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This Innovative ETF Lets You Follow Democrat Politicians' Trades | NANC ETF

John Seetoo

Published: January 10, 2025 2:17 pm

24/7 Wall Street Key Points

• Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) stock portfolio has suspiciously outperformed the S&P 500 by almost 200% in 2024.
• Thanks to the 2012 STOCK act, the stock trades of Congressional members must be publicly disclosed.
• The Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF (CBOE: NANC) follows the trades of Democrat members of Congress and it can provide a window to the informational advantages that they possess, which can deliver lucrative results.
• Retiring early is possible, and may be easier than you think. Click here now to see if you’re ahead, or behind. ^(Sponsor)

Fund managers sometimes struggle to outperform the S&P 500 Index, and often tout their previous year’s record when sometimes exceeding it by 5% or so. However, the vast majority of them pale before the portfolio performance of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Her portfolio, with trades placed by her husband, Paul, was up 70.9% vs. the S&P 500’s 24.9% gain over the past 12 months. As a result Nancy Pelosi beat the S&P 500 by nearly 200% in 2024. 

The portfolio growth of members of Congress have historically been staggering, and may explain how so many of them leave office as multimillionaires on salaries of $175,000. With so many publicly traded companies subject to the legislative changes wrought by Congressional lawmakers, the inherent conflict of interest has been a long running debate. While Executive Branch members have used blind trusts and similar platforms to manage their financial assets while in office, no such restriction has applied to the Legislative Branch. 

The 2012 STOCK (Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge) Act was eventually passed to address this issue. The STOCK Act provisions included:

• Requirements for Congressional members and their staff to file public financial disclosures.
• A mandate for guidance rules applicable to both House and Senate members and their staff.
• A prohibition on members of Congress from buying IPOs and, most importantly, reporting on any stock, bond, or futures trade of over $1,000.   

Given that members of Congress made over $150 million in securities transactions prior to the Covid-19 lockdowns, many in the public believe the STOCK Act has little deterrent power in preventing elected official insider trading abuse in D.C. 

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em….Copy Them

Since the preventive aspects of the STOCK Act have apparently failed to yield tangible results, a financial joint venture decided to capitalize on its disclosure features to at least snag a piece of the pie. 

Subversive Capital Advisors partnered with fintech company Unusual Whales in 2023 to launch the Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF, which cheekily obtained the ticker “NANC” in honor of Congress’ most prodigiously successful stock trader: Nancy Pelosi. 

The ETF culls publicly disclosed financial trading information from all Democrat members of Congress and mirrors their trades. The fund will only exclusively trade stocks also traded by Democrat House and Senate members. In the case of NANC, Unusual Whales handles and analyzes the financial data publicly disclosed under the STOCK Act. Data is then given to Subversive Capital to strategize timing and orders to execute the trades. 

As there is a 30-45 day window gap between when a member of Congress may make a trade vs. the disclosure compliance date, NANC hasn’t matched the nearly 71%+ performance of Nancy Pelosi’s portfolio over the last 12 months. Nevertheless, with a 28.78% 1-year return, NANC outpaced the S&P 500, so its trades from other Congressional Democrats have still accumulated some hefty profits.  A profile of NANC as of January 8, 2024 appears thus:

Top 10 Holdings and portfolio percentage:

Foxes Guarding the Henhouse

As lawmakers, the conflict of interest between those writing the laws that apply to various industries and then trading the stock of companies impacted by that legislation appears blatant. No other nation allows for this glaring ethical contradiction, except for the US. 

From a cursory look at the top 10 NANC stock positions held by members of Congress, one can surmise certain conclusions from the 2024 holdings that may reflect sentiments within the Senate and House of Representatives, and where legislation and policies may have been heading, prior to the 2024 presidential elections:

• While Magnificent 7 tech stocks like Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon are no surprise, Salesforce came it at #4. As this was after the downwardly revised 818,000 jobs reported by Department of Labor during the summer and following the anemic 12,000 October jobs added,  but prior to November’s 220,000+ gains, it begs the question: 

1. Did Congress anticipate a post-Trump landslide victory employment resurgence?  
2. Was there an early tip-off from Department of Labor analysts or officers to members of Congress that November’s stats would blow away October’s dismal numbers?

• While most growth-oriented ETFs have the entirety of the Magnificent 7 among their top holdings, Salesforce, American Express, Costco, and Netflix occupy 4 out of the top slots. Meta/Facebook is at #10 and Tesla is not even included. Questions one might ask include:

1. Did Mark Zuckerberg’s admission of White House Covid-19 censorship pressure in August 2024 cause the stock to fall in disfavor among members of Congress who staunchly demonized any opinions challenging their official lockdown policies and vaccine mandates?
2. Did Elon Musk’s acquisition of X (formerly Twitter) likewise cause Tesla to fall in disfavor due to Musk’s First Amendment advocacy and challenges to “disinformation”, as defined by politicians?

NANC in 2025

With the pending inauguration of President Donald Trump, there are likely to be major legislative upheavals. Rumor has it that Trump already has over 100 Executive Orders drafted to be signed and go into effect during his first week in office. Market turbulence is a very high probability. Given that NANC’s info is roughly 30 days after the fact, many market changes will start to become apparent before NANC gets much of the info.

However: if Washington DC insiders leak info to their networks, as has been the status quo for centuries, Congressmen and Women, as well as their staff members, will jump in to make their moves early. The results of these trades are what NANC will react to, and despite being insider information-based, and thus ethically compromised, will still be legal until the law is otherwise changed.  

As such, having NANC as part of one’s portfolio can be a way for ordinary citizens to profit legally from insider information that is usually only accessible to Congressional lawmakers. Its track record to date certainly is not due to luck – its informational source is publicly acknowledged and disseminated by law. 

However, nothing is foolproof, and President Trump is one of the most sophisticated financial minds ever to occupy the White House. His own Trump Media and Technology Group (NASDAQ: DJT) is a testament to his intimate familiarity with Wall Street. Opinions he might leak on social media or press conferences can often be ploys for strengthening negotiating leverage within a larger agenda, rather than a linear policy announcement without regard to Wall Street, such as has often been the case with his predecessors. This lack of predictability has been one of the major complaints from D.C. pundits and bureaucrats and why they can’t control him. Conversely, this is also why Trump’s past international success among leaders of other countries, especially in preventing war and negotiating trade, has been so high.

President Trump has been unequivocal in his negative stance towards members of Congress trading stocks, and has criticized Nancy Pelosi for slow-walking legislation to create a genuine ban. Perhaps with control of Congress, 2025 may actually see such a law be signed. But until then, NANC will still be able to capitalize on Congressional members’ stock trades, so what’s good for the goose…..