Unusual Whales, a stock, options, market-moving news service, released its 2023 Congressional trading report.

The findings by Unusual Whales places the microscope on Capitol Hill corruption and stock trading used to make financial gains.

“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,” Unusual Whales wrote.

“This year, Democrats absolutely dominated their Republican counterparts. Dems were up 31%, and Republicans 18%. Meanwhile, the S&P500 itself was up 24%. Many traded despite conflicts in their committees in record numbers,” Unusual Whales added.

The public servants with the highest returns included:

  • Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY)
  • Rep. Mark Green (R-TN)
  • Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA)
  • Rep. David Rouzer (R-NC)
  • Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA)
  • Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)

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“Many members in Congress made huge gains in their portfolios after a market record year for $SPY. Sadly many members had more trades than legislative votes this year. Here are some of the highest realized gains this year,” Unusual Whales wrote.

“What is absolutely insane is that Congress was trading options once again in 2023. Notionally, they traded more in 2023 than last year! The amounts are crazy: +$150 million while Congress was in session including Pelosi’s $NVDA trades,” Unusual Whales continued.

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“Here is a longer table for many member’s portfolio returns. The names are across the aisle, from Democrats to Republicans. Famous traders like Dan Crenshaw, Nancy Pelosi, Josh Gottheimer and others all beat the market this year,” Unusual Whales wrote.

“Congress on average beat the market in 2022 and did better in 2023. I will not stop fighting market and political transparency until Congress is banned from trading,” Unusual Whales added.

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* Images from Unusual Whales X Posts *

X users commented on the stock trading corruption:

From Unusual Whales:

Members of Congress are required to disclose their personal finances through financial disclosure procedures. Financial disclosure forms are filed annually and every time they or their families make a trade. These forms are made available to the public through the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Office of the Secretary of the Senate. These forms are a key tool for promoting ethical conduct in Congress and are an important part of efforts to promote integrity and transparency in the legislative process.

This report analyzes data obtained from publicly accessible financial disclosure forms. We tried to compile all transactions published from 2020 to December 31, 2023. Politicians have up to 45 days to disclose transactions, though there are cases where transactions are filed years later with seemingly no penalty. This delay means that at the time of compiling this report, not all disclosures for 2023 may have been published.

We’ve been doing this report for four years now and we’ve accumulated a lot of data. This year, we’ll comment on trading trends over the last couple years. Since 2020, we’ve had 3 different classes come through those hallowed halls of Congress, with prominent stock traders coming and going. Let’s look at the broad trends and see if we can draw any conclusions from them. We outline our methodology and assumptions in the meat of the report.

Read the complete breakdown at Unusual Whales.

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