US politicians seem to know something about the stock market that ordinary Americans don’t.
Since April 2020, the value of the S&P 500 has surged by a heady 165pc. But over the same period, the stocks most purchased by members of Congress or their families have registered paper gains of no less than 465pc.
That’s according to a trading strategy designed by a start-up called Quiver Quantitative. American lawmakers are so consistently successful that a flurry of new platforms and apps now compile filing data from US politicians as a key input in strategies for retail investors and even hedge funds.
The number of people using these so-called “copy trading” strategies has exploded. Tens of thousands of Americans now follow and imitate trades made by members of Congress, and they are making millions of dollars in the process.
New plans to ban members of Congress from trading could make the boom short-lived, however. The ban comes amid concerns that politicians are unfairly profiting from information gained in their privileged position as a representative of the American people.
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi is the old guard of Congressional trading and by far the most copied. The trades she discloses have developed such a reputation for out-performance that they have become market moving in themselves.
In January, for example, Pelosi disclosed an investment in a health tech company called Tempus AI. Retail investors piled in. The company’s share options surged 124pc.
“It’s all INSIDE INFORMATION! Is anybody looking into this??? She is a disgusting degenerate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this month.
Pelosi says all the trades are made by her husband, a property investor, and she has no involvement in the transactions.
Whatever motivates these trades, it is becoming increasingly lucrative for a growing cohort of everyday Americans.
Dub launched in March 2024 as America’s first regulated brokerage to offer copy trading accounts to mimic politicians and star traders.
“It’s been absolutely insane in terms of growth,” says Steven Wang, the founder and chief executive who dropped out of his freshman year at Harvard to build the platform. Today, it has 1.5 million users across America.
