I think all elected US Reps, Senators, VP+POTUS, appointed Federal Judges should have their investments held in blind trusts, and this should be a statutory requirement for holding these offices.<p>Hard for me to see whether or not this was corruption or insider access. But holding assets in trusts would eliminate the suspicion along with any actual corruption.
I've been working on a web dashboard that estimates the trading returns of U.S. Senators, based on their disclosed trades: <a href="https://www.quiverquant.com/sources/senatetrading" rel="nofollow">https://www.quiverquant.com/sources/senatetrading</a><p>It's worth noting that members of Congress are given a 45-day window before they are required to disclose any new stock transactions.
While it makes sense to bar congresspeople from trading (IMO), this article is wildly misleading.<p>The article's outrage depends on the reader not understanding how options work. The options contract was purchased in February 2020, more than a year before it was exercised. It's also not stated when the calls expired.<p>There's no doubt that congress uses their information to place favorable trades in the market, but this article is just manufactured outrage to get more clicks.
It’s crazy to me that congress doesn’t have more restrictions on trading given their power and information about the markets. Interns at an investment bank are more restricted in their trading.<p>Does anyone know how we know these were options trades? From the screenshots of the raw data I’ve seen it’s not clear to me how options are differentiated from a market purchase of the same equities.
The headline is misleading. The stock was acquired via exercising call options that were originally bought in Feb 20, 2020 for a strike price of 130.<p>Amazing deal, but does it prove he was acting on insider information?
HN: "Ban congress from trading."<p>This is so short-sighted.<p>Congress isn't even the issue, it's the ridiculous wealth inequality.<p>We literally can't compensate the most important public servants enough.<p>Let's say personal wealth had a cap at $1,000,000,000, and the most successful public servant (president after long terms in Congress, Supreme Court judges) could reach that via compensation over say 60 years.<p>What then?<p>Edit: To address the expected HN response: "But tax shelters!!!... Or "wealth safe havens"..."<p>Great! Let them migrate there and doom their future generations.<p>Bezos will make more money while I write this comment than the president will earn all year. Give me a break.