Transcription
Well, what do you know? For the fifth year in a row, DC beat Wall Street. Washington politicians, yeah, you know, the adults from DC. They've once again outperformed the best and brightest of investors. The full Congressional Insider Trading Report for 2025 just dropped. And the data is, I mean, it's frankly shocking. A whopping 38 members of Congress, you heard that right, 38, made higher returns than none other than Warren Buffett himself last year. These folks didn't just outperform the index gang, they absolutely obliterated it, often with stock trades that line up with the committees they sit on.
Now, every year we hear the same thing. Well, nothing to see here. No, but when you break down the data, which my guest today is done, it gets really uncomfortable for Congress. Joining me today is my good friend Ross Given. Ross is a former vice president, a major Wall Street bank with who had spent nearly a decade tracking congressional and corporate insider trades legally, ethically, plain sight, of course, and his strategy has beaten the market year after year. He's also hosting a free live on online training coming up this Thursday, January 22nd at 3:00 p.m. Eastern where he's going to show you exactly how this works. Click the link in the description to sign up for that because he's also sending out his most recent insider trade pick for free to everyone who just registered. So, you don't want to miss that.
But first, Ross, good to see you, my friend. Welcome back.
>> Hey, always good to see you, Dr. Steve. Yeah, it's always great seeing you. Happy New Year to you, my friend.
>> Thank you.
>> Let's jump right in. Uh, so, uh, the 2025 Congressional Trading Report is out and, uh, you know, I was thinking about this. We've known each other now what, three years or so? Um, so, you know, this stuff shouldn't surprise me at this point, but somehow I'm always still shocked when you show us the numbers. So, fill everybody in here. What happened last year?
>> Well, the short version is this. It's the same movie, just another year, right? Once again, as you said, members of Congress beat the market while in office. And many of them did it with trades that raised some very serious eyebrows. And so, as you said earlier, they didn't just beat the market by a little bit. Members of Congress saw average gains, average of just over 33% last year. And and I want to put that number in perspective for your viewers first. Now the stock market had a great year. S&P went up like 16 and a half 17%. Okay. Congress achieved double that.
>> Wow.
>> Now professional fund managers struggle to beat the index each year and we got senators generating 100% alpha. I mean just really incredible to have such talented stock pickers uh up there in DC, I guess.
>> Yeah. Right. So, so even in a strong market, nevertheless, they still they didn't just beat the index. I mean, they crushed it.
>> They did even better, right? Exactly. And look, that's impressive or suspicious depending on how how charitable you're feeling and what corn.
>> Well, yeah. But walk us I mean, you're an expert at all this. Walk us through the data. What do you see? Because this wasn't just one or two lucky trades there.
>> No, not at all. There's a bit of a pattern here, right?
>> Right. Right. Yeah. So when you look at the portfolios uh member by member, stock by stock, it becomes very clear this wasn't random. So first of all, as I said, that 33% figure is just the average. That means some did a little better, some did a lot better. Warren Davidson, for example, had a 78% return. 78%.
>> Dr. Steve, if you'll pull up the other image I sent you, this is these are the annual returns of Warren Buffett's firm, Bergkshire Hathway, for the last 30 years. How many 78% annual returns do you see here?
>> Well, yeah. None. I mean, it's Yeah, that's incredible.
>> Exactly. Right. And and look, that's the He hasn't done it in 30 years.
>> Yeah.
>> And look, this was not isolated, right? It's Republicans, it's Democrats, it's junior members, it's the veteran swamp rats, all getting just insane returns in the stock market. And and and you know, Nancy Pelosy's trades, we talk about those all the time. uh we'll really miss her here in the investment community, but those get the most attention. But but they're really all doing it.
>> And and what are they actually buying? And and is this I mean, you're saying they're all just So this isn't specifically necessarily a Democrat tactic. Is it it's is it prevalent more on in one party than the other?
>> Well, the good news is this Republicans seem to be a little bit better at it. Uh, if that matters. If you look at this chart here, if we break it down by party, Republicans averaged 35% while the Democrats were at 31.8. So,
>> we're we're better at them at everything we do, I guess,
>> right? Yeah. Not just tax policy, immigration, and common sense. Turns out we're better insider traders, too. Uh, so you ask what they're buying. Look, now again, some of these guys just own boring stuff. Bonds, index funds, like whatever. But you don't make 50, 60, 70% annual returns with index funds,
>> right? That comes from what I call these these outlier investors. This the special ones, right?
>> Yeah. Yeah. You've mentioned that before. Let's talk about those because I I don't think everyone fully understands how this notion of outlier works.
>> Yeah. So, I mean, here's the basic concept of what happens. So, you're in Congress, you're on a couple, let's say, military subcommittees. These committees, as you know, are in charge of awarding these multi-billion dollar defense contracts. Now, some of those are going to go to the big guys. Lheed, right? Boeing, etc. But some of them are going to go to smaller companies.
>> And when that contract is announced, it means this little company is going to make hundreds of millions of dollars, and that company's stock is going to skyrocket on the news. Well, if you knew about that deal in advance, you could buy the company stock and made a fortune. And and and that's essentially what they do. They take the information they learn in Congress and they use it to make money for themselves in a stock market. Now, the most important part and and the reason this doesn't really anger me. All this is public information, okay? Right? And that's why these training events, you can see what stocks these people are buying and follow along.
But here's a great example. Now, this is a trade from Representative Susie Lee. This is a periodic transaction report. This is what they have to file anytime they buy or sell a stock. And again, you can see this stuff for free online. I'll show you how to do it. So Susie Lee is on the House Appropriations Committee and the Defense Subcommittee. Now these are the groups that decide who gets money and how much they get. Now look at what stock she bought. This is last year. Reinhraar German arms manufacturer.
>> It does have that German sound to it.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> So this woman buys one stock. It's the first stock she's bought in like two years. Only gets one. Not Google, not Apple, not Nvidia. Anyhow, Rhin Matl
>> kind of an odd pick, right?
>> Here's what that stock did over the next 10 months.
>> Dang, dude. And and what you were pointing out, what's so fascinating here, you said anyone can see this.
>> Oh, yeah. No, it's all public record. Do they make it easy? know, but there is a individual website you can access 24/7 online. See this stuff. You just have to know where to look. And that's again why I hold these free training sessions to show people how to piggyback these trades to buy the same stocks at the same time and make money right alongside them.
>> Right. And make sure gang you can just register by clicking on the link below. I've been to Ross' trainings. They're absolutely amazing and and illuminating for sure. So people overseeing national security
>> bought stock in a company that directly benefits from national security contracts which is
>> I mean it seems to me that's obviously a huge conflict of interest to put it nicely it seems a little bit
>> yeah and look you know this wasn't an isolated case we saw numerous committee level overlap between legislation and oversight and their stock purchase and it's really not even a secret anymore. I mean, I think at this point everyone knows this stuff is taking place,
>> right?
>> Nancy been doing it. She did it since ' 08. 200 million dollars trading stocks while in office. She didn't have a single penalty. There's no prosecutions. They're not going to stop. And why would they,
>> right?
>> There are, you know, there's zero consequences.
>> How many, we've talked about this. How many bills have you and I talked about that have come up? Proposals to ban Congress from owning stocks. I think there's a new one I heard about last week was at least three or four since I don't know yet.
>> Right. Right.
>> None of them passed.
>> Yeah.
>> Most never even got voted on. And so, you know, the only silver lining to all of this is again is that you can follow along, can buy the same stocks they're buying, use their information for your own advantage and without ever breaking a single law. And if you know how to filter it properly, which I'll show you how to do on Thursday in a free training event, right? to see these true outliers. Not the guy that buys a stock 10 times a week is getting in Google. Who cares? This woman who hasn't bought a stock in two years that's buying a small cap German arms manufacturer. That may be something. If you've got five or 10 of them all buying at once, if they're buying, you know, in at two, three, four times their annual salary. Just really common sense stuff that if you know what to look for, you can find. And it's not even just politicians,
>> CEOs, right? vice president.
>> Yeah. Every seauite executive at every publicly traded company from Apple to Bob's Bait and Tackle has to report their trades publicly and and we can see these situations where insiders are loading up on, you know, a pharmaceutical stock right before drug trials are about to be released or before someone buys them out for a huge premium. It's it's just a massive advantage they have,
>> right?
>> And it's a massive advantage we have to follow them. They're they're just feeding the public inside tips if you know where to look. And anyone in my opinion not using this is missing out on potentially huge profits
>> if you know where to look. That's what And that's you're the one who's helping us on this Easter egg hunt for sure. That's
>> that's really good. Good. Yeah. Good.
>> Well, that's what I love what what you do, helping people use this DC corruption for their own benefit, but totally legally and ethically. So gang, uh, Ross's free live training session is this Thursday, January 22nd, 3 p.m. Eastern. It's online, so anyone can attend. Seriously, you don't want to miss Start off your new year, right? Okay, with flourishing uh with financial flourishing here. You don't want to miss this. I've been to them. I don't I can't even count how many I've been to, and I can tell you they're incredibly eyeopening. Click the link in the description or go to turleylettalksinssiderrading.com. That's turly talksinciderrading.com. And when you register, you're going to receive a free insider trade idea complete with the full written breakdown explaining exactly why Ross is recommending. It's absolutely wonderful stuff. And and again, don't wait. I think uh Ross normally you have uh you have the webinar uh server that only that caps it at about a thousand.
>> Yeah, we use this software called Goto Webinar that allows us to stream this. So like these are online. You it doesn't cost you anything. Anybody can attend. You could you can come in your pajamas from your couch, right? But the software unlike YouTube can only handle a thousand people at once.
>> And so once a thousand people log in, it won't let new folks in. So So yeah, you're you're exactly right. register early, click that link, and and we'll send you all this. If you put your cell phone number in there, we'll even text you a reminder like 15 minutes before we get started because if you're as busy as I am, it's easy to forget. But yeah, I hope you guys come uh you know, you you won't look at stocks the same way again after this.
>> You you certainly won't. And again, these uh these free trainings fill up really fast, gang. So, make sure you do it right now. Register and you're going to get all that free stuff just by registering. Ross, you're awesome. What a way to start off the new year. always eyeopening. Thanks for joining us as always, my friend.
>> Hey, my pleasure. Keep doing God's work, Dr. Steve. Love what you're doing out there.
>> Right back at you, Ross.