Chris Josephs, the 29-year-old creator of the "Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker" X account, recently shared insights into the trading activities of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, on a podcast with Tucker Carlson, co-founder of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Josephs' interest was piqued by the Pelosis' substantial net worth, which has been linked to Paul's successful trading, particularly in tech stocks.
Josephs explained to Carlson that Pelosi's trading activities have been generating headlines due to the sheer volume of her transactions. "Pelosi gets a lot of headlines for obvious reasons. One, millions, [she] massively outweighs what the other politicians are trading. Im talking like shes trading 50 million to 60 million while everyone else is trading smaller amounts," he said.
The Pelosis' net worth has seen a significant increase since their marriage. "When she got married to Paul, they were worth around $20 million. Their net worth now is around $260 million. So youre 10 X-ing that. How? Josephs asked. He attributed this increase to Pelosi's trading activities, which gained momentum in 2020 with the purchase of Tesla stocks.
In 2021, Pelosi defended the right of lawmakers and their spouses to participate in the stock market as part of a "free-market economy." This stance came amidst reports that at least 75 lawmakers had invested in companies crucial to the U.S. COVID response.
Josephs noted that the public's attention was drawn to Pelosi's trading activities during the COVID pandemic. 2020 comes around, COVID, so people already necessarily know about her. She now starts trading stocks again, and its beginning, blown up on social media because while everyones with COVID, what are they doing? Josephs said. Theyre on social media, and theyre trading stocks. So now everyones acutely watching these things and paying attention."
Josephs highlighted that Pelosi's trading strategy involved the purchase of Long-Term Equity Anticipation Securities (LEAPS), which he described as an "options contract that allows you to buy a stock and be bullish on a stock at a much cheaper cost basis."
According to the Daily Caller, Paul Pelosi purchased 25 Tesla call options on Dec. 22, 2020, with a strike price of $500, making their value somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million. This move was made just weeks before former President Joe Biden unveiled his electric vehicle plan, which aimed to replace the U.S. federal fleet of gas-powered vehicles with electric vehicles.
Paul's successful trades were not limited to Tesla. He also made profitable bets on Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Apple Inc. stock in 2021, just weeks before the House Judiciary Committee voted on antitrust legislation limiting how these companies organize and offer their products. Bloomberg reported that financial disclosures signed by Pelosi showed that Paul exercised call options to acquire 4,000 shares of Alphabet at a strike price of $1,200, resulting in a gain of $4.8 million, which reportedly rose to $5.3 million as the shares jumped.
Josephs pointed out that Pelosi's trading activities, while not necessarily secretive, were conducted in a high-risk manner that has now caught the public's attention. That was the first trade that I think re-triggered everyones mind until like, Wait a second, this may not be the sketchiest trade in the world because those things were still public, but how are they allowed to necessarily do that? How is Pelosi, the third most powerful person in America how are we allowing that? Josephs asked.
Josephs' revelations have sparked a debate about the ethics and legality of lawmakers participating in stock trading, particularly when they have access to non-public information that could influence their trading decisions. This issue is likely to remain in the spotlight as more details about the Pelosis' trading activities continue to emerge.
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