Ted Cruz's Stock Trades: The Senator Behind the KRUZ ETF

There is a stock market ETF named after Ted Cruz. That fact alone captures something about where congressional trading discourse has gone.

The KRUZ ETF, launched by Subversive Capital in early 2023, tracks the disclosed stock trades of Republican members of Congress — named after the Texas senator as a counterpart to the NANC ETF (named after Nancy Pelosi) for Democrats.

Cruz has not endorsed the fund. But his name on the product reflects his status as one of the more recognizable Republican members in discussions about congressional trading.

Here's what his actual trading history shows.

Who Is Ted Cruz?

Cruz has represented Texas in the Senate since 2013. Before the Senate, he served as Texas Solicitor General, arguing cases before the US Supreme Court. He ran for president in 2016, finishing second in the Republican primary to Donald Trump.

His pre-political career was in law, not finance — which means his investment activity doesn't carry the sector expertise backstory of someone like Mark Warner (tech entrepreneur) or Tommy Tuberville (decades of active investing).

His Committee Assignments

Cruz's committee seats are relevant context for his trading:

• Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee: Oversees telecommunications, technology, consumer protection, and aviation. Major tech platforms — social media companies, streaming services, telecom carriers — fall under Commerce Committee jurisdiction
• Senate Judiciary Committee: Oversight of the DOJ, antitrust enforcement, and federal courts. Antitrust cases against major tech companies (Google, Apple, Meta) are directly relevant
• Senate Foreign Relations Committee: International trade, sanctions, and diplomatic relations — all of which move equities in affected sectors

The Commerce seat is the most market-relevant. Tech platform regulation, net neutrality, spectrum auctions, and data privacy legislation all move the stocks of companies that Cruz's committee oversees.

The KRUZ ETF Problem

The ETF named after Cruz illustrates the same fundamental issue as the NANC ETF: the product was built on the premise that following Republican congressional trades would generate alpha.

In practice, the KRUZ ETF has tracked roughly market-rate returns — slightly value-tilted with defense and energy overweights, reflecting the sector preferences of Republican-aligned members. It hasn't demonstrated the sustained outperformance that would justify its 0.75% expense ratio versus an index fund.

Cruz's own disclosed trades are not the primary driver of KRUZ performance. The fund aggregates all Republican members. His individual trading history is more modest in volume than members like Tuberville or Gottheimer.

What His Disclosure History Shows

Cruz's disclosed trades span multiple sectors, with some recurring themes:

Technology: Consistent with his Commerce Committee seat, tech positions appear in his history. Large-cap tech names (AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL) that fall under Commerce Committee oversight of platform regulation and consumer protection.

Energy: Texas geography and constituent interests create natural alignment with energy sector positions. XOM, CVX, and energy ETFs appear in his disclosures.

Financial services: Some financial sector exposure, though without a Banking Committee seat, the committee-overlap angle is weaker.

Cloakroom average intent score on Cruz's tech trades: ~68

The moderate score reflects genuine Commerce Committee overlap on tech names, moderated by the fact that his trading volume is lower than the most active members and his pre-congressional background doesn't create the sector-expertise complication that elevates some scores.

The January 6th Period and Subsequent Scrutiny

Cruz received significant public scrutiny in January–February 2021 following his role in challenging the 2020 election certification and the controversy around his trip to Cancún during the Texas winter storm crisis.

During this period, some observers noted trades filed under his name in the window around those events. The trades were disclosed within STOCK Act requirements and didn't involve sectors under particular committee scrutiny. But the heightened public profile meant his disclosures received more attention than they might have otherwise.

How to Follow Cruz's Trades

On Cloakroom, Cruz's disclosures are tracked and scored like any other member. His Commerce Committee seat means tech sector trades deserve particular attention — any position in a company currently under Commerce Committee review for regulation scores higher on the intent model.

Given that tech platform regulation is one of the most active legislative debates in Congress, his committee seat creates ongoing potential for information adjacency that his trading history should be monitored for.

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All data sourced from public STOCK Act disclosures. Cloakroom does not make investment recommendations.