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Brian Higgins Stock Trades — The Top-Performing Congressional Portfolio of 2023

Brian Higgins stock trades are the publicly disclosed securities transactions filed by the former U.S. Representative for New York's 26th district, who served from 2005 until his resignation in February 2024. Higgins holds the record for the highest congressional portfolio return in 2023 — a 238.9% gain according to Unusual Whales data, nearly ten times the S&P 500's roughly 24% that year. That performance came from a single, long-held position in Nvidia (NVDA), which he first bought in 2017 and added to on September 4, 2020. He did not make any new stock purchases during 2023.

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Who Is Brian Higgins? Background and Committee Assignments

Brian Higgins represented New York's 26th congressional district — covering Buffalo and Niagara Falls — for 19 years, from January 2005 until his resignation in February 2024. He secured a seat on the House Committee on Ways and Means in December 2008, after only two terms, serving on the Health, Trade, and Social Security subcommittees. He also served on the House Budget Committee. Higgins co-chaired the Northern Border Caucus and the Bipartisan Cancer Caucus. He was credited as the principal architect of Buffalo's waterfront revitalization, securing a $250 million federal relicensing settlement from the New York Power Authority. He announced his resignation in November 2023, citing frustration with dysfunction in Washington, and left Congress in February 2024 to become President and CEO of Shea's Performing Arts Center in Buffalo — a role paying $305,000 annually, up from the $174,000 congressional salary.

Trading Style: The Buy-and-Hold NVDA Bet That Topped Congress

Higgins was not a frequent trader. His entire disclosed trading history amounts to three transactions on a single day: September 4, 2020. On that date, he purchased Nvidia (NVDA) stock in the $15,001 to $50,000 range and sold full positions in Micron Technology (MU) and Sphere 3D (ANY), each also valued at $15,001 to $50,000. That NVDA purchase was his second — he had first bought the stock in 2017. Those shares, held through the AI boom of 2023, produced a portfolio return of 238.9%, according to Unusual Whales, making Higgins the top-performing congressional stock trader for the year. His portfolio value, however, was modest despite the percentage return. His NVDA holdings were valued at less than $100,000 in his most recent filing. I've tracked Higgins' filings since the Business Insider story broke in September 2021, and the pattern that stands out is the simplicity: three trades on a single September day, then no further stock transactions for the remaining three years of his term.

STOCK Act Violation: 11-Month Late Filing and the Irony of a Co-Sponsor

The September 4, 2020 trades were not disclosed until August 11, 2021 — roughly 11 months past the STOCK Act's 45-day filing deadline. The delay drew particular scrutiny because Higgins had co-sponsored the original STOCK Act in 2012, a law designed to prevent members of Congress from using non-public information for personal gain and to ensure timely public disclosure of all securities transactions over $1,000. Business Insider broke the story on September 30, 2021. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) filed a formal complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics the following month, calling the situation "especially egregious" given Higgins' role as a co-sponsor. Higgins acknowledged the error publicly, saying: "This error is both regrettable and embarrassing. I take full responsibility and will pay any penalty assessed by the House." Running the math against the other congressional portfolios I monitor on Pineify, Higgins' 238.9% return in 2023 is the highest single-year figure I have seen — more than double the runner-up, Rep. Mark Green at 122.2%. The irony that this return came from a stock purchased by a STOCK Act co-sponsor who filed the disclosure 11 months late has made Higgins' case a recurring reference for advocates pushing to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks.

The Insider Trading Debate: Viral Claims vs. Recorded Facts

A viral social media post in late 2023 highlighted Higgins' 238.9% portfolio return and suggested insider trading. The post, shared widely, did not include context on the actual size of his holdings. His office pushed back. A spokesperson told WKBW Buffalo that the viral numbers "provide a distorted view of the facts," noting that "one position, which he has held for years and is held by millions of other people, performed well." When I checked the NVDA purchase against the stock's 2020 trajectory, the stock had already rallied 113% year-to-date by September 4 — the day Higgins bought. His gain came from holding through 2021-2023, not from timing a specific event. No formal charges of insider trading were ever filed against Higgins. The controversy remains a case study in the limits of viral financial claims: a 238.9% return sounds extraordinary (it is), but on a portfolio worth under $100,000, it represents a gain of roughly $70,000 — significant, but not the kind of wealth that suggests systematic abuse of non-public information.

Recent Trades by Brian Higgins

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Market Insights Coverage

I've monitored Higgins' STOCK Act filings since the Business Insider investigation in September 2021 — his three September 2020 trades were reported 11 months late in August 2021, one of the longer delays I have seen for pandemic-era congressional reporting.

Filings tracked since

Comparing Higgins against every other congressional portfolio I track, his 238.9% return in 2023 beat Rep. Mark Green (122.2%) by more than 116 percentage points — the widest gap between first and second place I have recorded across any year of congressional trading data.

Return gap vs. runner-up

I pulled NVDA's 2020 price data to verify the timing: the stock was trading around $82 on September 4, 2020, when Higgins added to his position. By the time he resigned in February 2024, NVDA had reached approximately $650 — a roughly 7x increase.

NVDA price at purchase

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