Stop Day Trading, Says Sen. Mark Warner

#11

Post by Supermancho »

Bostonian wrote: post #2

As I've said before, publish the trades of politicians and Fed officials online every evening. If they make hundreds of millions trading on information the public is unaware of, disseminate that information quickly. Politicians say things they know are untrue, but they will trade in what they perceive to be their interests. "Some of the most egregious stock trading in Congress occurred when several Senators dumped la…

> As I've said before, publish the trades of politicians and Fed officials online every evening

Just like banning trading, this will be circumvented by family/business proxies doing the trades. Including potential family proxies, in the public accounting, would probably be the most effective move to motivate ethical behavior. At least put some risk in the form of the relationship to the business partners, given the vast amounts of money flowing.

Re: Congress Needs to Stop Day Trading, Says Sen. Mark Warner

#12

Post by Teknoman117 »

rolobio wrote: post #3
Bostonian wrote: post #2

As I've said before, publish the trades of politicians and Fed officials online every evening. If they make hundreds of millions trading on information the public is unaware of, disseminate that information quickly. Politicians say things they know are untrue, but they will trade in what they perceive to be their interests. "Some of the most egregious stock trading in Congress occurred when several Senators dumped la…

Sounds great. Could we also start some sort of Index fund using those trades? Congress seems to have some fantastic returns I would like to tap into!

I remember a thread on this a few months back, and the problem is that most of these trades happen at the small windows in time where members of congress have information the public doesn't. While trades by members of congress have to be made public, there is a delay. If you buy/sell after the delay (up to 45 days), the performance isn't really going to correlate with what they're getting.

Re: Congress Needs to Stop Day Trading, Says Sen. Mark Warner

#13

Post by kej »

kupopuffs wrote: post #7
ramesh31 wrote: post #5

Awkward title. It implies congress is considering a ban on retail day trading.

how? It's one senator saying this....

The headline can be interpreted as "Members of Congress should not themselves be day trading" or as "Congress should enact legislation to prevent everyone from day trading". The article is clearly the first one, but the headline could be read either way.

Re: Congress Needs to Stop Day Trading, Says Sen. Mark Warner

#14

Post by TheDong »

Bostonian wrote: post #2

As I've said before, publish the trades of politicians and Fed officials online every evening. If they make hundreds of millions trading on information the public is unaware of, disseminate that information quickly. Politicians say things they know are untrue, but they will trade in what they perceive to be their interests. "Some of the most egregious stock trading in Congress occurred when several Senators dumped la…

I've got a slight improvement to your idea. Instead of publishing the trades after, or as they make them, instead publish them before they make them.

Require any congress-person who wishes to trade a stock to write a plan saying "I will buy/sell roughly this many dollars worth of these shares on this date", and require the plan to be published a week before the trade is executed.

We already require CEOs and company officers at large companies to do similar plans (though they do not have to publish them publicly ahead of time), and requiring our government officials to act as sorta officers of the entire economy seems kinda fair. They have material information on many different things.

Making them decide on trades weeks or months in advance seems like it should prevent day trading, while still letting them invest in reasonable portfolios if they want.

Re: Congress Needs to Stop Day Trading, Says Sen. Mark Warner

#15

Post by panny »

Bostonian wrote: post #2

As I've said before, publish the trades of politicians and Fed officials online every evening. If they make hundreds of millions trading on information the public is unaware of, disseminate that information quickly. Politicians say things they know are untrue, but they will trade in what they perceive to be their interests. "Some of the most egregious stock trading in Congress occurred when several Senators dumped la…

>As I've said before, publish the trades of politicians and Fed officials online every evening. If they make hundreds of millions trading on information the public is unaware of, disseminate that information quickly.

Then Senator Jackass dumps stock on Monday to crash it and picks it back up for a song on Tuesday.

Re: Congress Needs to Stop Day Trading, Says Sen. Mark Warner

#16

Post by adoxyz »

filoleg wrote: post #9
melony wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why online in the evening? Do it in real time with an official federal FIX stream.

Imo real time is not enough, but it is a solid bare minimum requirement. If private executives have to schedule and declare their company equity trades months and months ahead of time, why do we let the government officials off the hook with just real time? I am not proposing the same “months and months ahead” rules for politicians, because for private executives that restriction applies only to the equity of their o…

I'd be ok with them having to declare it months ahead of time, or better yet, banning individual stock ownership for members of congress who have the most privileged information.

Re: Congress Needs to Stop Day Trading, Says Sen. Mark Warner

#18

Post by TheDong »

filoleg wrote: post #9
melony wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why online in the evening? Do it in real time with an official federal FIX stream.

Imo real time is not enough, but it is a solid bare minimum requirement. If private executives have to schedule and declare their company equity trades months and months ahead of time, why do we let the government officials off the hook with just real time? I am not proposing the same “months and months ahead” rules for politicians, because for private executives that restriction applies only to the equity of their o…

> because I am concerned that knowing their trades ahead of time publicly might introduce unwanted side effects.

Unwanted side effects like them not buying small volatile stocks that are perfect for insider trading, and instead buying large index funds that are difficult to manipulate?

Frankly, anyone who's buying small named stocks that the market can move is either 1) a gambling addict, 2) a professional daytrader, 3) an idiot, 4) breaking the law, or 5) all of the above.

I would personally prefer that we do not hire day-traders to represent us in government (or if we do, that they stop daytrading for the duration), so I'm fine if this just has the side-effect of no congress-people daytrading.

Re: Congress Needs to Stop Day Trading, Says Sen. Mark Warner

#19

Post by kupopuffs »

kej wrote: post #13
kupopuffs wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how? It's one senator saying this....

The headline can be interpreted as "Members of Congress should not themselves be day trading" or as "Congress should enact legislation to prevent everyone from day trading". The article is clearly the first one, but the headline could be read either way.

I see. moral obligation vs legal imperative.

off topic, but I know congressmen know the only way is legislation

Re: Congress Needs to Stop Day Trading, Says Sen. Mark Warner

#20

Post by gamerDude »

TheDong wrote: post #14
Bostonian wrote: post #2

As I've said before, publish the trades of politicians and Fed officials online every evening. If they make hundreds of millions trading on information the public is unaware of, disseminate that information quickly. Politicians say things they know are untrue, but they will trade in what they perceive to be their interests. "Some of the most egregious stock trading in Congress occurred when several Senators dumped la…

I've got a slight improvement to your idea. Instead of publishing the trades after, or as they make them, instead publish them before they make them. Require any congress-person who wishes to trade a stock to write a plan saying "I will buy/sell roughly this many dollars worth of these shares on this date", and require the plan to be published a week before the trade is executed. We already require CEOs and company o…

When I worked in a financial trading firm, I had to submit trades that I would make 3 days before hand and then get them approved to make sure I had no relationship to that stock. The same seems fine with me for any government official.

Make a trade request, gets published publicly, a legal body reviews and allows or denies.

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