How Nancy Pelosi’s Tesla stock sale cost her a fortune

Nancy Pelosi, noted Democratic party leader, former Speaker of the House, and the Representative of California’s 11th congressional district is one of the most renowned stock traders on Capitol Hill. 

There are, however, some who say that she has lost her touch — while the congresswoman’s recent purchase of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) was well-timed, other trades, like her sale of Visa (NYSE: V) stock were a miss.

Now, Pelosi’s biggest misjudgment is on full display — after a standout Q3 2024 earnings beat on October 23 that followed a bearish period, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares have rallied by 18.30% within a matter of days, and are currently trading at $259.01. 

The representative had, unfortunately, divested from the automaker’s stock back on June 24, per the data from Finbold’s US Senator Stock Trading Radar.

Nancy Pelosi missed out on roughly $193k from selling Tesla early

All in all, Pelosi’s losses could have been reduced by $193,000 — more importantly, with renewed bullish interest, she could have eventually broken even on the trade, if not profited.

The initial purchase was made on March 18, 2022, at a time when TSLA shares were trading at $301 apiece. The congresswoman sold the stock on June 24, 2024 — TSLA closed at $182.58 on the day.

This marked a pretty significant 39.53% loss — had the representative continued to hold the stock, her losses would have shrunk to 13.95% at press time.

Both transactions included 2,500 TSLA shares — they were purchased for a total of $752,500 and sold for $455,000, for a loss of $297,500. At the time of publication, those shares would have been worth $647,500 — bringing the congresswoman’s losses down to $104,500.

The congresswoman has made at least $23 million since the beginning of 2024 through investing. While her stock trading escapades are the subject of intense media scrutiny, she has not been the best-performing congressional trader for a while now — with colleagues such as Brian Higgins, Mark Green, and Josh Gottheimer routinely securing superior returns.

However, we wouldn’t be too concerned about the representative’s fortunes — Pelosi has made roughly one-and-a-half to eight times her annual salary on Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) alone since the beginning of 2024 — and with 50 call options at a strike price of $120 still in play, she stands to make millions more.