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Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

unusualwhales.com

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Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#51

Post by Scoundreller »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #32
abfan1127 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

trying to stop the trades is the wrong fix. The right fix is remove their ability to affect markets. Getting to choose winners and losers will always create opportunity to abuse this privilege.

Or get a handle on the wealth inequality that makes the way we compensate our top elected officials seemingly insignificant.

Maybe we could stop making fun of (the very few) people using their stimulus checks to buy stocks.

When I hear that, I’m like, great. Don’t bail out corporations, give people money directly and let them decide if they want to acquire a stake or not.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#52

Post by Scoundreller »

sakopov wrote: post #7
genericone wrote: post #2

Where are they aggregating all this insider data from? Is there an index of stocks being traded by government insiders and officials that can be tracked in real-time?

If I had to guess I'd say they're probably using EDGAR - https://www.sec.gov/edgar

Take a trip to 1995 and check out what we use in Canada: SEDAR:

https://www.sedar.com/

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#53

Post by mattnewton »

barbazoo wrote: post #46

Love that data this is making public but I wish it wasn't always so much blue vs red, Republicans vs Democrats, who is worse, my team or theirs. They're all corrupt to some degree, why make it even more partisan that it already is.

I hope the intent was to show this is not necessarily a partisan issue, representatives on both sides of the aisle are clearly engaging in suspiciously successful trades.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#54

Post by giantg2 »

gadders wrote: post #27
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 don't know if specific trades are sketchy or legit, but I do think there should be some sort of log of net worth when you join congress, senate, houses of parliament etc and politicians be expected to explain any large gains over their time in office.

Frankly, it's insider trading and should be restricted/prosecuted as such.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#55

Post by finexplained »

beervirus wrote: post #36
finexplained wrote: post #17

Members of congress should only be allowed to invest in SPY/VOO, VTI, and a few other broad ETFs, long only, no options.

That would be a good start. But it's still problematic for them to sell positions like that on non-public information like news of a new pandemic.

I agree, it's a start. But importantly it (attempts to) align their interests with the broader US economy. Also it still allows them to invest for their personal futures, which I believe is a right.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#56

Post by mattferderer »

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 little more but would eventually come back down or at least trade sideways & not go over $160 by 6/18. If he sold his ITM calls before March or in early March, he probably did good. If he held on to them until closer to the 19th, he might have got crushed. This doesn't say when he sold. A lot of people argued stocks were overbought after January. Also, if he owns a large share of MSFT it's common to sell calls when you want to keep your shares but think the price is at the top or there is a lot of volatility that will soon go away. It's a way to earn some income without selling.

- None of this is financial advice & I'm fairly ignorant on this topic.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#57

Post by BrianOnHN »

Scoundreller wrote: post #51
BrianOnHN wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or get a handle on the wealth inequality that makes the way we compensate our top elected officials seemingly insignificant.

Maybe we could stop making fun of (the very few) people using their stimulus checks to buy stocks. When I hear that, I’m like, great. Don’t bail out corporations, give people money directly and let them decide if they want to acquire a stake or not.

> Don’t bail out corporations, give people money directly and let them decide if they want to acquire a stake or not.

I haven't thought of it like that, but it makes a lot more sense than "trickle-down" economics. (Quotes because of the disgust it triggers)

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#58

Post by ihsw »

slibhb wrote: post #19
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?

Is this not already illegal? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOCK_Act

Is it worthwhile to call it illegal when it's not enforced?

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#60

Post by giantg2 »

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?

"The very people whose job it should be to stop this sort of thing are the ones who are profiting from it."

Welcome to the system. This is pervasive in many other aspects as well (court, police, DA, etc).

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