Stock trades for both Democrat and Republican politicians outperformed the S&P 500 in 2024, gaining 31% and 26%, respectively. FIVE politicians actively traded an annual gain of 100% or MORE in 2024, per Unusual Whales. Here’s the full breakdown:
As shown here, on a weighted average basis, both parties outperformed the S&P 500. While the S&P 500 gained ~24%, Democrats ended the year 31% higher. Republicans also ended the year 26% higher.
So how does this compare to Wall Street’s returns in 2024?
Here are the top 5 hedge fund returns in 2024, per Bloomberg:
- DE Shaw: +36.1%
- Bridgewater China: +35.0%
- Statar: +25.3%
- Broad Reach: +24.3%
- Marshall Wace: +22.6%
In other words, both political parties outperformed ALL but 2 large hedge funds in the US.
Here are best returns posted by US Congress members. As seen below, FIVE politicians posted an annual gain of 100% or more. Nancy Pelosi posted an annual gain of 71%, nearly TRIPLING the S&P 500’s return. Much of these gains were fueled by technology stocks.
Furthermore, only 8 members of Congress who were actively trading posted a negative annual return. Meanwhile, the average retail investor was up just 3.7% through November 2024, according to JPMorgan data. A large percentage of retail traders ended the year in the red.
Here’s a chart comparing time in Congress versus performance in the market. There seems to be a slight positive correlation between more time in Congress and better returns. This regression shows an R Squared value of 0.017, so not necessarily a huge correlation.
As seen below, Democrats hold nearly 50% of their portfolio in technology stocks. Financial services are the second most popular sector, at 13.4%, but nothing comes close to tech. Democrats are HIGHLY concentrated in technology investments.
In 2025, we will be following the trades of active members in Congress, thanks to Unusual Whales for this data.
Often, these trades have come before major fiscal policy announcements or legislation.
Source: r/XGramatikInsights
