In an efficient market, it is believed that everyone has equal information, nonetheless the way the market interprets and reacts to the information may vary.
But the market speculated that maybe Nancy Pelosi, the congresswoman who’s been one of the most active traders in Capitol Hill, has more knowledge than the rest of us regarding to investments.
Nancy Pelosi is a democrat politician and a representative fom California and she was known to sell part her Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) stocks inr December 2022, only a month before the DOJ came out with its antitrust lawsuit targeting Google’s advertising practices in January 2023.
The timing of Pelosi’s stock sale and the DOJ’s lawsuit caught people’s attention that maybe she had prior knowledge of the lawsuit.
Well, the lawsuit was initially filed in October 2020. The DOJ accused Google running monopoly practices over the online search. The lawsuit was then developed in January 2023 targeting Google’s digital advertisingpractices.
And now in 2024 the DOJ proposed a remedy to Google to sell its web browser Chrome. This is one of the most significant antitrust cases against technology company after Microsoft’s case in the late 1990s.
As this case resurface, people in many investing forums are buzzing about Pelosi’s Google stock sale that occurred just a month prior to the DOJ’s second lawsuit. She might be a prominent political figure, and her influence in policy and funding decisions may affect the DOJ’s operations, but she has no direct hand in determining DOJ’s decisions.
Nancy Pelosi as Investment Guru?
Let’s admit it, she’s good with her investments with impressive gains in her portfolio. In 2023 alone her portfolio earned her a staggering $43 million and already accumulated $23 million in profits since the beginning of 2024.
Maybe she has more knowledge than most market participants or she just simply good with her investment screening? Let’s take a look at her portfolio and track her trading activity a little closer.
Gurufocus has Politician Trading Tracker feature (that I just discover recently), and Nancy Pelosi is in the politician list.
Her most recent transaction was on July 26, 2024 she purchased shares of NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) and now the price is already 24% higher than her purchase price.
On the display we also can see that she exited fully on Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) on June 24, 2024 and the price closed on the date at $182.58 per share. Just for your information she bought Tesla on March 18, 2022 at $301 per hare, that means she lost. And now Tesla’s current price is $352.26 per piece.
If our assumption that she knew something outside us; the commoners, then she exiting on certain stock must be anticipated. Turns out, her selling on Tesla break the assumption.
And after Nvidia, she also sold partially her Microsoft and Visa shares in July 2024. While the price of Microsoft oscillated under the range of $410s- to 420s, Visa now has moved 14% higher since July.
And look at the two option calls that she did on Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Palo Alto Network (NASDAQ:PANW). See the strike price; $800 for AVGO to be exercised on June 20, 2025? Wow! That’s aggressive, 487% higher from AVGO’s current price!
Meanwhile, she did a good job with PANW, she sets the call’s strike price at $200, where today’s price for PANW is $383. The exercise price was set on January 17, 2025.
Looking at her decisions; bought NVDA, sold partially MSFT and V, and her two options calls, maybe she really does her homework, she screens and stockpicks with not much whispers from the DOJ, or any other government bodies.
Unlike the DOJ that against Google’s dominance, I’m a big fan of Google’s web browser Chrome and the fact that Google dominates the world is something that doesn’t bother me. Her timing of exiting Google caught my attention too.
But other than Google, her investment decision is much like us the commoners; some end up well and some fail. Again, maybe she’s just a common investor (with power in the congress) and do things like any of us do; screen and stockpick in good old-fashioned way. What do you think?
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Add Comment