By Noel Randewich

(Reuters) – A year since a Reddit-driven retail trading frenzy rocked the markets and created the ‘meme stock https://www.reuters.com/business/why-did-sec-release-report-gamestop-2021-10-18’ phenomenon, leading U.S. lawmaker Nancy Pelosi’s investments have become a meme in their own right.

Google searches on “Pelosi Stock Trades” reached a new record earlier in the month, as people on social media platforms such as Twitter (NYSE), Reddit and Youtube scrutinize her investments. This suggests that Wall Street may be more competitive for the U.S Speaker of Congress.

Discussion of Pelosi’s trades is a recurring theme on social media including ‘wallstreetbets’, the Reddit forum where retail investors banded together a year ago to coordinate frenzied buying https://www.reuters.com/business/flush-reddit-rally-gamestop-plots-store-revival-2021-07-22 of video games retailer GameStop (NYSE:) and other companies, which eventually became known as meme stocks.

Pelosi is a multimillionaire who files trade disclosures. These are quickly shared on social media as soon as they appear on House’s website. Last year, she traded with companies such as Apple (NASDAQ), Amazon (NASDAQ), Tesla (NASDAQ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ).

Pelosi, like other congressional lawmakers is legally obliged to disclose her stock trades. Pelosi’s reports are getting more attention due to a significant increase in retail trading. Recent calls for banning lawmakers trading have also been brought into question.

Tuesday’s letter signed by 27 House members requesting a floor vote regarding the recent proposal to bar Congressmen from holding stocks, “in light recent misconduct”.

This was the second attempt by lawmakers to ban stock trading. Pelosi had in December protected their rights to trade. Pelosi signaled last week her willingness to possibly advance legislation to ban stock trading. Pelosi last year filed transaction reports that showed her husband Paul Pelosi made trades in the ‘Big Tech companies’ currently under an antitrust bill in Congress. These companies also happen to be among Wall Street’s most popular, so investing in them is relatively easy.

It is now illegal for Congressmen to profit from the information they have gathered through their work at Congress. They must disclose stock transactions to their family or themselves within 45 days.

Transaction reports can be filed several days after actual sales and purchases. This makes it difficult for traders who want to imitate legislators’ trades.

Sahak Manuelian (Managing Director of Trading, Wedbush Securities Los Angeles) said, “It’s absurd, it’s difficult to duplicate what others are doing and gain an edge.”

That has not stopped users on TikTok from focusing on her disclosures, with one video clip https://www.tiktok.com/@realmeetkevin/video/7047663843400600878?lang=en about her husband’s recent options purchases in companies including Alphabet (NASDAQ:), Micron Technology (NASDAQ:) and Roblox earning 45,000 likes.

Pelosi Companies

2021 trading disclosures

Apple

Tesla

Amazon

Alphabet

Microsoft

Walt Disney Co (NYSE:)

Nvidia (NASDAQ 🙂

Slack Technologies, NYSE:

Micron Technology

Roblox

Salesforce.com (NYSE:)

AllianceBernstein (NYSE:)

Holding

Unusual whales, a financial service that offers financial data, has concluded that Congressional legislators traded $290 million last year in options, stocks and crypto-assets and outperformed, on average, the market.

The analysis revealed that Pelosi’s performance in 2021 was sixth-best, with Austin Scott (Republican Congressman) leading the charge.

Before the 2020 market crash, which was caused by coronavirus pandemic and affecting the stock markets, the Justice Department stopped investigating the stock trading of at least three senators.