Report: Members of Congress Made a Killing in the 2023 Stock Market

January 3, 2024

3 min read

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Amid the ongoing debate over the ethics of individual stock trading by members of Congress, American lawmakers once again managed to rake in record profits from suspiciously savvy investing. According to a new report, high-profile members of the 118th Congress—Democrat and Republican alike—outperformed the S&P 500 by a significant margin.

A report published on Tuesday by stock tracker Unusual Whales highlights the eyebrow-raising investments of some of the most well-established individuals in Congress. Existing regulations require Congressional representatives to disclose any trades they or their family members make, with those disclosures made public through the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Office of the Secretary of the Senate. These reports are intended to ensure ethical behavior and prevent investments based on privileged insider information—but the reliability of this process has repeatedly been called into question.

The STOCK Act of 2012 technically prevents members of Congress from trading based on information learned through their work, but legislators are free to trade as they see fit provided the transaction is reported within 45 days. This extends even to stocks that are directly affected by Congressional bills.

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According to Unusual Whales’ findings, 33 percent of the 115 trading representatives beat the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) with their portfolios in 2023—and Democrats took in the overwhelming majority of the earnings.

Some of the most notable establishment figures on the list include:

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), up 65.5 percent,
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), up 18.1 percent,
Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), up 38.2 percent,
Dan Goldman (D-NY), up 52.8 percent.

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Garrett Graves, as well as Senators Tommy Tuberville and Ron Wyden, were also on the list.

However, far and away the biggest gains were reported by Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY), who sits on the House Committees on the Budget and Ways and Means. In the last year, Higgins’ portfolio saw gains of 238.9 percent. In that same time period, the SPY was only up by 24 percent.

(Source: UnusualWhales.com)

“Democrats came out on top significantly, due to their heavy tech portfolios. Republicans only returned around 18 percent, which is still great,” the study reported. “They underperformed as an aggregate because their portfolios are mainly in financials, oil, and commodities, which had a difficult year due to the banking collapses and high rate hikes.”

The report also found that, while members of Congress reported more than $1 billion in transactions in 2023, the total number of disclosures has significantly decreased since 2020, when the first Unusual Whales report was published. The number of legislators reporting transactions also dropped by a sizeable margin, likely due to the controversy over Congressional trading.

Other findings included hundreds of healthcare, financial service, and tech stocks purchased by members of the House Oversight and Armed Services Committees.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who sits on both committees, made 1,589 separate purchases in health care, financial services, technology, real estate, and other sectors while also selling $26 million worth of stocks. This is particularly interesting given Khanna’s outspoken stance against Congressional trading, which has even included a proposed bill to outlaw it entirely.

The full 2023 Congressional Trading Report from Unusual Whales can be read here.

🚨BREAKING🚨

I have just released the full report on politicians trading in 2023.

Like every year since 2020, US politicians beat the market.

And many in Congress made unusually timed trades resulting in huge gains.

Here are the top performers of 2023. pic.twitter.com/ykf9VICsBw

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) January 2, 2024