NYT investigation into politicians trading stocks (1 Viewer)

[the moops]

Good twitter thread on this investigation. There is zero reason why this **** should be allowed. Here is a sampling of their findings https://twitter.com/Chrisjjosephs/status/1570491404153159680

They found that 81 Democrats & 101 Republicans filed up to 3,700 trades and $100M in possible volume Many had 100% winners, with some perfectly timed Here’s examples of just how good they were

Alan Lowenthal (D) CA sits on the Transportation Committee His wife made some well timed trades on Boeing, $BA On Mar 5 2020 she sold ~30K of $BA shares One day later his committee releases damaging findings on the 737 Jet $BA went onto fall 35%+ in a week

(Again) Alan Lowenthal (D) CA sits on the Natural Resources Committee His wife perfectly played two rallies on Sunrun $RUN Nov 2019, bought ~$30K @ $14.50 Feb 2020, sold ~45K @ $21 Mar 2020, bought back in @ $9 & sold 78 times as the stock ran to $80 Thats a cool 780% return

Mike Kelly (R) PA His wife bought ~$50K of $CLF just one day after being briefed that the Commerce Dept. launched an investigation to benefit the company She bought at $4.70 and sold at $18.11, a 300% gain Interestingly, this was the only individual trade she made that year

Richard Burr (R) NC sits as the Head Intelligence Committee On 2/13/20 him & family liquidated their entire portfolio and went into treasury bonds One month later the $SPY had its fastest 30% decline in history This saved him $300K+ in possible losses

 

[The Commish]

Yep....this **** needs to go

 

[joffer]

one of the biggest scams going.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

 

[-fish-]

The last one could simply be Covid related. Anyone who dumped their portfolio in February 2020 probably saved themselves significant losses.

There is a site that tracks all of the reported transactions of members of the house and senate. It's interesting to see how they make moves. A lot of buying and selling the same stocks.

 

[The General]

I mean clearly these people are working with inside info with these trades and this should be treated like any other insider trading investigation. There are probably many, many more.

Allowing these people to trade stocks at any level is another issue. Do they have to put all investments in a blind trust? Do we have them report all trades and ones like these are blatant red flags?

Not sure what the timing is on them reporting but there are sites that track all the trades made by members of Congress. Someone should base fund around that...I'd invest.

 

[The General]

The last one could simply be Covid related. Anyone who dumped their portfolio in February 2020 probably saved themselves significant losses.

There is a site that tracks all of the reported transactions of members of the house and senate. It's interesting to see how they make moves. A lot of buying and selling the same stocks.

Yep. I did something similar with a significant chunk of my investments.

This guy was publically telling people to relax, everything is fine IIRC. I guess there is something to be said about him doing that.

 

[The General]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

 

[McBokonon]

They found that 81 Democrats & 101 Republicans filed up to 3,700 trades and $100M in possible volume

Finally some bipartisanship

 

[Amused to Death]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

Andy Kim (D-NJ) also proposed similar legislation in the House (my rep now that they changed congressional boundaries).

 

[The General]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

Thanks. I missed this when it was proposed. It doesn't address things like what the Burr guy did necessarily. I definitely seeing many in Congress not wanting to do that but if they can't control themselves something needs to address this.

I would think a solution would be blind trust or they make all their trades public (which I believe is already a thing, not sure of the specifics timing of reporting, etc).

 

[2Squirrels1Nut]

It's about time

 

[the moops]

The last one could simply be Covid related. Anyone who dumped their portfolio in February 2020 probably saved themselves significant losses.

In February we were hardy panicking though. This guy had inside info that **** was gonna get real and instead of relaying that info to the public he quietly dumped all his stocks to preserve his wealth.

 

[The General]

The last one could simply be Covid related. Anyone who dumped their portfolio in February 2020 probably saved themselves significant losses.

In February we were hardy panicking though. This guy had inside info that **** was gonna get real and instead of relaying that info to the public he quietly dumped all his stocks to preserve his wealth.

I‘d have to go back and look but I believe I sold a large chunk of stuff March 5 or so. I’m not saying this was smart (in most circumstances it is definitely not) but at the time but it was sounding beyond scary which was why I did this.

I am also not saying that these people are not using inside info - which is illegal - and that they have gotten away with it is of course BS. It seems like in many cases they obviously have. Why this hasn’t been investigated and people charged is wild.

Flatly making a law that says Joe Blow congressman can’t trade Google or Starbucks doesn’t necessarily seem the best way to do this either. If they make trades they should all be tracked and made public seems reasonable to me.

 

[stlrams]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

The sad part of that proposal is people working for financial institutions are held to a higher standard.

 

[the moops]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

The sad part of that proposal is people working for financial institutions are held to a higher standard.

I don't understand what you mean?

 

[stlrams]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

The sad part of that proposal is people working for financial institutions are held to a higher standard.

I don't understand what you mean?

My friend works for a financial institution, he must hold individual stocks minimum of 90 days, only allowed x number of trades per month, must file al trades etc. I believe all of Wall Street have restrictions.

 

[the moops]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

The sad part of that proposal is people working for financial institutions are held to a higher standard.

I don't understand what you mean?

My friend works for a financial institution, he must hold individual stocks minimum of 90 days, only allowed x number of trades per month, must file al trades etc. I believe all of Wall Street have restrictions.

Ahh I see. Yea, there are even reporters who aren't allowed to trade stocks. I was confused by your "sad part of the proposal" part. Seems that this proposal would place stricter controls than any other industry

 

[stlrams]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

The sad part of that proposal is people working for financial institutions are held to a higher standard.

I don't understand what you mean?

My friend works for a financial institution, he must hold individual stocks minimum of 90 days, only allowed x number of trades per month, must file al trades etc. I believe all of Wall Street have restrictions.

Ahh I see. Yea, there are even reporters who aren't allowed to trade stocks. I was confused by your "sad part of the proposal" part. Seems that this proposal would place stricter controls than any other industry

From my quick review, the restrictions are below Wall Street requirements.

 

[The General]

Googling around a couple interesting sites tracking this stuff:

Link

Link

 

[the moops]

From my quick review, the restrictions are below Wall Street requirements.

I don't know Wall St requirements, but this proposal outright bans any member of congress or their spouse from owning and trading individual stocks, bonds, commodities, futures, and other securities

 

[Sand]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

Andy Kim (D-NJ) also proposed similar legislation in the House (my rep now that they changed congressional boundaries).

Pelosi is on the record as being staunchly against this, so it won't go anywhere while she is in charge.

 

[Amused to Death]

Pelosi is on the record as being staunchly against this, so it won't go anywhere while she is in charge.

Maybe the new Speaker will take it up after the midterms.

 

[the moops]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

Andy Kim (D-NJ) also proposed similar legislation in the House (my rep now that they changed congressional boundaries).

Pelosi is on the record as being staunchly against this, so it won't go anywhere while she is in charge.

I think she has more recently relented and has come out in support of this moving forward

 

[The General]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

Andy Kim (D-NJ) also proposed similar legislation in the House (my rep now that they changed congressional boundaries).

Pelosi is on the record as being staunchly against this, so it won't go anywhere while she is in charge.

I don't doubt that. I'd think many of them wouldn't want it completely removing their ability to do this. Not being able to trade stocks, I'd assume for your spouse as well, would be prohibitive for many people.

It's a tricky thing. what they have now is pretty ****ed though.

 

[The Commish]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

Andy Kim (D-NJ) also proposed similar legislation in the House (my rep now that they changed congressional boundaries).

Pelosi is on the record as being staunchly against this, so it won't go anywhere while she is in charge.

It's not going anywhere regardless of who's in charge

 

[stlrams]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

Andy Kim (D-NJ) also proposed similar legislation in the House (my rep now that they changed congressional boundaries).

Pelosi is on the record as being staunchly against this, so it won't go anywhere while she is in charge.

It's not going anywhere regardless of who's in charge

Let’s make money... suckers.

 

[Sand]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

Andy Kim (D-NJ) also proposed similar legislation in the House (my rep now that they changed congressional boundaries).

Pelosi is on the record as being staunchly against this, so it won't go anywhere while she is in charge.

I think she has more recently relented and has come out in support of this moving forward

Publicly relented, but as we all know this has died on the vine. So quietly quashed.

In other words, until something actually happens I don't believe a bloody word. Her husband makes way, way too much off of her access to easily give that up.

 

[The General]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

Andy Kim (D-NJ) also proposed similar legislation in the House (my rep now that they changed congressional boundaries).

Pelosi is on the record as being staunchly against this, so it won't go anywhere while she is in charge.

I think she has more recently relented and has come out in support of this moving forward

Publicly relented, but as we all know this has died on the vine. So quietly quashed.

In other words, until something actually happens I don't believe a bloody word. Her husband makes way, way too much off of her access to easily give that up.

What trades did he make that are suspicious?

 

[joffer]

Pelosi is awful on this. Should be voted out on this alone.

 

[dickey moe]

Ever wonder why so many members of Congress parlay their "service" into millions of net worth? Yep

 

[The General]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

Andy Kim (D-NJ) also proposed similar legislation in the House (my rep now that they changed congressional boundaries).

Pelosi is on the record as being staunchly against this, so it won't go anywhere while she is in charge.

I think she has more recently relented and has come out in support of this moving forward

Publicly relented, but as we all know this has died on the vine. So quietly quashed.

In other words, until something actually happens I don't believe a bloody word. Her husband makes way, way too much off of her access to easily give that up.

We’ll see

Pelosi Says Congress Stock Trading Bill Could Go To Floor This Month​

 

[fruity pebbles]

Maybe Gary Gensler will come out his coma and look into it. Nah, he's too busy talking about climate rules. Not sure what that has to do with the SEC.

 

[FairWarning]

Maybe Gary Gensler will come out his coma and look into it. Nah, he's too busy talking about climate rules. Not sure what that has to do with the SEC.

It will be interesting to see who is invested in corporations that benefit from climate change. The same applies top electric cars.

Follow the Money always applies.

 

[The General]

Maybe Gary Gensler will come out his coma and look into it. Nah, he's too busy talking about climate rules. Not sure what that has to do with the SEC.

It will be interesting to see who is invested in corporations that benefit from climate change. The same applies top electric cars.

Follow the Money always applies.

Would it be that unusual to have been trading say Tesla, GM, PLUG, ChargePoint etc over the past few years?

 

[FairWarning]

Maybe Gary Gensler will come out his coma and look into it. Nah, he's too busy talking about climate rules. Not sure what that has to do with the SEC.

It will be interesting to see who is invested in corporations that benefit from climate change. The same applies top electric cars.

Follow the Money always applies.

Would it be that unusual to have been trading say Tesla, GM, PLUG, ChargePoint etc over the past few years?

The difference is they are far more connected than us. I don’t need Debbie Stabenow pimping electric cars while being heavily invested in that sector of transportation.

 

[Amused to Death]

Maybe Gary Gensler will come out his coma and look into it. Nah, he's too busy talking about climate rules. Not sure what that has to do with the SEC.

It will be interesting to see who is invested in corporations that benefit from climate change. The same applies top electric cars.

Follow the Money always applies.

Would it be that unusual to have been trading say Tesla, GM, PLUG, ChargePoint etc over the past few years?

The difference is they are far more connected than us. I don’t need Debbie Stabenow pimping electric cars while being heavily invested in that sector of transportation.

Or Senators who own coal companies fight against green energy.

 

[The General]

Maybe Gary Gensler will come out his coma and look into it. Nah, he's too busy talking about climate rules. Not sure what that has to do with the SEC.

It will be interesting to see who is invested in corporations that benefit from climate change. The same applies top electric cars.

Follow the Money always applies.

Would it be that unusual to have been trading say Tesla, GM, PLUG, ChargePoint etc over the past few years?

The difference is they are far more connected than us. I don’t need Debbie Stabenow pimping electric cars while being heavily invested in that sector of transportation.

You can see what they trade.

This almost seems like an argument like they can’t own any business.

 

[Sand]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

Andy Kim (D-NJ) also proposed similar legislation in the House (my rep now that they changed congressional boundaries).

Pelosi is on the record as being staunchly against this, so it won't go anywhere while she is in charge.

I think she has more recently relented and has come out in support of this moving forward

Publicly relented, but as we all know this has died on the vine. So quietly quashed.

In other words, until something actually happens I don't believe a bloody word. Her husband makes way, way too much off of her access to easily give that up.

What trades did he make that are suspicious?

That's like counting the stars in the sky.

 

[The General]

Elizabeth Warren sponsored legislation to end this but good luck getting the rest of Congress to agree.

What was her proposal?

Members of Congress would not be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.

Link

Andy Kim (D-NJ) also proposed similar legislation in the House (my rep now that they changed congressional boundaries).

Pelosi is on the record as being staunchly against this, so it won't go anywhere while she is in charge.

I think she has more recently relented and has come out in support of this moving forward

Publicly relented, but as we all know this has died on the vine. So quietly quashed.

In other words, until something actually happens I don't believe a bloody word. Her husband makes way, way too much off of her access to easily give that up.

What trades did he make that are suspicious?

That's like counting the stars in the sky.

I think her or her husband’s trades should be looked at like everyone else’s - that’s why they should all be made public.

If someone had options out on say Apple or Coke and did well I‘d also not really think anything of it.

Maybe some FBG who works for the SEC can weigh in but don’t they look for unusual timing, very profitable trades, etc.

 

[The Z Machine]

It's super gross that Congresspeople are timing trades like this.

Can they be forced to report their trades in real time?

 

[The General]

It's super gross that Congresspeople are timing trades like this.

Can they be forced to report their trades in real time?

This is what I think would be more effective and realistic than across the board telling anyone you simply can’t own a mutual fund or trade company xyz.

 

[The Z Machine]

It's super gross that Congresspeople are timing trades like this.

Can they be forced to report their trades in real time?

This is what I think would be more effective and realistic than across the board telling anyone you simply can’t own a mutual fund or trade company xyz.

And I would tail them with a 3x leveraged ETF.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

This is what I think would be more effective and realistic than across the board telling anyone you simply can’t own a mutual fund or trade company xyz.

I’m pretty sure people in Congress could still invest in mutual funds under Warren’s proposal. I really don’t see it as onerous as you seem to. It wouldn’t force members of Congress to be poor. They just might not make as much money as they otherwise might. That doesn’t seem too big a sacrifice for someone that wants to represent people in Congress.

 

[The General]

This is what I think would be more effective and realistic than across the board telling anyone you simply can’t own a mutual fund or trade company xyz.

I’m pretty sure people in Congress could still invest in mutual funds under Warren’s proposal. I really don’t see it as onerous as you seem to. It wouldn’t force members of Congress to be poor. They just might not make as much money as they otherwise might. That doesn’t seem too big a sacrifice for someone that wants to represent people in Congress.

What stops them from telling kids to buy XYZ Corp stock, what stops them from investing in some index fund that is 100% tech if they are on the committee that gives them info in this field, etc.?

I don't necessarily have a problem with it I just don't know if it really does that much TBH and I do see it could limit some potential people who are talented, are not crooks, but want to do this work.

Having their trades be 100% public and trackable seems much more effective.

I would like everyone to be as rich as they want and have as many opportunities to do this if that is what drives them. Also want it to be done legally, fairly and this is a tricky lane to navigate with these people.

 

[-fish-]

The last one could simply be Covid related. Anyone who dumped their portfolio in February 2020 probably saved themselves significant losses.

In February we were hardy panicking though. This guy had inside info that **** was gonna get real and instead of relaying that info to the public he quietly dumped all his stocks to preserve his wealth.

I dumped a bunch of my stocks the week after this guy. Seattle area had the first US outbreak the third week of January.

There is a lot of shady stuff going on with these investments, but the timing of this one trade doesn't seem all that unusual.

 

[Desert_Power]

From my quick review, the restrictions are below Wall Street requirements.

I don't know Wall St requirements, but this proposal outright bans any member of congress or their spouse from owning and trading individual stocks, bonds, commodities, futures, and other securities

They vary greatly across and within different firms. Warren's proposal is a bit too much for my taste, but her heart is in the right place here. Something like minimum holding periods or making them wait for a purchase or sale could help a lot.

Obviously owning individual securities could bias the legislator. But so does owning shares or a private business. Or real estate. Or getting donations from companies or individuals. We cannot ban it all and I'm not sure banning public securities makes the most sense.

 

[FairWarning]

From my quick review, the restrictions are below Wall Street requirements.

I don't know Wall St requirements, but this proposal outright bans any member of congress or their spouse from owning and trading individual stocks, bonds, commodities, futures, and other securities

They vary greatly across and within different firms. Warren's proposal is a bit too much for my taste, but her heart is in the right place here. Something like minimum holding periods or making them wait for a purchase or sale could help a lot.

Obviously owning individual securities could bias the legislator. But so does owning shares or a private business. Or real estate. Or getting donations from companies or individuals. We cannot ban it all and I'm not sure banning public securities makes the most sense.

Probably a good start is having all federally elected congressmen/women file their taxes publically since they are getting paid by us. (dont get me started about Trump).

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

I would like everyone to be as rich as they want and have as many opportunities to do this if that is what drives them.

I don’t want legislators who are driven by becoming as personally rich as possible.