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Beating the market is one of the top achievements many investors hope to attain. Numerous members of the U.S. Congress, however, seem fairly skilled at achieving this feat. Aware of this dynamic, many investors outside the Beltway have been left to wonder how they, too, can follow in the footsteps of our investing-adept lawmakers.

It turns out you don't need to serve in the Senate or the House and rub shoulders with our elected leaders to gain the insights they seemingly possess. The Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF (NYSEMKT: NANC) provides an exchange-traded fund to give investors exposure to the stock trades of Democratic members of Congress, including their spouses.

The basis for following what the blue members of Congress buy

While the financial media pays close attention to the stock trades of famous investors like Warren Buffett, Cathie Wood, and Bill Ackman, there's considerably less coverage of politicians' trades -- except for the reporting of Unusual Whales, which reports on noteworthy stock trades including politicians.

In early January, for example, Unusual Whales posted on X (formerly Twitter) with regard to the impressive investing performances of numerous members of Congress.

🚨BREAKING🚨

I have just released the full report on politicians trading in 2023.

Like every year since 2020, US politicians beat the market.

And many in Congress made unusually timed trades resulting in huge gains.

Here are the top performers of 2023. pic.twitter.com/ykf9VICsBw

-- unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) January 2, 2024

Although the stock trades of politicians are available to the public through the regulatory filings they're obligated to submit, it can be overwhelming for ordinary investors to keep track of all the transactions. Unusual Whales, however, presents the information clearly and concisely. As a result, many investors may be itching to trade like Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who had 239% and 80%, respectively, returns on their investments in 2023.

A who's who of "Magnificent Seven" stocks

Subversive Capital, the manager of the Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF, makes it clear that it's not assuming a particular political position in operating the ETF. Instead, it states that it does "not express a view or opinion and only buy or sell what members of Congress hold."

It turns out, though, that Democrats in Congress are big fans of Magnificent Seven stocks.

Company card for Nvidia NASDAQ:NVDA

Of the more than 750 holdings in the fund, Nvidia, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) stock, is in the top spot, representing about 10.1% of the fund's holdings. Most recently, the spouses of Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) bought Nvidia stock in March 2024 and November 2023, respectively.

More Magnificent Seven names come in the form of the next four largest holdings, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet, in that order. Combined, the top five stocks represent about 35% of the ETF's holdings.

The remaining names, Tesla and Meta Platforms, also figure prominently, as the electric vehicle (EV) maker is the 11th-largest holding, while the social media behemoth is the 18th-largest position. The sixth-largest position is Salesforce, a leading cloud-based software company that helps businesses manage customer relationships, providing even more AI exposure for investors.

Should you elect the Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF to your portfolio?

It's hard to argue that investors interested in trading like Democrats in Washington should avoid the Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF. Naturally, it's possible to do the lengthy footwork oneself, sifting through regulatory filings and tracking the trades of individual politicians. However, the ETF saves you the colossal amount of time that would take -- and all for an expense ratio of 0.75%, or $75 annually per $10,000 invested.

And so far, it's proven to be a success. While there's no guarantee it will continue to perform the same way, since the ETF's inception on Feb. 2, 2023, the Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF soared about 32% compared to the S&P 500's rise of 23%.

Politics aside, though, the ETF will also appeal to investors interested in gaining exposure to the Magnificent Seven stocks since they occupy such sizable positions in the ETF. Of course, these growth stocks aren't invincible, and the more than 700 stocks that also make up the ETF help investors mitigate the risk of a downturn in the tech and AI industries.

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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Scott Levine has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Salesforce, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.