On Nov 22nd, Nancy Pelosi and her husband bought Nvidia, $NVDA call options, a leveraged bet Nvidia would go up.
Since then, her Nvidia calls are up 85%. Her calls have made her $1.8 million, over EIGHT times her salary in 93 days.
I want to give you the history of Pelosi’s trading, $NVDA, and show the conflicts within Congress:
Let’s start in December 2021. After a history of unusual trading, from Visa, trading during the GFC, and buying before stimulus bills, Nancy Pelosi was asked if she thinks US Congress members should trade despite legislative conflicts by Bryan Metzger.
She said, "We are a free market economy. Congress should be able to participate in that". Insane.
In Jan 2022 Unusual Whales releases their most famous trading report, showing Congress beat the market. Nancy Pelosi is listed as the fifth best trader in Congress.
That report creates a flurry of media and outrage. Within seven days of publishing, five new bills banning members of Congress from trading are proposed for the first time ever. Unusual Whales changes history.
But in the summer of 2022, it is revealed that Nancy Pelosi was trading millions of dollars of $NVDA, Nvidia before voting on a US semiconductor bill by the Biden administration.
We reported on her trading to outrage by the public. Interestingly, for the first time in history, a few days later Nancy Pelosi disclosed trades made on the same day they were made. This is likely the fastest disclosure in history of US Congress. She reported that she sold out of her Nvidia position, the first time she divested from conflicts in her portfolio. Despite taking 45 days for every other disclosure, she made this one instantly. Hilarious.
One month later Nancy Pelosi proposed alongside Representative Lofgren her own Congressional trading ban, a bill which was incredibly weak and filled with loopholes.
And then, Pelosi stopped trading. Well, until her $NVDA leveraged bet.
You should be reminded that in August of 2022, Pelosi met with TSMC Chairman Mark Liu, showing how critically important semiconductors were to U.S. national security and the integral role that the company plays in making the most advanced chips.
One week after Chinese President Xi visits her home state of California in 2023, and before Biden announced new US semiconductor focuses over this year in 2024, her husband decided to buy two million dollars of deep in-the-money Nvidia calls, the same company she divested from due to conflicts a year earlier. This is her largest trade in years.
What’s worse on Dec 11th, before she bought in November, U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo said that Nvidia could sell slower AI chips to China to comply with US export controls. And then, on Dec 28th, NVDA launched a modified version of an advanced chip precisely to get around US restrictions.
Nvidia now has released new US chips, and has hit all time highs. Of course, none of this is insider trading, but it does seem unusual, especially given scrutiny of Nvida by the government.
Why does she trade ITM tech calls, you may ask? It allows for one to be bullish with less capital upfront due to capital efficiency in options, and the contracts move 1 delta to the stock. We wrote more about it on our research site, which you can find in our bio.
One terrible thing about this trade is that it was done when Congress was in session!!!!!! You can use Unusual Whales to find the exact price she paid for her options and leveraged bets, which was done twenty minutes before the close of the market.
If you think that one of the most powerful politicians in the US can, or even should, have leveraged bets over an incredibly important company to US infrastructure, that is okay. But there might be something worthwhile in understanding how members of Congress trade, and the data suggests as such. Especially if that member is outperforming generally. Pelosi herself has lost a ton on trades, including when she divested from $NVDA last year, and yet despite that she decided to enter into it again. Her re-entry becomes interesting because of her timing, exiting the trade publically and quickly before (for a loss), but now making triple the loss amount in 92 days now.
And so we will keep reporting on Pelosi, and Congress, and the history of unusual trading. Pelosi's portfolio itself is up around 88% over twelve months. If you want to find and follow her portfolio, you can do so on Unusual Whales in our Portfolio tab.
Pelosi has made more than ten million this year alone off her tech portfolio, with a networth close to likely a quarter of billion. No matter what trade or conflict though, I will report on it. If you believe this is an important issue, I ask you share this tweet with your friends, and family.
Congress cannot hide from me, I will continue to report on the data, and I will not stop until Congress is banned from trading.
BREAKING: Nancy Pelosi’s portfolio, once again, has hit a new all time high.
She is up 83.45%.
This year alone, her positions have made over three million in gains.