Nancy Pelosi Dodges $100K Loss by Selling PayPal Stock Weeks Before Price Plunge

Congress member Nancy Pelosi has a massive following among global investors. The stock portfolio managed by her husband has returned over 700% in the past decade. Impeccable trade timing has fuelled speculation of insider trading, which Pelosi has consistently refuted.

The Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker account on X estimated that the California representative's investment portfolio returned 54% in 2024, surpassing the popular Inverse Cramer account's 43% gains to become the top portfolio on the Autopilot investment app. Pelosi's portfolio gains also outperformed top hedge funds, which spend vast sums hiring quantitative analysts and data scientists to build advanced AI and machine learning models aimed at maximising profits.

Pelosi's portfolio has often defied market trends, recording massive profits while avoiding considerable losses by offloading stocks before companies were affected by economic downturns, lawsuits, or earnings misses. On Dec. 30, Pelosi sold about 5,000 shares of PayPal, worth between $250,000 and $500,000, according to a periodic transaction report. At the time, the stock price was hovering around $59 per share.

Over the following weeks, the stock price gradually declined and then plummeted in early February after the company posted quarterly results, forecasting a Q1 adjusted earnings decline of mid-single digits. The fall continued as the company announced the appointment of Enrique Lores as its new president and CEO, effective March 1, 2026. PayPal shares have recently fallen as low as $40 per share. Had Pelosi held the shares, she would have faced a loss of nearly $100,000.

Pelosi's Top Stock Trades of the Decade

Pelosi sold 5,000 Microsoft shares in late July of 2024, worth over $2.1 million, marking her largest portfolio sell in two years. The trade was executed within two weeks of the Crowdstrike security incident, which affected millions of devices running Microsoft Windows systems.

Pelosi also avoided further investment losses when the stock price recorded wild swings after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated a major antitrust investigation into the company in late November 2024. The Commission was looking into Microsoft's cloud computing, software licensing, and company-wide business practices.

In November 2023, Pelosi purchased 50 Nvidia call options with a strike price of $120 and a December 2024 expiry. The move took place months before Nvidia's 10-for-1 stock split.

In June 2024, Pelosi purchased 20 Broadcom call options with a $800 strike price and an expiry date of June 2025. The trade took place a month before Broadcom executed a 10-for-1 stock split.

In July 2024, she sold 2,000 Visa shares, three months before the US Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against the payments giant, accusing it of unlawfully monopolising the debit card market.

Congress members continue to actively engage in stock trading despite growing outrage over insider trading concerns. Many, like US Senator Katie Boyd Britt, are also violating the guidelines of the Stock Act of 2012, reporting trades very late. The law mandates Congress members report trades within 45 days to prevent insider trading, but Britt recently reported nearly two dozen trades, many of which were late by nearly a year.

Disclaimer: Our digital media content is for informational purposes only and not investment advice. Please conduct your own analysis or seek professional advice before investing. Remember, investments are subject to market risks and past performance doesn't indicate future returns.