One of those fields that are filled with unusual trading is Congressional trading. And so, Congressional stock trading was a hot topic in 2022. Our 2021 political trading report brought international attention to Congress and their stock portfolios and for the first time caused a large public outcry on the topic. Within weeks of publishing it, Congress acted swiftly with drafting several proposals for a stock trading ban. Notably, 27 lawmakers immediately signed on to ban the practice, with politicians at the forefront such as Rep.Spanbanger egging Unusual Whales on and others like Senator Hawley directly quoting UW’s work. Together, we kept the topic in the news and in the minds of politicians for months.
Other examples of the UW report making waves:
- We made Rep. Josh Gottheimer flustered when directly mentioning his trades.
- We drew comments from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
- We made Speaker Nancy Pelosi flip from nonchalance and the belief that Congress should trade in 2021 to becoming pro-banning the practice. (Seriously, she was anti-bills before our public pressure, saying “it’s a free market”)
- We made Dan Crenshaw admit that without trading: “You have no way to better yourself” as a Congressperson.
- We saw the House Administration Committee hold a hearing on Congressional Stock Trading Practices, and quote Unusual Whales’ work.
- We saw Democrat and Republican politicians work together topropose a bipartisan stock trading ban on themselves and their family members, which was not voted on during regular sessions.