3 Stocks to Buy and 3 to Short to Invest Like Congress

• Quiver Quant’s Congress Long-Short Strategy has returned 19.9% the past year
• The top long holding is Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET)
• Meanwhile, the top short holding is BRP Group (NYSE:BRP)

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Trading by members of Congress is a controversial topic, as these lawmakers are seen as having more knowledge of macroeconomic factors due to their inherent positions. Earlier this month, Business Insider identified 60 members of Congress who failed to properly report their trades under the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, or the STOCK Act. Congress passed the act in 2012 in order to deter insider trading and conflicts of interest among their own members. Another main goal of the act was to increase transparency around personal financial holdings.

Congress members are still allowed to trade stocks, although this may change soon. More than 125 lawmakers have sponsored or co-sponsored at least one piece of legislation to ban individual stock trading for Congress members. In addition, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated that she would be open to the ban. Pelosi is notorious for her timely and profitable trades.

Quiver Quant provides a Congress Long-Short Strategy that tracks the stocks that have been bought or sold by members of Congress and their family. The strategy takes a long position in stocks that have been bought and a short position in stocks that have been sold. Furthermore, the strategy is weighted based on reported transaction sizes and is rebalanced daily. With that in mind, let’s get into the details of the top positions.

3 Stocks to Buy and Short Like Congress

Currently, the top three long positions in the strategy, in order, are Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET), Generac (NYSE:GNRC) and ChannelAdvisor (NYSE:ECOM). In the past six months, members of Congress have purchased 1 million shares of ET stock and sold zero shares. Meanwhile, two members of the House of Representatives Thomas Suozzi and James R. Langevin have purchased GNRC stock this year. For ECOM, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville has purchased the company on three separate occasions this year.

On the other hand, the top three short positions in the strategy are BRP Group (NYSE:BRP), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and USA Compression Partners (NYSE:USAC). In the past year, House Representative Scott Franklin sold off BRP stock in two separate transactions. Apple is a somewhat surprising short, although four senators and seven House members have sold the company this year. On top of that, House member Mark Green recently sold shares of USAC on April 20.

On the date of publication, Eddie Pan did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

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