It Seems That Senator Carper Is Betting on a Market Downturn

Democrat Thomas Carper, the senior United States senator from Delaware, disclosed yesterday that he made over 30 trades in October.

The Senator was buying the U.S. Treasury Bills in mid-October in a deal valued between $15,000 - $50,000. More interestingly, Senator Carper was also investing in Ranger Equity Bear ETF (HDGE:US), practically increasing the exposure to the short side of the market. In total 5 long HDGE trades were reported for the month of October.

The ETF consists of short sales of domestically traded equity securities. Equinix Inc (EQIX:US) and DoorDash (DASH:US) are some stocks with the largest weight in the ETF.

The aim of this investment vehicle is to “identify securities with low earnings quality or aggressive accounting which may be intended on the part of company management to mask operational deterioration and bolster the reported earnings per share over a short time period.”

The Senator was also exiting the position in ProShares Short QQQ (PSQ:US), which provides inverse exposure (-1x) to Large Cap U.S. Equities. Mr. Carper invested in PSQ in March this year when the closing price was $13.26 and exited his investment on October 05 at a closing price of $14.12. He also reported two additional short trades in PSQ at similar prices.

Senator Carper also disclosed he made over a dozen trades in single U.S. stocks. For instance, the Senator was selling JPMorgan Chase  (JPM:US) corporate bonds, as well as shares of Verizon Communication (VZ:US), Walt Disney (DIS:US), and Intel Corp (INTC:US). On the other side, he was investing in Abbott Laboratories (ABT:US), Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM:US), and CVS Health (CVS:US).

Overall, Senator Carper remains one of the most active Senator traders with almost 600 trades in the past 3 years. He often trades financial stocks, which is understandable given that he serves on the Finance committee.