Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) issued a statement on Tuesday in response to a report of 2023 congressional stock trades, which found his stock portfolio increased in value by 122 percent in 2023. Green stated that he has no knowledge of trades made in his name until after they are made, and revealed that he instructed his broker to “disregard any instructions” about trades should he provide them.
Green said in a statement on his website, “In fact, in my first year in Congress, to go above and beyond even the hint of impropriety, I instructed my broker in writing to manage my family’s investments and to disregard any instructions from me should I try to provide input (which I have not).”
The congressman said, “I believe firmly that using insider information for personal benefit is a crime that should be strictly enforced. All transactions and stocks I own can be viewed online. Using insider information for personal benefit is a crime that should be strictly enforced.”
Green issued the statement in response to data published Unusual Whales, who revealed the increase in value of Green’s stock portfolio on Tuesday. The stock tracking and trading service reported that Green saw the highest increase in stock value over the year, but his 122 percent increased was dwarfed by Representative Brian Higgins (D-NY-27), whose stock portfolio saw a 238.9 percent increase in value.
🚨BREAKING🚨
I have just released the full report on politicians trading in 2023.
Like every year since 2020, US politicians beat the market.
And many in Congress made unusually timed trades resulting in huge gains.
Here are the top performers of 2023. pic.twitter.com/ykf9VICsBw
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) January 2, 2024
A total of 32 members of Congress, including 16 Democrats and 16 Republicans, saw their stock portfolio outperform the Standard and Poor’s 500 (S&P 500), a task that many of the country’s leading hedge funds failed to accomplish.
The Unusual Whales report notes, “Democrats came out on top significantly, due to their heavy tech portfolios,” and that “Democrats dominated their Republican counterparts” with their stock trades “by a massive margin.”
Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-11) led the report’s “Unusual Trades in the year” category after her husband, Paul Pelosi, invested heavily in technology company Nvidia. The Pelosis previously divested of Nvidia stock in 2022, when they were accused of appearing “to have taken advantage of insider information” due to Pelosi’s knowledge of planned legislation to give billions to technology companies.
The group behind the report previously made headlines last January, when Unusual Whales revealed members of Congress made stock market profits via investments into defense companies which benefited from U.S. funding for the defense of Ukraine. Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-03) was identified for having the highest average returns on defense industry stocks since 2021.
– – –
Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Mark Green” by Joseph Webb.
If I were a betting man, I would bet that the stock portfolio return by a Congressman is probably at least 10X better than your average person. Now that might be because there is so much wisdom up there in Washington. I mean look how those fellows can balance the books. As far as I understand it, insider trading is essentially legal for them also. Was that not mentioned?
So does the broker have an inside agreement and do all the brokers for all of these elected have insider contacts?? Saying your broker makes the decisions is lame. Come on guys. This is no accident nor is it a good investment broker making good financial decisions. How many in the private sector have made such landslide profits on investments???? I surely know I have not and no one I know has made any money at all since Biden has been in office. I am from Tennessee but not buying what Rep. Green is saying or any of the excuses the others are giving.