Two of the most-watched retail trading proxies in America filed very different sets of paperwork last year. Nancy Pelosi averaged roughly one trade every 22 days over the past 12 years. Donald Trump logged more than 21,000 stock trades across eight investment accounts in 2025, roughly 60 trades per day, according to Financial Times and EBC Financial Group analysis. Both beat the market.
The 2025 Scorecard
Pelosi’s portfolio gained 20.1% in 2025, outperforming the S&P 500’s 16.6% gain, according to the UnusualWhales annual report, which ranked her 28th among all congressional traders that year. The benchmark she topped, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY), returned 16.64% for the calendar year. Her disclosed 2025 trading volume was $48.6 million, up from $39.2 million in 2024, per Quiver Quantitative.
Trump’s stock-only return cannot be precisely calculated. Federal financial disclosures report holdings in dollar ranges rather than exact figures, and his 927-page disclosure mixes stock activity with real estate, crypto, and media income totaling roughly $2.2 billion in 2025. In Q1 2026 alone he disclosed over 3,600 trades worth between $220 million and $750 million, per Reuters, which by the upper bound exceeds Pelosi’s total disclosed trading volume since 2014 of $271.5 million across 213 trades.
Pelosi’s Long Game
Capitol Trades pegs Pelosi’s cumulative return over the past decade at approximately 816%, with an 87% win rate and an estimated net worth of $642 to $649 million as of mid-2026, up from $121 million in 2013. For comparison, Berkshire Hathaway generated roughly 282% cumulative return over the same period.
Her 2025 standouts included January 2025 Nvidia call options with an $80 strike expiring January 2026. Shares of NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) rose 34.88% in 2025 alone. She also held Alphabet and Amazon call options at $150 strikes, and shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) have climbed 91% since January 2, 2025. In 2026 she moved toward large-cap tech, exercising Alphabet and Amazon options for actual shares and buying Intel and Uber call options in May 2026. One retail copy-trading portfolio mimicking her moves was up 72% in 2025. It’s worth noting that Pelosi’s husband was an ex-venture capitalist and the trades he directs are included in her disclosures.
Trump’s Volume Story
Three positions in Trump’s disclosures stand out. He bought between $247,000 and $630,000 in Palantir stock across Q1 2026, with at least seven purchases in March. Shares of Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) traded around $128.06 on April 10, the day he endorsed the ticker on Truth Social. Palantir’s federal contracts nearly doubled from $541 million in FY2024 to $970 million in FY2025, and its most recent quarter delivered $1.63 billion in revenue, up 84.7% year over year, per its SEC filings.
On February 10, 2026, Trump bought $1 million to $5 million in Dell Class C shares. Two months earlier, Michael Dell had pledged $6.25 billion to fund “Trump Accounts.” On May 8, Trump told Americans to “go out and buy a Dell” and the stock jumped roughly 14% intraday. Dell Technologies gained 107.31% between February 10 and May 8.
Trump also increased Intel holdings after the US government acquired a 9.9% stake in Intel in August 2025. Since August 1, 2025, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) has returned 523.25%. The White House says the portfolio is managed through “fully discretionary accounts” by third-party institutions, with Trump referring to it as a “blind account.” He paid a $200 fine for filing his disclosure late and is exempt from the conflict-of-interest rules that govern other executive branch employees.
The Bigger Picture
Congressional trading is bipartisan. Republicans made up five of the top nine congressional stock performers in 2025, with Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) leading at 78.8%. Pelosi’s 28th-place finish sits well below that top tier.
Both Trump and Pelosi have publicly called for a congressional trading ban. The PELOSI Act is among proposals still stalled without enough votes. Pelosi retires in January 2027, after which her disclosures end. For investors who have used her filings as a signal, the transparency window has a closing date.
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