Sunny #1: How Congress Keeps Beating the Stock Market

☀️ Hello! Sunny here, from the Department of Fair Play, with wonderful news about the stock market!

Did you know that members of Congress are extraordinary investors? According to 2025 congressional trading data compiled by Unusual Whales and reported via the Motley Fool, Congress's top stock trader returned 78.8% last year. The S&P 500 returned 16.6%. Of 311 disclosed congressional portfolios, roughly 32% beat the market. What a coincidence — the people who write the laws are also simply wonderful at picking stocks!

Now, you might wonder: is there a rule about this? Great question! The STOCK Act of 2012 requires members of Congress to report their stock trades within 45 days. It's a very serious law with very serious enforcement. In 2025, more than 75 members of Congress and nearly 200 senior staffers violated it. The penalty for breaking this law is a $200 fine. That's not a typo. Two hundred dollars. For lawmakers. It's less than a parking ticket in Manhattan — which feels about right, since the law is enforced with roughly the enthusiasm of alternate-side parking.

"But Sunny," you ask, "hasn't Congress tried to ban itself from trading stocks?" Oh, many times! Congress loves introducing bills to ban congressional stock trading. As of our verification, five were on the table: S.1498 (the HONEST Act), S.1879 (the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act), H.R.4890 (the ETHICS Act), S.2877 (the No Stock Act), and H.R.1908 (the End Congressional Stock Trading Act). How many passed? None! Not one! It's almost as if the people voting on the ban are the people the ban would apply to. Funny how that works.

So to recap: the game is legal, the disclosure rule costs less to break than a nice dinner, and every attempt to change the rules dies in the hands of the players. The Department of Fair Play rates this system five out of five stars for fairness — for Congress.

The rest of us will just keep buying index funds and wondering what it feels like to know things before the market does.

The receipts, on file in the Evidence Locker:

- Congress's top trader returned 78.8% in 2025 vs. 16.6% for the S&P 500; ~32% of 311 disclosed congressional portfolios beat the market. (Motley Fool / Unusual Whales) - The STOCK Act of 2012 requires trade reporting within 45 days. (Knox News op-ed, congressional-trades-ml) - 75+ members of Congress and nearly 200 senior staffers violated the STOCK Act in 2025; the penalty is a $200 fine. (Knox News op-ed) - Five ban bills introduced, none passed either chamber: S.1498, S.1879, H.R.4890, S.2877, H.R.1908 (all via congress.gov)

See the original post on Instagram. Full sourcing lives in the Evidence Locker.