Pelosi made $130M in stock profits during 37 years in Congress — a return of 16,930%
Pelosi’s trading is so infamous it’s inspired Congressional trading ban bills and ETFs named after her. Jack Forbes / NY Post Design
California Democrat Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, have reportedly earned at least $130 million in stock market gains during her 37 years in Congress, marking a staggering return of 16,930%.
Pelosi, 85, announced this week that she will retire at the conclusion of her current term in January 2027.
The San Francisco lawmaker gained national attention as the first woman to serve as House Speaker, while also attracting scrutiny for her extensive stock trading. According to financial disclosures, when Pelosi first joined Congress in 1987 at age 47, she and her husband reported holdings of between $610,000 and $785,000 in stocks, including CitiBank and other companies, some of which are no longer publicly traded.
Today, that portfolio is estimated at $133.7 million, according to Quiver Quantitative, yielding an average annual return of 14.5%—well above the S&P 500, NASDAQ, and Dow Jones averages over the same period. Last year alone, the couple’s investments returned an estimated 54%, more than double the S&P 500’s 25% gain, according to Bloomberg.
Pelosi’s 2024 financial disclosure lists holdings in roughly two dozen individual stocks, including millions in NVIDIA, Palo Alto Networks, Salesforce, Netflix, and between $25 million and $50 million in Apple—their largest single holding.
The Pelosis’ total net worth is now estimated at $280 million, up from roughly $3 million when Pelosi joined Congress. Their assets include a Napa Valley winery valued between $5 million and $25 million, a Bay Area Italian restaurant, commercial real estate, a political data and consulting firm, and homes in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood ($8.7 million) and Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown area ($650,000 purchase in 1999).
Pelosi’s departure comes amid growing calls to ban lawmakers and their spouses from trading individual stocks, citing concerns that they may have access to market-moving information not available to the public. In September, Congress saw the introduction of a new trading-ban bill; previous versions were informally nicknamed after Pelosi due to her high-profile investment activity.
Dan Weiskopf, a portfolio manager for an ETF that tracks congressional trades, described Pelosi’s approach as “high conviction and aggressive,” particularly in options trading. One notable trade involved a late-2023 call option on NVIDIA, costing the Pelosis an estimated $2.4 million and now worth over $7.2 million.
Critics, including Kiersten Pels of the Republican National Committee, have called Pelosi “the most successful insider trader in American history,” arguing that her returns surpass even legendary investors like Warren Buffett.
Pelosi’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
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