Suspicious Timing
Major political announcements move markets. These are congressional trades that happened in the 10 days before those announcements, in the exact stocks and sectors that were affected. Trades made after are excluded - that's just public information. What's left is the suspicious part.
How this works
For each major political event, we search our database of 41,860 congressional trade disclosures for any trades in affected tickers in the 10 days before the event. We only show trades made before the announcement - trades made after are irrelevant since the information was already public. A trade before an event could mean foresight, routine portfolio activity, or pure coincidence. We flag the timing - you decide what it means.
Bullish trades surge before Trump 90-day tariff pause
A surge of bullish stock trades appeared minutes before Trump announced a dramatic 90-day pause on "Liberation Day" tariffs. S&P 500 e-mini futures saw approximately 6,000 contracts traded (>$2B notional) - a sharp spike against an otherwise quiet premarket session.
| Timing | Politician | Tickers | Action | # Trades | Est. Value | Owner(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1d before
Apr 8, 2025
|
Ro Khanna Dem | IWM SPY | Sell | 6 | $48K | Child, Spouse |
Liberation Day selloff: Congressional sales surge in the week before Trump tariff bombshell
In the seven trading days leading up to Trump's April 2, 2025 'Liberation Day' tariff announcement, multiple lawmakers liquidated significant positions. Rep. Kevin Hern (R) sold approximately $500K-$1M on March 31. Rep. Jefferson Shreve (R) sold NVDA ($100K-$250K), NOW, and SPG on March 31. Rep. Ro Khanna (D) sold roughly $500K of Bank of Montreal (BMO) across four trades March 26-27 - notable because Canadian banks were directly exposed to the incoming tariffs. Rep. Greg Landsman (D) trimmed MSFT on March 27. Sen. Dave McCormick (R) sold ORCL on April 2. Rep. Scott Peters (D) sold $500K-$1M of bond holdings on March 27. The S&P 500 fell about 12% in the four trading days following the announcement - the worst US equity drawdown since the COVID crash of March 2020. This event is distinct from the existing April 9 tariff-pause event - this one tracks pre-announcement positioning rather than the post-announcement reversal.
| Timing | Politician | Tickers | Action | # Trades | Est. Value | Owner(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
9d before
Mar 24, 2025
|
George Whitesides Dem | MSFT | Sell | 1 | $375K | Not disclosed |
|
8d before
Mar 25, 2025
|
Ashley Moody Rep | NVDA | Sell | 1 | $8K | Self |
|
7d before
Mar 26, 2025
|
Ro Khanna Dem | BMO | Sell | 2 | $150K | Child |
|
6d before
Mar 27, 2025
|
Ro Khanna Dem | BMO | Sell | 5 | $533K | Child |
|
6d before
Mar 27, 2025
|
Greg Landsman Dem | MSFT NVDA SPG | Sell | 5 | $223K | Joint, Spouse |
|
6d before
Mar 27, 2025
|
George Whitesides Dem | NFLX | Sell | 1 | $175K | Not disclosed |
|
2d before
Mar 31, 2025
|
Jefferson Shreve Rep | NOW NVDA SPG | Sell | 3 | $325K | Not disclosed |
|
2d before
Mar 31, 2025
|
Gil Cisneros Dem | MSFT | Sell | 1 | $33K | Not disclosed |
|
1d before
Apr 1, 2025
|
Julie Johnson Dem | KHC MSFT | Sell | 3 | $49K | Joint |
|
Same day
Apr 2, 2025
|
Dave McCormick Rep | ORCL | Sell | 1 | $375K | Self |
|
Same day
Apr 2, 2025
|
Michael McCaul Rep | KHC | Sell | 1 | $175K | Spouse |
A note on what this page shows
This page maps publicly disclosed congressional trades against documented political events. A trade near an event is not proof of wrongdoing - members of Congress trade frequently, and coincidences happen. What matters is the pattern: when the same sectors and tickers keep appearing in the days before market-moving announcements, the question shifts from "is this suspicious?" to "how often does this happen?"
The larger suspicious trading incidents (the $580M pre-dawn oil futures bet, the $950M ceasefire trade) involve anonymous market participants - not necessarily Congress members. We include those events for context because they show the environment in which congressional trading happens.