Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi beat the S&P 500 by nearly 200% in 2024, continuing her streak of outperforming the stock index.
Pelosi’s portfolio grew 70.9% between Dec. 29, 2023, and Dec. 30, 2024, compared to the S&P 500’s 24.9% return for the period, according to financial data platform Unusual Whales’ 2024 Congress Trading Report. The former speaker’s 2024 investment results exceeded her stellar 2023 performance, when she secured a return of 65.5% — outperforming that year’s S&P 500 return of 24.8% by approximately 164%.
Pelosi outdid many of the world’s oldest and largest hedge funds in 2024, including Citadel, which had $66 billion in assets under management as of December, and Discovery Capital, which has been around for over 25 years and had $15 billion in assets under management at its peak. She also outperformed legendary investor Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, more than doubling its 27.1% 2024 return.
Pelosi’s trades are executed on her behalf by her husband, Paul, an investment banker whose strategy largely consists of buying call options — financial contracts that provide buyers with the right to purchase an asset at a predetermined price — in large technology companies after they experience price drops, according to Unusual Whales. The strategy appeared successful in 2024, with Pelosi’s contracts to purchase chipmaker Nvidia finishing the year up 273% and her contracts to purchase cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks up 93% as of Jan. 7.
“Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks, and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions,” a spokesman for Pelosi’s office told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Pelosi has made other shrewd trades in the past, unloading more than $1.5 million worth of stock in Google’s holding company Alphabet one month before the Department of Justice announced an antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant.
The longtime congresswoman has faced backlash for her investments in the past, with Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley introducing the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act in January 2023, which would have prohibited members of Congress from trading stocks.
“For too long, politicians in Washington have taken advantage of the economic system they write the rules for, turning profits for themselves at the expense of the American people,” Hawley said in a Jan. 2023 statement. “As members of Congress, both Senators and Representatives are tasked with providing oversight of the same companies they invest in, yet they continually buy and sell stocks, outperforming the market time and again.”
Pelosi has refuted insider trading accusations, and even supported the 2023-2024 Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act after dropping her opposition to a stock trading ban ahead of the 2022 midterm.
Featured Image Credit: Nancy Pelosi
