Next time your friend says it's only the Dems or Republicans, show them the thread below. It is likely your fav politician has abused their power + will continue to do so.
A thread of unusual/nefarious congressional trading:
1/n
On 5/21, Nancy Pelosi played $AMZN + $AAPL calls. 50 calls of strikes 3000 + 100 respectively, 6/17/22. Also did $GOOGL before record earnings beat (July 2021) + $NVDA PRESPLIT on 6/3. 6/17/22.
$AMZN gets 50% of JEDI contract one month later.
Pelosi beats indices by 25%.
2/n
Congresman Gianforte:
March 18 2020 buys 1 million in $GSK + 15k $SNY.
Both receive FDA approval days later.
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Congressman Gottheimer buying $MSFT leaps before $MSFT talks buying Discord.
He formerly worked at $MSFT, & is also on board of Congress entrepreneurship.
3/n
Congressman Langevin is an exceptional options trader.
In 2019 bought $BABA calls right before a Chinese trade deal.
Sold $HUYA, $ROKU, $FB calls RIGHT BEFORE Covid.
He sits on the Cybersecurity committee and continues trading. Most active options trader in House.
4/n
Rep. Pat Fallon, who sits on subcommittee responsible for DoD software contracts + cybersecurity, sells up to $250,000 in $MSFT right before JEDI contract cancellation in June.
He sits on the direct committee knowledgeable of this deal
Has been investigated before.
5/n
$OSK x USPS blocked by the House for postal deal.
Sen Wyden bought $OSK three times (totalling 150k) in July 2020 before deal. Ran 200% profit.
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Marjorie Taylor Green: Despite being against Big Tech vocally + Silicon valley, buys $AAPL, $AMD, $CRM, $QCOM, $SQ, $AMAT.
6/n
May 24th $NVDA announces 4-1 split, rallying stock 10%.
Who knew? Politicians.
Take Rep. Ed Perlmutter who bought #NVDA BEFORE the CHIPS Act was introduced in the House.
Or Nancy Wyden, who purchased $NVDA, too.
Numerous politicans hold $NVDA, $AMD, lobby for chip deal.
7/n
On June 9, Senate passed a tech manufacturing bill to counter China.
House members bought semi-conductor stocks BEFOREHAND.
IE: Wyden $AAPL, $AMAT, $AVGO, $KLAC & $NVDA.
Roberts: On 07/09 he sold $15k $RMD, $APO before covid vaccine (both dropped as ventilator companies)
8/n
The House to decriminalize weed, many members made huge buys BEFORE.
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC) with $MO
- John Yarmuth (D-KY) with $TLRY, $BUD
- Brian Mast (R-FL) with $TLRY, $APHA
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Senate Republicans lots of stock sales at the beginning of the pandemic. Loeffler, Burr
9/n
Senator Dianne Feinstein and her husband conveniently sold off up to $6M of Allogene Therapeutics stocks between January 31 and February 18, 2020, plus selling tech pre covid crash.
Sen Roberts: presplit $TSLA one month earlier, sells one month later for +100%.
10/n
Senator James Inhofe sold up to $600k in stocks before pandemic in Feb (ie. BAM, C, DHR, INTU, AAPL, PYPL).
Senator Thomas Carper’s wife, a former DuPont executive, bought pandemic beneficiaries like $DIS, $CVS, $PEP, $PYPL in March and early April 2020.
11/n
April 2, 2020, Carper bought $DGX, a COVID-19 testing company. On Feb 16, 2021, she purchased $INTC 8-days before Biden signed his semiconductor executive order. Sen Carper 15k $BMY buy RIGHT before BMY announced their share buyback + a novel drug result published.
12/n
Sen Capito (Commerce, Science and Transportation), Bought pre gov deal $MSFT, $JNJ, $ABT March 3, 2020. Jan 6 buys $UNH 6 days before UNH's 13 billion deal + acquisition of Change Healthcare for $25.75.
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Sen Toomey (Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs): $AIV
13/n
Senator David Perdue’s biggest stock purchases in February 2020 were for $PFE, repeatedly buying into this pharmaceutical company only, up to $260k. 2 weeks later, Pfizer vaccine. He sold the majority of these on April 14, 2020 for a pretty $64k profit.
14/n
Senator Bill Cassidy: buys $MMM, $JNJ on March 9, 2020. Month later, $JNJ vaccine partnership.
Congressmen Mo Brooks, Ed Perlmutter and Mike Conaway $PFE in June/July right before the US gov signed a $1.95 billion vaccine contract
Virginia Foxx $50k in predeal $GSK.
15/n
March 12, 2020: Daniel Crenshaw buys 45k $AMZN. March 26, buys +50k $LUV, $HTZ + reopening stocks. Denies severity of pandemic
COVID Relief Bill Dec 2020 with funding for clean energy.
Oct 28: Susan Davis $50k Canadian Solar Inc (other members follow in $PLUG, $TSLA, etc)
16/n
Week before the House Judiciary Committee voted on big tech, Pelosi’s husband exercised a bullish Google bet, via ITM 5 million dollar $GOOGL calls.
This netted $5.3 million.
She did the EXACT same thing before $MSFT x Pentagon deal March 2021, exercising their LEAPs.
17/n
This will never stop. Congress has continually used their power to outperform the market.
BREAKING: The US is now running Venezuela, Trump has said.
What stocks could benefit from these plays?
Let's dig in.
Defense, AI, Drones & Strategic Infrastructure
Lockheed Martin (LMT) — Prime beneficiary of sustained U.S. defense budgets across missiles, space, and ISR; program depth makes it a core “steady flow” name when geopolitical risk rises.
Northrop Grumman (NOC) — Heavy exposure to stealth, space systems, and nuclear modernization; long-duration contracts provide visibility well into the 2030s.
RTX (RTX) — Missiles, air defense, and radar systems keep RTX central to replenishment cycles driven by global conflicts.
General Dynamics (GD) — Submarines, armored vehicles, and IT systems make GD a beneficiary of both naval expansion and land-force modernization.
Kratos Defense (KTOS) — Jet-powered autonomous drones and hypersonics place Kratos directly in the shift toward scalable, unmanned warfare.
AeroVironment (AVAV) — Tactical UAVs and loitering munitions tied to near-term Army and border-security contract catalysts.
AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) — Space-based connectivity and surveillance gain strategic importance as Space Force funding and redundancy requirements expand.
Over the last few weeks it has become apparent that Wall Street & US politicians were getting tariff news before the rest of the market.
FOX news confirmed this saying WallStreet was getting updates on tariff deals.
And now NY AG Letitia James is reportedly hunting for insider trading among politicians.
People are making millions off the chaos.
Here's a breakdown of some of the unusual trades:
On April 9th, you can see before Trump posted "buy" on Truth Social, traders opened $QQQ $TQQQ and $SPY calls.
RIGHT BEFORE THE NEWS, someone opened $SPY 509 calls, expiring that day!
Those calls were up 2100% in one hour.
You can see all volume was literally opened that day. You can see all volume was new opening volume (not only on the Zero days, but also on the weekly $QQQ and $TQQQ calls).
Take another example.
Before Trump announced a pause on 04/09, there was HUGE $QQQ volume on a 460C expiring 04/17.
They were bought for $0.85 and ran to as high as $31 per contract!!! This was before any news.
Later in the day, it rallied 2000% in ten minutes.
The trader made millions.
Why was this unusual? For a few reasons:
- Firstly new opening volume on chain, minutes after market open
- IVR of +80 on $QQQ, with iv percentile of medium. So vol wasn’t anticipating a move this big
- All execution happened at once, at ask
- This was wildly out of the money at the time
- Market was bearish, across the board
Over the last few weeks it has become apparent that Wallstreet and US politicians were getting tariff news before the rest of the market.
FOX news confirmed this today.
These people are making millions off the chaos.
Here's a breakdown of some of the unusual trades:
On April 9th, you can see before Trump posted "buy" on Truth Social, traders opened $QQQ $TQQQ and $SPY calls
RIGHT BEFORE THE NEWS, someone opened $SPY 509 calls, expiring that day!
Those calls were up 2100% in one hour.
You can see all volume was literally opened that day. You can see all volume was new opening volume (not only on the Zero days, but also on the weekly $QQQ and $TQQQ calls).
Take another example.
Before Trump announced a pause on 04/09, there was HUGE $QQQ volume on a 460C expiring 04/17.
They were bought for $0.85 and ran to as high as $31 per contract!!!
This was before any news.
Later in the day, it rallied 2000% in ten minutes.
The trader made millions.
Why was this unusual? For a few reasons:
- Firstly new opening volume on chain, minutes after market open
- IVR of +80 on $QQQ, with iv percentile of medium. So vol wasn’t anticipating a move this big
- all execution happened at once, at ask
- this was wildly out of the money at the time
- market was bearish, across the board
Alright, I think people knew of the tariff pause and traded it beforehand.
You can see before Trump posted "buy" on Truth Social, traders opened $QQQ $TQQQ and $SPY calls
RIGHT BEFORE THE NEWS, someone opened $SPY 509 calls, expiring TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Those calls are up 2100% in one hour.
You can see all volume was literally opened TODAY!!!!!!!!!! (That little green arrow). You can see all volume is new opening volume (not only on the Zero days, but also on the weekly $QQQ and $TQQQ calls). This is especially odd given IVR on these was around 82 this morning, with IV through the roof. The traders really wanted to trade directionally...
In fact, using Unusual Whales' net premium, you can see people have been loading calls trading for a reversal, following these opening calls. Very clear example here.
Insane, someone knew.
Many traders likely followed the call premiums trend, and saw weekly and April 17th action.
You can actually see the traders close their trades for MILLIONS!
Could you have followed these trades? Yup! We did, alongside other UW traders!
If you are looking for an understanding on how this trade happened, or what to look for in Unusual Whales software, check out our tutorials, courses, and videos: