Think politicians have an unfair edge in the stock market? These investments can help you trade the way they do

The reason for this widespread distaste is obvious: Politicians are privy to a lot of sensitive information. In fact, a previous New York Times investigation identified 97 lawmakers or relatives who made trades related to their committees.

Even though the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012 technically makes insider trading for Congresspeople illegal, enforcement remains a bit iffy and many people argue it doesn’t go nearly far enough.

On the positive side, the STOCK Act created more transparency. Members of Congress have to file their trades as Periodic Transaction Reports (PTRs) within 30 days of receiving notification of the transaction.

This wealth of information makes “Congressional copy-trading” a reality for people who want to trade like Representative Nancy Pelosi or others — and some companies have already created products that trade like politicians.

The ETFs that mimic Congressional stock pickers

The website Unusual Whales had already gained attention by publishing congressional stock disclosures before it created two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) using this data. Released alongside Subversive Capital Advisor, these actively managed ETFs entered the stock market in 2023 as the Subversive Congressional Democrats Trading ETF (BZX:NANC) Subversive Congressional Republicans Trading ETF (BZX:GOP).

Although Unusual Whales announced on X that it’s no longer part of these ETFs, the products are still available under the management of Tidal Financial Group.

According to their official website, Subversive ETFs use publicly available trading data to create funds that mimic the activities of U.S. lawmakers.

Dan Weiskopf, the co-portfolio manager of the Subversive ETFs, told Moneywise that Tidal Financial Group works to “identify clusters or patterns of buys and sells across individual members of Congress.” In particular, Weiskopf said Subversive ETFs focus on times when Congress members “buy a second and third time into weakness and strength” since “these are active decisions by members of Congress who believe they have an edge.”

He shared one specific example of this strategy focused on when U.S. Senator Dave McCormick made a large bet on spot Bitcoin ETFs. As Weiskopf noted, “The Honorable McCormick ran Bridgewater for Ray Dalio and was also on the Digital Asset Subcommittee as lobbyists were helping to form new policy.”

So how well have these ETFs performed? Since their 2023 launch, NANC is up over 100%, while GOP has climbed 70%.

Note that if you held the S&P 500 through an ETF like the SPY, you would have been up roughly 98% between the start of 2023 and November 2026.​

Will Congressional ETFs really give you an edge?

With gains similar to the S&P 500, some may wonder whether these niche ETFs are really worth the cost.

According to Weiskopf, it all comes down to how much you value Congressional intel. Weiskopf told Moneywise, “We think logical buyers of NANC and GOP are those who believe that members of Congress are ‘smart money’ to follow. Many members of Congress have a great deal of experience in investing, have a unique position in understanding policy as it develops and are careful about how they take risks.”​