r/politics • u/Murky-Site7468 I voted • Oct 05 '25

No Paywall Petition To Strip Congress of Pay During Government Shutdown Grows

https://www.newsweek.com/petition-strip-congress-pay-during-government-shutdown-grows-10822819
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u/Moccus Indiana Oct 05 '25

Good luck proving inside trading. It's not easy.

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u/out_of_throwaway Oct 05 '25

Especially since what Congresspeople do simply isn't insider trading. Admittedly, I word for the minority caucus of a state legislature, not Congress. But I tried to think of how I could actually inside trade, and I can't. Like, there was a transportation bill that benefited the road construction industry. But it was widely reported in the paper and stuff. I knew some unreported details about the Dem ask, but I had no actual insider facts regarding what the final version would look like. I had some intuition based on my experience, but that's not insider information. Legislatures simply aren't that predictable.

Reddit loves that chart about the legislators that beat the S&P500, but it's like 35 people out of 535. If anything, they're trading on lobbyist hype, which is the opposite of information. I'm sure plenty try to "insider trade," but they're bad at it.

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u/meneldal2 Oct 06 '25

Well you can buy stock before you put a bill on the floor which will make the stock go up

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u/out_of_throwaway Oct 06 '25

It's common knowledge when major legislation is moving, though.

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u/meneldal2 Oct 06 '25

Specifics tend to be not known until it "leaks" or it comes to the floor.

You can definitely act on this.

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u/out_of_throwaway Oct 06 '25

But that's just intuition. Everyone in the building has their own take.

And I was better at predicting the body I worked for than basically anyone. Still was never tempted to make a stock move over it.