Recently, we have been working on a new project.
It is a web application to fetch the public politicians’ trading information and notify subscribers of the information.
Why it matters?
Government employees typically possess significantly more information than the general public. Therefore, it raises questions about whether it is appropriate for them to engage in trading activities. Refer to the image below from the Daily Mail. Their gains are higher compared to the market index.
Before the enactment of the Stock ACT of 2012, the situation regarding trading among US Congress members was troubling, marked by numerous instances of questionable activity. Subsequently, there have been notable improvements due to the mandate for all Congress members and US government employees to disclose their trading activities within 45 days, particularly for transactions exceeding $1000. While it’s unlikely that this legislation completely eradicates “insider trading“, it does provide the public with an opportunity to monitor these activities more closely.
Take Nancy Pelosi as an example: she invested in NVIDIA when the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of State (DoS) released AI strategies in November 2023. By March, her return from this single investment had exceeded 70%, marking a substantial gain. Notably, NVIDIA, a provider of AI chips, reached its historically the highest price during this period.
This is why we want to build this project, the PelosiTrade.com, to monitor the move of the congress members at the share market.
How it works?
It continuously tracks the published trade information for the US Congress and as soon as there are new trades, the trade information is emailed to the users. The workflow is as follows.
1. Fetch from the source, such as the Senate website.
2. Extract the information.
3. Send emails to subscribers.
In Sum
Can individual investors expect the same level of success as members of Congress? It’s unlikely. Politicians have access to a wealth of information that isn’t readily available to the public, giving them a significant advantage in the stock market. However, tracking their investment moves can provide valuable insights and bring us closer to understanding their strategies. Take Pelosi, for example. She bought NVIDIA shares around 22 November 2023 at around $500 each. By 11 April 2024, the share price had risen to over $870. Although her trading activity wasn’t disclosed until 21 December 2023, when the closing price was around $489, it’s clear that following her investment could yield substantial profits.
References
- Want to beat the stock market? Just copy Congress! Politicians’ trades perform twice as well as market average and Nancy Pelosi’s portfolio has grown by 50 PERCENT in 2023 – Dailymail
- Is Pelosi doing illegal trade in the stock market? – Quora
- It’s not just Nancy Pelosi — plenty of government insiders are trading stocks at our expense — New York Post
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