By Mark Hoekenga
Valued at $1 trillion in January of 2020, Alphabet, the parent of the internet giant, Google, has doubled its market worth in less than two years, making it the third U.S. company to exceed a market capitalization of $2 trillion.
Observers of the remarkably well-timed stock plays of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul will not be surprised to learn that the Alphabet boom was very good for the Pelosi portfolio.
Personal financial disclosures reveal that on February 27th of 2020, just as the market began its pandemic crash, the Pelosis purchased 40 call options of Alphabet for between $500,000 and $1 million. At the time, shares traded at about $1,400. Rather than make several purchases and sales over the course of the pandemic, as others did, the Pelosis set their expiration date for June 18th of 2021.
By the time that date came around, the shares were worth just over $2,400 each, netting the couple an asset valued between $1 million and $5 million. The Pelosis seemed to predict the longevity of the virus early on, despite the fact that just three days before their purchase, the Trump Administration was only requesting $1.25 billion in funding to deal with the matter — an amount several times smaller than Obama’s $6.2 billion ask to deal with the Ebola outbreak in 2014.
While the Center for Disease Control and the rest of the world were repeating the “15 days to flatten the curve” mantra put out by U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams, the Pelosis appear to have been betting on a 16-month timeline, with exceptional accuracy.
If knowing when to buy or sell is suggestive of insider trading, as seen in last year’s scandal of congressional representatives selling off stock at suspiciously apt moments, knowing when to hold, especially when declared so far out from the date of purchase, raises its own suspicions.
Whether Pelosi’s position in Washington informed the family’s investment strategy can’t be known, but Nancy and Paul Pelosi have certainly been on a long lucky streak in the stock market.
