You've probably seen the memes. They usually feature Nancy Pelosi’s face superimposed over a Wolf of Wall Street background or some caption about her being the greatest trader of our generation. Honestly, it's become a bit of a cult phenomenon. Retail traders on Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) track her every move like she’s a modern-day Oracle of Omaha, but with a Congressional ID.
But what is the actual Nancy Pelosi average return, and does she really "beat" the market as consistently as the internet claims?
If you look at the raw data from 2024 and 2025, the numbers are, quite frankly, eye-popping. In 2024, various watchdog groups like Unusual Whales reported that her portfolio—which is technically managed by her husband, venture capitalist Paul Pelosi—notched a return of roughly 54% to 65%. For context, the S&P 500 returned about 24% that same year. She didn't just beat the market; she doubled it.
By the time we hit the mid-point of 2025, the "Pelosi Tracker" accounts were showing her up another 18% while the broader market was hovering around 10% to 12%.
The Math Behind the Nancy Pelosi Average Return
Let's get real for a second. When people talk about "average returns," they often confuse a single lucky year with a decade of performance. However, according to data from InsiderFinance and Quiver Quantitative, Pelosi’s long-term track record is actually quite robust.
Over a ten-year lookback ending in mid-2025, her portfolio generated a total return of roughly 224.7%. During that same period, a standard S&P 500 index fund would have given you about 126.4%.
📖 Related: Convert USD to New Zealand Dollar: What Most People Get Wrong
That is a massive delta.
Why the Returns Look So Different
It isn't just about picking "good" stocks. It's about the type of trading the Pelosis do. They don't usually just buy 100 shares of a company and sit on them for twenty years. They are heavy users of Deep-In-The-Money (ITM) call options.
Basically, they’re placing high-conviction bets on tech giants. If you buy a call option on Nvidia when it's already on a tear, and that stock jumps another 20%, your actual return on the capital you put up for the option is going to be much higher than 20%. It’s leverage. That's the "secret sauce" that makes the Nancy Pelosi average return look so much higher than your 401(k).
- Win Rate: Her estimated win rate on trades sits at a staggering 93.1%.
- Average Holding Period: About 605 days. This isn't day trading; it's "position trading."
- Average Trade Size: Roughly $998,000.
The "Nvidia Incident" and 2024 Performance
If you want to understand how she crushed 2024, you have to look at Nvidia. Back in November 2023, the Pelosis bought call options for Nvidia with a strike price of $120. They exercised those options in late 2024.
The timing was almost comical. Nvidia was the engine of the entire AI bull run. While the rest of the world was debating if AI was a bubble, the Pelosi portfolio was already locked in.
Critics, including President Donald Trump and Senator Rick Scott, have pointed to these trades as evidence of "inside information." They argue that as a high-ranking member of Congress, she has a front-row seat to CHIPS Act subsidies and tech regulation.
Pelosi’s camp has a standard rebuttal: She doesn't own any stocks herself. Everything is in Paul’s name. She doesn't discuss his business with him.
Whether you believe that or not kinda depends on your own political leanings, but the data doesn't care about politics. The data says the trades are working.
What Really Happened in 2025?
Interestingly, by early 2026, the narrative started to shift a little. New data from Quiver Quantitative showed that while Nancy Pelosi outperformed the S&P 500 in 2025 with an 18% gain, she actually fell out of the "Top 10" list of Congressional traders.
Other members of Congress—like Rep. Tim Moore and Sen. Ted Cruz—actually posted higher returns in 2025, some hitting over 50%.
It turns out that 2025 was a year where smaller-cap stocks and specific sectors like energy and regional banking (sectors where Republicans often have heavier allocations) started to catch up to the Big Tech "Magnificent Seven" stocks that Pelosi favors.
The 2025 Portfolio Leaders
Even though she wasn't #1 last year, her 2025 wins were still driven by a few specific names:
- Tempus AI (TEM): She bought into this in early 2025, and the stock nearly tripled shortly after the disclosure.
- Broadcom (AVGO): Another massive AI play that paid off when they exercised options in June 2025.
- Vistra Corp (VST): A utility play that showed she was diversifying into the power needs of AI data centers.
Is the Pelosi Strategy Replicable?
Sorta. But there's a catch.
There is an ETF called NANC (Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF) that literally tries to mirror the trades of Democratic members of Congress. There’s a Republican version too, called KRUZ.
The problem for the average retail trader is the "reporting lag." Under the STOCK Act, members of Congress have up to 45 days to disclose their trades. By the time you find out that Nancy Pelosi bought Alphabet or Amazon options, the move might already be half-over.
If you had followed the NANC ETF in 2024, you would have done great. But you wouldn't have gotten the exact Nancy Pelosi average return because you're always playing catch-up.
The End of an Era?
Nancy Pelosi has announced she isn't running for re-election in 2026. She’ll be leaving Congress in early 2027.
This is actually a big deal for the "copy-trading" community. Without her mandatory disclosures, we won't see what Paul is buying anymore. On top of that, she has recently "softened" her stance on banning Congressional stock trading altogether. For years she defended the practice as part of a "free market economy," but in late 2025, she signaled support for a ban—provided it also applied to the Supreme Court.
It’s almost like she’s ready to close the book on this particular chapter of her legacy.
How to Use This Information
If you’re looking at these numbers and thinking you can just blindly follow her trades, be careful. The Pelosis are playing with a net worth estimated at over $580 million as of 2026. They can afford to have a trade go to zero. You probably can't.
However, there are a few actionable takeaways from the way they manage their money:
- Focus on Secular Trends: They don't bet on "maybe" industries. They bet on AI, semiconductors, and big tech dominance.
- Use Time to Your Advantage: Their average hold is nearly two years. They aren't trying to time the "bottom" of a week; they are timing the "growth" of a decade.
- High Conviction, High Weight: They don't diversify into 500 different tiny positions. They put millions into 5 or 10 names they really believe in.
The Nancy Pelosi average return is impressive not just because of the "who," but because of the "how." It's a masterclass in aggressive, high-conviction growth investing. Whether it’s based on "insider knowledge" or just a very smart husband with a lot of capital, the results are objectively better than most hedge funds on Wall Street.
📖 Related: Why Bahrain BD to Indian Rupees Rates Are So High (and How to Get More for Your Money)
If you want to track this yourself, don't wait for the news. Use tools like the House Clerk's financial disclosure portal or third-party trackers to see the raw filings the moment they go live. Just remember that by the time you see the PDF, the " Pelosi premium" might already be baked into the price.
Next Steps for Your Portfolio:
- Check the House Clerk Disclosure website weekly to see if any new Periodic Transaction Reports (PTRs) have been filed.
- Research the NANC ETF holdings to see the current sectoral weightings of Democratic members.
- Analyze your own portfolio’s "Tech Weight." Most of the Pelosi outperformance comes from being "overweight" in semiconductors relative to the S&P 500.