In recent years, there is a name that has become particularly famous in the US stock market. It is not Buffett, nor is it a Wall Street tycoon, but Nancy Pelosi, who is nicknamed the "Capitol Hill Stock God". This former Speaker of the US House of Representatives is not only very successful in politics, but she and her husband Paul Pelosi's operations in the stock market are even more enviable. Today, let's talk about what Pelosi's options trading strategy is and why she can always make a lot of money.
Let's talk about the background first. The wealth of the Pelosi family was not accumulated overnight. Paul Pelosi is a venture capitalist and has a lot of resources and connections. As for Nancy, as a member of Congress, especially as the Speaker for so many years, the amount and quality of information she can access is not comparable to that of ordinary people. Although the US Stock Act requires members of Congress to disclose their trading records, this cannot stop people from speculating about her "insider trading". After all, her rate of return is sometimes even better than Buffett's.
Let's start with her trading habits and see how she plays options. Options, to put it bluntly, are a tool for "betting on the future." You spend some money to buy a right, and then you make money if the stock price goes up, and you admit defeat if it goes down. Pelosi especially likes to buy "call options," which is a bet that a certain stock will rise. For example, in November 2023, her husband bought Nvidia's call options with an exercise price of $120 and an expiration date of December 2024. At that time, Nvidia was catching up with the AI boom, and its stock price was soaring like a rocket. The deal later made a lot of money. Looking further ahead, in May 2022, her family bought call options on Apple and Microsoft for more than one million U.S. dollars. At that time, technology stocks had just experienced a big drop, but she dared to go against the trend and buy at the bottom. As a result, the market recovered soon and she made a lot of money again.
This makes people wonder, how can she be so accurate? Some people say it's luck, but looking back at her trading records, you will find that she is particularly good at catching the trend, especially technology stocks. Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Google's parent company Alphabet, these names frequently appear in her family's holdings. Especially Nvidia, it is simply her "favorite". In July 2024, she bought Broadcom's call options and 10,000 shares of Nvidia, and sold some Tesla and VISA during the same period. What's the result? The AI craze continued to ferment, and Nvidia's stock price soared, and she was naturally grinning from ear to ear.
At this point, we have to mention her operation rhythm. Pelosi is not the kind of small retail investor who stares at the candlestick chart every day. She plays with big funds and long cycles. The expiration date of her options is usually set a year or even longer. For example, the Nvidia options bought at the end of 2023 expire in December 2024. This long-term layout shows that she has strong confidence in market trends. Moreover, she is very decisive in her actions, and she often places orders of hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. How dare ordinary people play like this?
So how does she judge the timing? This has to do with "information advantage". Although there is no direct evidence to prove that she used insider information to speculate in stocks, her identity as speaker does make people think about it. For example, in 2022, her husband bought Nvidia options on the eve of the passage of the chip bill. As a result, as soon as the bill was implemented, chip stocks collectively took off. The timing was too coincidental. And when she sold stocks, such as reducing her holdings in Tesla in July 2024, Tesla had just risen at that time, and the stock price fell back not long after she sold it. You can say this is a coincidence, but who would believe it if it is so "coincidental" every time?
Of course, Pelosi's strategy is not without risks. Options are highly leveraged, and you can make a lot but also lose quickly. She has also made mistakes before. For example, in January 2025, she sold some of Apple and Nvidia, and then Apple's stock price rose again, so she may have made less money. But overall, her winning rate is frighteningly high, and she has lost only a few times. Behind this, in addition to information advantages, there may also be her sensitivity to macroeconomic policies. After all, she has been on Capitol Hill for so many years, and she must be well aware of the economic trends and industry policies.
Let's talk about her stock selection logic. In addition to technology stocks, she occasionally touches other fields, but technology has always been the main line. Why? Because the hot spots of the US economy in recent years are here - AI, cloud computing, electric vehicles, which one is not led by technology companies? Pelosi knows how to "go with the flow". She does not blindly chase hot spots, but chooses companies that have policy endorsements or long-term growth potential. For example, Nvidia, she took action when the AI craze just started, one step ahead of many professional investors.
Another interesting point is that she particularly likes to use options instead of buying stocks directly. The advantage of options is low cost and high return, but the risk is also high. Her playing this way shows that she has great confidence in her judgment. Moreover, option trading is not as conspicuous as stocks, and it is difficult for retail investors to imitate, which to some extent reduces the attention of the outside world to her operations.
Of course, Pelosi's success has also caused a lot of controversy. Some people said sourly: "Who wouldn't trade stocks if they have inside information?" Others teased her as "the best options trader in history." In September 2024, an American actor mocked her in person at her book signing event and asked her what stocks to buy, which made her very embarrassed. The public has never stopped questioning her, but she herself is quite calm. In 2021, she publicly said: "We are a free market economy, and members of Congress should be able to trade stocks." This sounds tough, but it can't stop everyone from discussing fairness.
To sum up, Pelosi's option trading strategy is not complicated: she seizes the trend of technology, plays long-term call options, and acts decisively with large amounts of capital. Her success is inseparable from her accurate grasp of timing, which may be the result of the combined blessing of information, experience, and policy sense. For ordinary investors, her approach is not easy to learn, after all, we don't have her resources. But looking at her operations, we can at least get one thing: stock trading must go with the trend, have a big picture view, and dare to act.
In other words, whether Pelosi's title of "Capitol Hill Stock God" is well-deserved or due to "special buffs", everyone has their own opinions. What do you think? Welcome to leave a message to chat!
