Representative Nancy Pelosi's two latest stock market moves have not gone as planned. Her bullish call options on Intel, purchased at the end of May when shares traded around $114.68, have taken a hit. By late July, Intel's stock price had fallen nearly 13% to about $99.84, putting Pelosi's position underwater.
The trade involved call options set to expire in March 2027, rather than a straightforward stock purchase. Even so, the decline suggests potential unrealized losses approaching $650,000 if the position was near its maximum reported size between $1 million and $5 million.
On the same day as the Intel trade, Pelosi also acquired up to $1 million worth of call options on Uber when the stock was priced at approximately $70.40. Since then, Uber’s shares slipped 2.1% to $68.92, leading to smaller but still negative returns on that bet.
Had Pelosi held the shares outright, these drops would translate into roughly $21,000 in unrealized losses on Uber alone. This performance comes amid a broader trend where Pelosi’s portfolio strategy, tracked by Quiver Quant, has underperformed the market so far this year. Her strategy gained about 2.6% year-to-date, compared to the S&P 500’s nearly 8% rise since January.
These results contrast with Pelosi’s reputation as one of Congress’s most successful traders and highlight the risks of options strategies in volatile markets. Similar fluctuations have affected other high-profile investors recently, as seen in moves by Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest and market reactions to major tech stocks.
