Tracking the Money Trail: What Washington Insiders are Loading Up on in Early 2025

The stock market kicked off 2025 with impressive gains—Nasdaq up 1.8%, S&P 500 up 2.93%, and Dow Jones climbing 5.08%. But while retail investors were celebrating, another group was quietly making moves that grabbed everyone’s attention: members of Congress.

According to Quiver Quantitative’s politician trade tracker, congressional stock trading has become impossible to ignore. Last year alone, members of Congress beat the S&P 500 by 17.5%—a performance gap that’s raising serious questions about whether lawmakers have an unfair information advantage.

Who’s Moving the Most Stock?

The data tells an interesting story. Just 5% of senators and representatives avoided stock ownership altogether in 2024, which means Congress is deeply embedded in the market. Quiver Quantitative’s monitoring of politician transactions revealed five heavy hitters:

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) leads the pack with 526 trades totaling $91.05 million. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ranks second with 17 trades worth $37.75 million. Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.) executed 69 trades for $5.99 million. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) registered 202 trades at $5.53 million. And Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) completed 71 trades worth $4.4 million.

On the flip side, some lawmakers barely touched the market. Rep. Brian Mast had just three transactions totaling $745.78, while Rep. Rashida Tlaib registered zero activity.

What Are They Actually Buying Right Now?

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act requires members to disclose trades exceeding $1,000 within 45 days—giving regular investors a window into what’s on the minds of Washington’s most connected players.

Gottheimer’s January disclosures show heavy positioning in Goldman Sachs and Block Inc., betting on a financials sector boom under Trump’s deregulation agenda. He’s also accumulated Apple and Microsoft call options, signaling tech confidence. Consumer staples like Walmart round out his portfolio, a classic inflation hedge.

Pelosi’s strategy reflects her well-documented tech bias. Five January transactions reveal plays on Amazon call options, Alphabet, Nvidia, health data platform Tempus AI (already up 92%), and utility stock Vistra. Her $272.5 million net worth makes her Congress’ second-richest member.

Mullin stole the show by January, disclosing $1.16 million in volume through the first month alone. His 10-stock basket spans Applied Industrial Technologies, Coherent, Credo Technology Group, Dell, Goldman Sachs again, Iron Mountain, MasTec, Primo Brands, Wabtec, and education firm Stride—with Stride already delivering a 27.99% pop since his purchase.

Franklin and Tuberville adopted a wait-and-see posture, reporting zero new transactions so far in 2025.

Why This Matters

Over 80% of Americans across the political spectrum now support banning congressional stock trading entirely, according to University of Maryland research. The logic is straightforward: when lawmakers vote on spending bills that affect their stock holdings, conflicts of interest become inevitable.

A bipartisan coalition in the House—including Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Krishnamoorthi, Fitzpatrick, and Mills—reintroduced the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act to prohibit individual stock ownership and trading by federal elected officials. Supporters argue that sensitive legislative information shouldn’t translate into portfolio gains.

The politician trade tracker has made transparency possible, but whether Congress will actually restrict its own market participation remains an open question.