Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF (NANC)
Subversive ETFs / Tidal Financial Group; strategy by Unusual Whales. Actively managed, replicates disclosed equity trades of sitting Democratic members of Congress and their spouses (STOCK Act filings).
The investable, regulated way to ride the Democratic-congressional book that this 'political' section tracks individually — the ticker is a nod to Nancy Pelosi. It rules-based-replicates disclosed Democratic + spousal trades, and the result is a heavily AI/semi-tilted megacap-growth portfolio: NVDA is the #1 holding (~8%), with Applied Materials, Micron, and the hyperscalers (Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple) all top-weighted — effectively a 'Pelosi-and-friends' AI-compute index.
Top holdings
Top holding — the AI-compute anchor of the Democratic congressional book (Pelosi's signature name).
Hyperscaler / AI model + TPU exposure; #2 weight.
Wafer-fab-equipment supplier — a pure semi-cap-equipment play, the #3 weight and a strong AI/semi tilt.
AI-capex / hyperscaler proxy.
Memory/HBM for AI accelerators; rounds out the semiconductor sleeve alongside AMD, Broadcom, Lam Research held lower in the book.
Recent moves
Holdings as of 06/26/2026 show NVDA (7.97%), GOOG (6.22%), AMAT (6.13%) leading a megacap-growth + semiconductor tilt; the fund rebalances on disclosed Democratic + spousal trades, so it inherits the AI-compute and semi-cap-equipment concentration of names like Pelosi and Khanna. AUM grew to ~$272.6M by mid-2026 from ~$180M in late-2024.
Our take
Why it matters: NANC is the section's 'how do I actually buy this' answer — a real, liquid, regulated ETF that mechanically tracks the Democratic congressional book, and its top weights (NVDA, AMAT, Micron, the hyperscalers) confirm that book IS an AI/semiconductor bet, not a grab-bag. Its published returns are auditable, unlike the per-politician tracker estimates elsewhere on this page. Edge/limits: replication is lagged ~30-45 days behind disclosures (you follow, you don't front-run), it's index-style so single-name conviction is diluted, and 0.72% is a rich fee for a follow-the-filings strategy. Honest caveat: a follow-Congress ETF is a transparency/curiosity vehicle, not an endorsement of congressional trading or a forecast.
The teaching point marketing omits: this is not a lottery on individual politicians' picks — it's a diversified follow-the-filings index whose top weights (NVDA, GOOG, MSFT, AMZN, AMAT, AAPL, CRWD) are exactly the megacap-growth cohort that led the 2023-26 tape.
So the fund's returns are largely explained by large-cap-growth and momentum beta you can buy at 3-20bps, not by a congressional information advantage. The premise is structurally weakened by lag: the STOCK Act permits reporting up to ~30-45 days after a trade, and NANC replicates only after disclosure — you follow, you never front-run, so any timing edge is stale by the time it's in the book. No public factor-attribution shows the congressional signal adds alpha over a matched megacap-growth benchmark. Its one honest advantage over the per-politician trackers elsewhere: these are published, audited ETF returns.
Thesis
NANC mechanically clones disclosed Democratic congressional and spousal STOCK Act trades, but the resulting book is a concentrated US megacap-growth/AI basket — NVDA ~8%, plus GOOG, MSFT, AMZN, AMAT, AAPL — so its record is AI-megacap beta wearing a 'smart-politician' story, not demonstrated evidence of congressional stock-picking skill.
Actively managed but rules-based: replicates the disclosed equity buys/sells of sitting Democratic members of Congress and their spouses from public STOCK Act filings, rebalancing as new disclosures arrive. Fully invested, no leverage, no derivatives — the 'edge' claim rests entirely on the source of the trade signal, not on portfolio construction.
Assessment
- Published, audited standardized returns — unlike the per-politician tracker estimates it's often shelved next to
- Transparent, liquid, regulated wrapper for what is otherwise a curiosity/novelty thesis
- Fully-invested megacap-growth tilt captured the 2023-26 AI bull cleanly
- Rules-based rebalancing on disclosures removes manual market-timing discretion
- 0.72% expense ratio for a mechanical replication strategy whose holdings closely resemble megacap-growth indices priced at 3-20 bps
- ~30-45 day disclosure lag: replication is reactive, so the 'insider' premise is largely gone by execution
- Since-inception record (Feb 2023) coincides with a historic megacap-AI bull — untested in a growth-down regime
- Single-name/theme concentration: NVDA ~8%, top 10 heavily AI/semiconductor
- Small (~$276M AUM); 'Democratic Congress' framing is a branding hook, not a documented return factor
- 2026-07July 2026 supplied a partial test: with SOX -20.6%, its worst month since Oct 2008, NANC fell only ~1.2% versus the S&P 500's -0.1%. An AI-specific shock, not a full growth-down regime, but no longer untested.
- 2026-07In July's AI-hardware rout the NVDA-led concentration did not transmit: NVDA +0.3% and MSFT +24.6%, while the damage sat in wafer-equipment and memory (AMAT ~-28%, MU -28.7%), only ~8-9% of the book.
- 2026-07That capture describes 2023-25. 2026 has run below the implied pace — YTD ~+9.6% at 31 Jul against a +23.58% annualized since-inception rate — so the clean-capture claim no longer extends through the current year.
Record
Issuer standardized returns (as of 06/30/2026): YTD +10.90%, 1-year +21.01%, 3-year +22.61% annualized, since-inception (Feb 6 2023) +23.58% annualized. The absolute numbers are strong, but attribution matters more than the headline: nearly all of it is megacap-AI beta — NVDA/GOOG/MSFT/AMZN/AMAT/AAPL dominate the book and that same cohort drove the broad market over the window. The unanswered question isn't 'did it go up' but 'did following Democratic disclosures beat simply owning megacap growth (e.g. QQQ) net of the 0.72% fee' — and no public risk-adjusted, factor-controlled comparison establishes that it did.
- 2026-07At 31 Jul 2026 the trailing year stands at ~+17.56% and YTD at ~+9.6%, against the issuer's 30 Jun standardized +21.01% and +10.90%. Other providers show 15.0-15.4% for the trailing year in late July.
Risks & fit
- Regime risk: a rotation out of megacap growth/AI would hit it as hard as any concentrated growth fund
- Disclosure-lag and data-quality risk — late, amended, or incomplete STOCK Act filings degrade the signal
- Single-name concentration risk if NVDA or the semiconductor sleeve de-rates
- Fee drag (0.72%) compounding against near-free broad-growth alternatives
- Novelty/flow risk: thin AUM driven by sentiment and branding, not an institutional factor mandate
The congressional-signal thesis is falsified if a factor/benchmark regression shows NANC's returns are fully explained by large-cap-growth plus momentum beta — i.e. no positive alpha versus QQQ/VUG net of the 0.72% fee — or if, in a growth-down regime, it simply tracks megacap-growth indices lower with no downside cushion from the 'insider' book. Conversely, sustained risk-adjusted outperformance of a matched megacap-growth benchmark, after fees and across at least one non-AI-led regime, would be evidence the disclosure signal genuinely adds something.
Suits someone who wants a transparent, liquid, regulated way to express interest in the follow-Congress phenomenon and is fully comfortable that, in practice, they are holding a concentrated, actively-rebalanced US megacap-growth/AI portfolio at a 0.72% fee. It does not fit anyone expecting exposure that is meaningfully differentiated from broad megacap-growth, or who is relying on a documented informational edge from congressional trades.
0.72% expense ratio (issuer, mid-2026) — rich for a rules-based replication strategy whose top holdings mirror megacap-growth indices available at 3-20 bps. The premium buys novelty and signal-curation, not a documented edge.